Are mistakes in tolling costing I-405 drivers? | Letter
Published 9:36 am Monday, January 4, 2016
I have just received a “Good To Go” pay by mail toll bill for $2.75 for my late mother’s 1982 Subaru. This vehicle has been sitting in my garage since January 2011, does not run, and does not have current tabs.
The bill provides a toll bill dispute form that would require me to attach documentation that proves that the charge is incorrect. How does one prove that the car would not run on the date in dispute?
My first inclination was to just pay the $2.75 because I would probably spend a lot of time, getting nowhere, in an attempt to settle this dispute, but I decided that I was not going to pay a bogus bill. I called the customer service center and was flabbergasted to learn that the photo that was supposed to show my mother’s car actually showed just bare pavement – no car at all. When I questioned the representative about how they came up with the Subaru license number, he said he didn’t know but would delete the charge.
I wonder how many “mistakes” are being made and what percent of the mistakes are being discovered and challenged. According to Lynn Peterson, the CEO of Washington State Department of Transportation, the company responsible for the I-405 tolling is Electronic Transactions Consultants(ETC) based in Richardson, Texas. ETC receives 55 percent of the gross tolls that they collect. If they make 1,000 $2.75 “mistakes” that go unchallenged, they will pick up an extra $1,512.50. A 100,000 $2.75 “mistakes” and their cash register rings to the tune of $151,250. Sweet.
Why is WSDOT using an out of state vendor in order to collect tolls on our roads, especially Electronics Transactions Consultants, a firm that has been embroiled in lawsuits in Louisiana and Miami? WSDOT also gives 15 cents per toll to a Rockville, Maryland company that is involved in the operations and maintenance of the tolling system. More importantly, I wonder why WSDOT is allowing these out-of-state vendors to keep more than half of the revenue that they collect on our toll roads.
Keith Dunbar’s suggestion that the tolls be replaced by an increase in the gas tax is right on target. Not only is the gas tax a fair way to fund improvements to our roads, but no billing companies are needed to collect this revenue, the motorist doesn’t have to deal with bogus billing activities; and better yet, 100 percent of the money collected stays in the state of Washington.
Laurel D. Lupton, Kirkland
