SWANTON, Ohio — On April 10, the Ohio Turnpike put out a celebratory press release, announcing that the new toll collection system was live after a five-year overhaul.
And then drivers almost immediately began missing the new toll plazas. And weeks later, those same drivers began getting letters in the mail saying they owed $19.
“The big issue that we’re seeing now is with the consumer, customer education,” said Charles Cyrill, the marketing and communications director for the Ohio Turnpike. “If you are not an E-ZPass customer, you have to follow overhead signs and pull off and pay your toll or pull a ticket.”
But that message doesn’t seem to have been effectively conveyed to consumers. 11 Investigates requested data for drivers who did not pay the toll at a plaza in Swanton, beginning on April 10 through June 10. In that two-month period, 256,966 drivers missed the toll plaza.
The Swanton toll plaza was built at Mile Post 49. If you are headed toward Indiana and do not have an E-ZPass, you must pull off the Turnpike, pay a toll, then reenter the roadway. No tolls are collected at the next four westbound exits (39, 34, 25 and 13). When headed eastbound, drivers would also need to pull off the Turnpike at Mile Post 49 to receive their ticket, which they then pay for when they later exit the roadway.
If non-E-ZPass drivers don’t pull off, their license plates are captured by cameras. If a driver misses the toll, they have 14 days to go online and pay it, before a bill is mailed to them. If that bill is not paid within 30 days, another bill is sent with a $5 penalty. Those who don’t pay after 90 days are turned over to collections and drivers will not be able to renew their plates until the past due bill is paid.
An 11 Investigates team entered the Turnpike in Perrysburg and traveled westbound to the Swanton toll plaza. Two miles before that plaza, there was a yellow sign, alerting drivers to a toll two miles ahead. A mile later, there was a yellow and green sign, directing E-ZPass users to stay left, others to exit to the right.
We exited and paid a $3.25 toll, but we were alone at the plaza, with streams of cars and trucks whizzing by in the E-ZPass lanes. A little more than 70 percent of drivers have transponders in their vehicle. Statistically, it is very unlikely that all of those cars passing us had an E-ZPass.
“For the most part, the system is running smoothly, but like any new system, one of the things we want to impress upon our customers is that if you don't have E-ZPass, it's very important to drive through the appropriate toll booth lane,” Cyrill said. “One of the things we're noticing is that we are recording a lot of vehicles driving through E-ZPass lanes who are not E-ZPass customers.”
But when asked if the Ohio Turnpike did a good job of educating consumers before rolling out the new procedures, Cyrill did not initially answer the question. When asked a second time, he responded: “Yes. We understand there are some growing pains with our customers explaining the new system, and we're continuing to inform and educate our customers on the proper way to travel through the new system, especially if they are not an E-ZPass customer.”
He emphasized that an additional issue is that some E-ZPass customers improperly mount the transponder or don’t have the proper license plate number attached to their account. A transponder should not be waved at a sensor. It should be mounted on the windshield, in a nontinted area. He provided a YouTube video to explain the proper procedure. The Turnpike is including detailed instructions in its current newsletter to E-ZPass users.
If a customer wants to dispute the bill sent in the mail, Cyrill encouraged drivers to call customer service. But 11 Investigates found issues with that. At various points during the past week, the wait time ranged from two to five hours to talk to an agent. An additional call disconnected after we were told a representative was not available because of the high volume of calls.
“We are aware that we are experiencing high volumes of calls into our customer service center. We have expanded hours daily as well as including Saturday hours, and we are also hiring more staff to work during the week to handle the increase in the number of phone calls,” Cyrill said.
For now, there are growing pains with the new system. Cyrill was asked if it was fair to say the Turnpike was not prepared for the rollout.
“Most of the issues related to our customer service center involve customer behavior. For example, their E-ZPass transponders aren't properly installed to the windshield,” Cyrill said. “We had nearly 257,000 vehicles traveling in the wrong lanes. So we have our communications initiative challenge ahead of us, and we'll continue to inform and educate our customers on properly installing their E-ZPass transponders and make sure they travel in the right tollbooth lanes and also make sure their vehicle license plates are updated to their account.”
If you've received an unexpected bill from the Turnpike, send us an email at 11investigates@wtol.com.
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