Tolls have long been a bane for rental automobile drivers, with their final bills often inflated by day by day fees for access to the automobile rental firms’ automated toll payment machines.
Now a toll authority in Florida desires to eliminate the value shock for rental cars. Central Florida Highway Authoritybased in Orlando has begun issuing temporary toll passes which might be free for travelers who rent cars from Orlando International Airportin order that drivers pays for toll road use like an area.
The program – which the toll agency says is the primary of its kind within the country – is designed to be certain that a traveler’s final memory of a visit to Orlando isn’t marred by fees for a rental automobile transponder.
“There was a misconception that toll agencies like us or Florida’s Turnpike “We got these fees, we didn’t,” said Michelle Maikisch, executive director of the Central Florida Expressway Authority. User fees often go to third-party contractors who process toll payments for rental automobile firms. “Our board is made up of elected officials from local governments, and they’ve been getting calls and emails, urging us to find a solution,” Ms. Maikisch added.
There are signs throughout Orlando Airport for the Toll pass for visitors Travelers are directed to download the pass app, where they will open an account with a bank card. After registering, users receive a QR code that releases a toll pass from one in all six machines positioned near the airport’s rental automobile counters. The tag is designed to be attached to a automobile’s rearview mirror.
To register, travelers must first deposit $10, which might be used to pay the toll. Once that $10 is spent, the user’s bank card might be charged every time a toll is incurred. If a traveler doesn’t spend the complete $10 to pay the toll, the remaining balance might be refunded to the bank card upon return of the tag. Travelers can return the tags at 14 drop boxes positioned across the airport. Failure to return them will end in a $10 advantageous.
Via toll roads from the airport to DisneyWorld typically costs $6.19 in tolls, in line with the toll authority. In addition to tolls, automobile rental firms often charge fees for using the transponder. For example, for rentals in Florida, Avis charges $6.95 per day once the device is first activated—whether or not you utilize the transponder to pay tolls on any given day—with a cap of $34.95 for rentals of 30 days or less.
To avoid excessive charges, Orlando Airport renters must refrain from using a transponder or payment service when reserving or returning a rental automobile and, if applicable, be certain that the toll transponder within the vehicle is ready to the closed or non-payment position.
While the Visitor Toll Pass program stays limited to automobile rental locations at Orlando’s major airport, the pass is valid on all toll roads and most bridges throughout the state.
Orlando International, which has 57.7 million Passengers in 2023, is taken into account the world’s largest automobile rental locationThe Visitor Toll Pass was piloted in 2018 and has a 99.5 percent approval rate amongst previous users, in line with the agency. This spring, it was expanded to all the airport’s terminals.
At the national level, travelers produce other options to avoid tolls, including bringing their very own transponder from home – ensuring upfront that the transponder is compatible with the destination – or renting it from the car-sharing platform. to showwhich only charges processing and administration costs fees for instance, when drivers collect tolls that exceed the detection range of the host’s transponder.
