Trolls And Their Tolls

If you were raised in the CB radio days of the 1970s, here is a blast from the past.😁

I says, Pig Pen, this here's the Rubber Duck, we just ain't gonna pay no toll. So we crashed the gate doing 98, I says let them truckers roll, 10-4.🎵🎵

I love that!😍 If KJo and Odie had a dime for every time they have heard me say that while driving, they could buy a sack full of tacos!

Things have advanced since the 1970s and I promise you they are going to get their tolls one way or another. New York State and most other states in the Northeast have eliminated toll booths completely. They do not even have gates to crash!😒

As you go through the toll section at full speed, they read your toll transponder on your window. IF you do not have a toll pass, it reads your license plate and sends you the bill in the mail.

There is a problem with letting it read your license plate and send you the bill. First, it is way more expensive. Second, it results in late fees. We have experienced this in New York and Texas. Since we are out of state, they have to contact Ohio and get our address. 

I guess they do this by a walking mail carrier, because by the time we received the bill SEVERAL weeks later, it was overdue. A $3-4 toll bill had a $20 late fee added to it. Ugh!

The best thing to do is to get a toll pass. We have an Oklahoma Pike Pass provided by some dear friends that purchased a transponder for us for Oklahoma toll roads a few years ago. It now works in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas. They add money to the account and all we do is stick it on the window and drive. 

I am not sure if I have mentioned that here before, but we are very thankful. It has been a huge blessing and is tremendously thoughtful! That is an amazing gift for someone on the road. Thank you again, friends!

Congress passed a law in 2012 that by 2016 all toll systems in the US had to speak the same language so we could get one transponder and it would work on all toll roads and bridges.

How did that work out? 2016 came and went. Although there had been much progress, they were not there yet. Five years later and we are still not there. It turns out, the law stated that it had to be done, but set up no enforcement.

There are about 4 major systems and several smaller ones now. AND some of the major systems now can communicate with each other.

Earlier this year when I was confined to the bus, I began to research the best passes. The Illinois pass works with more systems that we are likely to travel than any other, so I ordered one in March. You put money on the pass and then add $$ manually with a credit card or allow it to replenish at a certain level.

Our trip to New England was our first attempt at using and it seemed to work fine. It paid tolls in New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York again and New Jersey.

It can take over a week for some of the charges to show up, but I believe they are all in now. The total spent in those states is $189.44! Wow! It could have been much more. We saw signs at some gates that said paying my mail was near twice the rate as using the pass. Wow Again!

The Trolls are gonna get their tolls, that is for sure. Ouch!

Thank you for reading today.

Davy