Toll scam by the state of FL
 

I rarely use toll roads and while heading to Tampa my GPS shot me onto a toll road to avoid an accident. (yea I forgot to remove tolls roads on the gps)

I was on this toll road for less than 2 miles and it was one of the "Toll by Plate" scams which has become popular in FL & Texas. Perhaps other places as well.

They no longer keep people in the toll booths as private companies now run many of FL's toll roads (same in Texas). I get an invoice in the mail with the toll charge being "$1.27" on top of that is an administration fee of "$2.50" (yea 2 times the amount of the toll in admin fees)

Meaning the toll actually cost $3.77. Now you go online to pay these tolls and to do so you have to set up an account and here is the kicker.. You can't pay the cost of the actual toll, you have to "load" money with the minimum being $10.
"
But wait there is more.. For the convenience of setting up my "automated" account and loading $10 they charge you yet another fee.. $1.33

Meaning my initial toll of $1.27 now cost me $5.10 with $3.83 in extra fees and also a "lost" $4.90 left in the account assuming I don't happen to drive down another "Toll by plate" road.

Fuck me, talk about a scam these cock suckers are getting away with and now just think of this shit happening thousands of times a day..

Yes. There is a Tampa toll that always gets me. I hate it.

privateering at it's finest

Let me guess ... "Veterans Expressway"

Main artery from north Tampa to the airport, gets people all the time, tourists especially.

Don't pay it and don't go to Florida.

It zipped off to the left just before I4 turned into 275.

If it wasn't for family and friends I'd have zero problems never coming back to this fucked up state.

That's terrible!

And I did not know I could remove toll roads from my GPS. Thank you!

It's one thing to stop at a tool booth and pay to drive on. It's another thing to mysteriously be on a toll road without a chance to pay and then being charged a violation. I hate it also since I don't have a "Sun Pass" system auto payer on my motorcycle. I get these fucked up notices in the mail all the time.

Yea it's a pretty fucked system and IMO it's just designed to allow for profit companies the ability to hose you with fees.

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

So it's like precheck xsales that are in microsize font 10 scrolls down the page.

I use the Veteran's Expressway all of the time. I happen to have a SunPass so none of that shit ever happens to me. The posted toll price is just sucked out of my account. It's does auto reload $10.00 everytime my balance gets below $5.00 though.

Fuck it. The SunPass sticker is $4.99 (I think) at Publix and the cost of it is added to your account so it is more or less free. Get one if you think you'll use it again and you can avoid that BS. :2 cents:

Whats happens if you rent a car and go through?

having a sunpass myself I never realized they charge you that much. What about when they charge you more than $10 to go over a bridge in New York? I have 3 easy pass / sunpass type devices in my car and have to remember the switch them from state to state. Saves a ton of time and money. Yes it's a total scam this should be one total system that covers everything.

...and while I came up with a less rip off solution, clearly the states won't cooperate and let my solution make life easier and reduce costs to consumers.

This is the way to go. Even for tourists. Plus if you have the Sunpass and your plates on file and the sunpass doesn't work for whatever reason it is no problem. They will simply manually deduct the toll price from your account without charging you a fee. I don't think there is any fee to set up or fund the account other than the fee you pay for the device. The mini (which is a little sticker) is like $5. The other bigger one is something like $20.

Freedom.

:helpme

You're a complete and total idiot.

It has absolutely nothing to do with freedom and more to do with convenience. Nobody is forcing you onto a toll road. Take the fucking back roads if you're that cheap or can't afford it.

Eat a dick a die in a fire.

:1orglaugh

That's a little different than Texas. I just bought my pass last week because I was tired of getting late fees on bills that I couldn't pay because their website and phone support system did not work. I spent 30 minutes on the phone with two different agencies clearing up bills, neither of their websites worked properly. Both agencies will take the TXTag, but if you don't have the TXTag, both agencies bill you separately and you cannot pay both at the same time because they are separate entities.

The real kicker for me is that the toll roads suck. The one big one here is a four-lane highway. Four lanes! The valley it's in could easily have eight lanes.

Exactly the type of backwoods, non-educated response I expected from you.

Don't you have a news story to go copy and paste into a board somewhere?

Men are talking here. :2 cents:

get a sunpass for 4.00 then you dont have the load fees and administrative costs

Actually, Tolls are a good thing. In Florida, or at least in Orlando and 99% of the I95 highway, the roads are in fantastic shape. They are clean and very well maintained . In the green areas around the highways in Orlando are mostly very good.

Compare that to Montreal where all of the roads are complete shit. Not just bumpy, and not just pot-hole invested because of winter - but terrible, shitty roads criss-cross much of Montreal and surrounding areas. The shining exception to this is a perfect highway bridge called A25 that connects Montreal to Laval. A Toll Road.

Do I want to pay more to use roads? No of course I wish I didn't. But for cities that "Tax" drivers to use the roads like they do in Florida, it appears at least that the money is spent properly.

And like Forest says, there are passes you can buy in most places that save you a ton of money. The A25 pass includes transponder that you install in our car and saves drivers about 70% off the usual toll.

PS: IF you really hate tolls, you should petition your city to get SOLAR FREAKIN' ROADWAYS!

Toll roads are private companies taking over a job that the government couldn't do right. :winkwink:

The same thing is happening to you but it's just automated. Rather than get hit with the admin fee you are paying the fee at the purchase of the sun pass. Obviously if you use toll roads a lot then it's worth getting the pass, but I don't typically use toll roads by choice so it's wated for me to buy the pass and have to pay for it each year.

Actually the B-Line going from Cocoa to Orlando is horrid. At least it was the last time I used it. It needed paved very very bad and that toll road actually had toll booths however there was a fucking toll booth every 5 miles in one section of it. I think you end up paying something like $5 to go 20 miles on a bumpy ass road. It's much better to hit 520 or one of the state roads.

Eat a dick and die in a fire twice.

:1orglaugh

He's saying that the expense of the SunPass is added to your account as a balance. The TxTag was $20 for me, but that $20 was added to my account. There isn't a yearly renewal or anything like that. It's a credit that you can use.

File a law suit on them for it and get it changed....

Yea.. This is the part those libertarian's forget to mention when they claim everything will work better with smaller govt and everything privatized. They tend to overlook telling you about all the "fees" these companies get away charging you.

ummm.... The whole thread is about freedom of choice. You have no choice as they just impose the toll on you.

It might have a little something to do with weather. Florida roads last a lot longer then Northern areas as they don't have cold.

How so? The toll is there. You do not have to use that route. Before you get on the highway they let you know it's a toll road. OP even said that he didn't set his GPS to avoid toll roads. He could have used an alternate route and although maybe paid more in gas, would have avoided and toll charges completely.

Maybe I am misunderstanding you or something.... :disgust

Traffic is shitty and busy in Tampa. If you're not exceeding the posted speed limit then you're honked at and treated like a piece of shit. Also I've been through the same area with those hidden tolls numerous times and you cannot tell when you're going through them. Every time I've gone through them I don't see signs warning me that I'm going to be paying later. And that area is a fucking maze.

Well technically you have the freedom to choose not to go on the toll road. However I didn't know it was a toll road, there was a lot of traffic and it was coming to a stand still so the GPS updated to route me on that road which I didn't see toll signs until I had already turned on it..

Toll roads are the government using the shield of a business to make you pay more for transportation than what's supposed to be covered by taxes and licensing fees already. Toll roads are a goverment budget subsidy.

Where the fuck are these supposed hidden tolls?

I can see how these would be considered confusing
http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/8dc4...0613-00000.jpg

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/prVIidrRpK8/0.jpg

Yeah, that TOLL in giant lettering sure is sneaky

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

When u put it like that sounds like a scam.
But for Christ's sake get a free sun pass.

what you're saying it's almost like saying man I got a ticket for not having a license plate these f****** scam artist charge me for that come on dude get a f****** SunPass transponder put it on your window and load with money and stop bitching

I like it when people are so beaten down and brainwashed that they will defend a system that is clearly there only to make money off of them - Pathetic!

Clear examples of Stockholm syndrome

You do not have to drive on the toll road do you?

This thread is fucking epitome of wasting time on a forum

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

Yes, I live in Clearwater. (Still. Yeah, I know.) The part that gets me is how our governor continues to sell the photo tag piracy set-up as "in the best interests of the people." And he says this with his unblinking, Voldemort smile on his face. He disgusts me.

Veterans Expressway went from two toll booths to just one. The "Hidden Toll" is the stretch of highway you are on before/after the toll booth stop that is now Sun Pass only. So tourists and those that don't regularly use the road stop, pay, and think they have paid the toll but in fact have only paid half the total fee.

When they get the violation in the mail all they can think of is WTF? I stopped and paid a toll.

I get it. I guess having the transponder and regularly driving it makes me more astute to the system. It still does inform you though that you are coming up on a toll as far as I know, whether they mare manned or not. I know a lot of these toll plazas are not just drive straight through with no physical employees.

I always whip around the toll plazas to the right seeing as i have the transponder.

Me thinks crockett was not paying attention once again.

Part of Veteran's Expressway is a cash-less toll section. You can't pay cash if you wanted to there is no tool booth. You have Sun Pass or you get fined by mail.

In a state so heavily dependent on out of town drivers and people in rental cars all toll roads should have a toll booth for cash or be free. Why would someone from out of state even know what a Sun Pass was?

I realize this is confusing for you, but did you not comprehend the term "no toll plazas" and"toll by tag"? All they have is little signs that say "toll route" and cameras to take pictures of your tag. They don't have big flashy lights or toll plazas, they look like any "normal" road and you would never know it was a toll road if you missed the sign while getting on.. Also when you are dealing with 6 lanes of traffic once you are committed to a lane you aren't getting off once you do see the toll sign.