It's a Team's Life
Easy Way or Cheaper Way?
Everyone has different needs due to the area of the country we run in and the number of toll booths we go through. In our situation, we are very seldom in the northeast or stay in areas that have a lot of toll roads.
We ran basically with PrePass and E-Z Pass for years. We paid at the toll booths that did not accept E-Z Pass. In Florida, it was frustrating to sit in a line to pay, drive a few miles, and pay again and again and again… Now E-Z Pass works in Florida which sure speeds things up.
A few years ago I decided to give an all-encompassing system a try and while I liked the ease of using this our costs for tolls and bypassing weight stations went up significantly. The monthly fee was too high and we no longer received the discounts on these systems our company offered..
I am a slow learner and it took a while before I finally said enough is enough and started researching transponders. The first thing I did was go back to PrePass and get one ordered so when we got home we would have it waiting on us. Then I looked at a few other systems for tolls that do not have a large monthly fee or huge deposit required.
E-Z pass charges a dollar fee each month and the other transponders I choose charge nothing. E-Z pass is a given as it basically covers the eastern half of the United States with very few exceptions. Years ago I remember going through Chicago when they had lots of tolls booths and paying a quarter at each booth. The prices have gone up and finally, we no longer have to stop at all of those toll booths.
We decided to add two additional transponders to the truck: Texas (TXTag) and Califonia (FasTrak). Both have a minimum deposit and no monthly fee. We chose the TXTag that resides on the lower half of our windshield and the FasTrak that mounts on the front of the truck. If we have to change our windshield we can get a new TXTag quickly.
The TXTag covers Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas and allows us to go through the bi-pass lane. This is beneficial in a few ways, saves us time, does not hurt our fuel mileage and we get a better rate.
California's FasTrak is good on most toll roads within the state. Having the transponder on the truck does not allow us to run in the car toll lanes as that lane does not allow commercial vehicles. Most if not all of the toll bridges and roads have gone to an invoice system if you do not have a transponder. If not at home to get the invoice or we forget to go online we then will end up paying a late fee as well.
The monthly fees now to have these responders has dropped considerably. There is a little additional work needed to download the invoices of each transponder if we ran on toll roads.
TXTag https://www.txtag.org/txtagstorefront/en/
FasTrak https://www.bayareafastrak.org/en/home/index.shtml
Bob & Linda Caffee
TeamCaffee
Saint Louis MO
Expediters since January 2005
Â
Expediting isn't just trucking, it's a lifestyle;
Expediting isn't just a lifestyle, it's an adventure;
Expediting isn't just an adventure, it's a job;
Expediting isn't just a job, it's a business.