Are there any “cashless tolls” in the Las Vegas area? The car-rental companies all seem to want you to pay for a toll option that would cover the costs of the tolls that you might encounter. If you don’t opt in and hit one of the cashless tolls, they can (and probably would) charge you up to $90 for the inconvenience of paying the toll for you.
Good question.
Many highway and bridge toll plazas are being fully automated and the option to pay with cash or credit card is disappearing.
Electronic-toll highways offer the option of paying road tolls with electronic “passes,” such as Fastrack (California), EZPass (New York), SunPass (Florida), I-Pass (Illinois), Good To Go! (Washington), and others around the country. These work via electronic transponders and license-plate readers to eliminate the need for drivers to carry change or wait in long cash-payment lines at toll plazas.
Some e-toll plazas don’t have any cash lanes, such as Orange County, California, so if you're driving in an unfamiliar city and encounter one, you’ll receive some sort of Notice Of Toll Evasion in the mail, taken from your license plate, with information on how to pay the toll via an app or online.
However, as this question states, the rental car companies are using e-tolls as a new profit center. Options vary, but typically, if you’re in rental car and trigger an e-toll, you’re kind of at the mercy (more specifically, the lack thereof) of the company.
Different companies handle these charges differently. Last we checked, Advantage and Hertz were subcontracting out to PlatePass, which charged a $4.95 daily fee plus the toll charge (at the higher cash or toll-by-plate rate), with a $24.75 maximum fee per rental. There was no opting in or out of this system; it was billed automatically to all drivers who used a cashless toll road.
Avis, Budget, National, Alamo and Enterprise automatically charged a $3.95 fee per day ($19.75 maximum per rental period), plus tolls at the cash rate.
Dollar and Thrifty were charging a $15 administrative fee per toll unless customers opted in to the $8.99-per-day “all inclusive” plan.
Anyway, sorry to the readers who’ve complained that they have to wade through a lot of background before they get to the answer to the Question of the Day. But this was a case where we figured it was good information for people who haven’t encountered the situation. Besides, the story has a happy ending, at least in Nevada, which doesn't have a single toll booth — no cash tolls, no e-tolls, no highway, bridge, or tunnel tolls period.
Note that this doesn’t include Red Rock Canyon and Valley of Fire State Park. Those aren’t technically tolls; rather, they're admission fees. At both, drivers pay at fee stations at the entrances to the parks.
 |
Straski
Apr-13-2018
|
