Electronic tolling (ET) is generally touted for its customer benefits - ending the hassle for the driver of handling cash while driving. Its other customer benefit is in allowing quick movement through the toll plaza. It eventually allows full open road tolling. For toll operators the major attraction of ET is the increased throughput per toll lane...MORE
Electronic tolling (ET) is generally touted for its customer benefits - ending the hassle for the driver of handling cash while driving. Its other customer benefit is in allowing quick movement through the toll plaza. It eventually allows full open road tolling.
For toll operators the major attraction of ET is the increased throughput per toll lane. That allows an existing toll plaza to cater to increased traffic, and either eliminates an existing bottleneck in the system, or allows capacity to grow with traffic. In the case of a new toll facility the reduced size of needed cash toll collection means a saving in land acquisition and construction costs, since booths and bullnoses and canopies and hard standing pavement are a lot more expensive than electrical and electronics gear.
In recent years toll industry people have stressed these benefits as the major rationale for ET. Of course during the years of installation total outlays on toll collection go up, but what happens to operating costs over time?
There have been some reports that ET doesn't save anything, that it simply shifts staff from the toll booths and counting rooms into the customer service centers, with no real reduction of staff or staff costs. Maybe there are some instances of this. However at the recent IBTTA workshop several toll industry executives said they are achieving significant cost savings from ET.
John Platt recently resigned from the New York State Thruway said a study done within NYSTA showed that costs of electronic toll transactions are running at about one-third that of cash toll transactions: 26c/transaction for cash and 8.5c for transponder transactions. These are operating costs but include allowance for the cost of the transponders themselves - amortized over their assumed life of 5.5 years. Th capital cost of the ET equipment - readers, lane controllers, main servers, communications etc - is not included. If it were then there would need to be an allowance for toll booths and lane equipment, counting rooms etc for the cash collection costing.
Hal Worrall, CEO of the Orlando expressway authority said their costs are 14c/cash transaction and 7c for each ET transaction, on a similar costing basis. He said the cost of cash transactions is heavily influenced by hourly wage rates and they are $8 in Florida and $24 in the northeast - because of non-union versus union differences.
Florida's Turnpike costs are running around 20c and 10c, cash and ET. TRnews 2003-06-17
