Is this a scam? Help, I’ve been forced to rent a transponder

Here’s a question about a possible scam from reader Candice Sabatini. She’s noticed that an increasing number of toll roads and bridges no longer have toll booths — you either carry a transponder or pay a fine.

Sabatini thinks that’s not fair to people who rent cars.

“If you rent cars often, it would seem that the simple solution is to buy a transponder and then attach it to the car you rent,” she says. “But the [catch] is that you cannot buy an EZPass unless they have a license plate to register it with.”

Car rental companies have a solution, but it’s pricey. And it looks like a scam to some.

When you rent a car, you have to pay a $15 fee to use a transponder, which can add up quickly. But renters don’t have a choice.

What’s going on?

It’s a scam

Clearly, drivers should be able to use their transponders on a rental vehicle if they want to. And if a transponder is required with a rental, then it should be included in the cost of your rental — not tacked on at the end. So in that sense, the transponder scheme can be viewed as a scam.

Not a scam

I asked Bob Barton of the American Car Rental Association for his perspective on this issue.

Definitely not a scam, he says.

The majority of all car rental companies have toll or EZPass systems. These are provided to us by third party companies who administer the entire process.

They charge a daily fee to use the toll device. Obviously they must assume some form of an average as no two customers will utilize the same number of tolls.

This is not a profit center for the car rental companies, but unfortunately we have been forced into a situation to provide such a system to facilitate the toll collections for the state.

Barton says this happens in Florida, which is aggressively removing many of its tollbooths. The alternative is far more expensive, and it involves tracking down drivers who haven’t paid their toll. That can cost even more, he says.

It may be true that car rental companies don’t have a choice but to offer the transponders, but is $15 too much? Probably. It sure looks like someone is making lots of money from the transponders.

(Photo: fragglera wker 3/Flickr)

  • Severnwatcher

    You can still use your own transponder, I have.  Many rental car companies have transponders in plastic square housing that allows the unit to slide in or out. Out, it’s in use, slide it in and it’s blocked. (BTW, those signals are STRONG! My unit was in the trunk of my ar and still was read). 

    Anyway, decline the rental unit, and either have the rental co. take it out, or keep it inside the plastic sleeve and duct tape yours to the window - OR, you can put tin foil around the rental unit to block the unit and use yours.

    Also, in most states they don’t ‘fine’ you for going thru without the unit, they send you a bill (sent to the car’s registered owner) for the amount of the toll.  If you fail to pay within the stated period THEN you’re fined, but pay it when you get it, and you only owe the toll.

  • Dave

    Maybe not a scam, but a very poor business model.  The transponders cost about $10 (depending on which system and which state) plus a deposit, then are pre-loaded with tolls.  If the car rental companies were interested in their customers, they could come up with a system to check the balance on the device when the cars are checked in.

    Tangentially, a pox on states that are going all-electronic.  This is also a problem for people who live in states that don’t have tollroads but who happen to be traveling with their own cars.  And then there’s the State of Washington, which has a tolling system completely incompatible with any of the others in the country and which has no intention of making it compatible (I’ve asked them why, but their answer made no sense whatsoever).

  • SeaWally

    I have used transponders provided by the rental company and there have been instances where I’ve left the transponder in its metal case and used my GPS to bypass toll roads.  I think it depends on the rental company and location.  I’ve never been forced to pay to use a transponder.  At least with the companies I’ve used its optional and charges only appear if you have the unit open on the windshield and you pass through a toll both.  I don’t think its what one might traditionally call a “scam”, but it is clearly an opportunity for the companies involved to make money. 

  • noah

    I believe that in colorado, the law that removed the toll booths requires rental companies to provide a transponder.

  • Anonymous

    In Florida and several other states, the rental car companies do not equip each car with a transponder. Instead, they provide the plate number of the car to the toll road authority or DMV. The number goes into a database.When the car goes through the toll apparatus without a transponder being detected, a camera take a picture of the licence plate. A computer checks the database and finds that the vehicle is registered to the rental car company. A an electronic invoice is generated to the rental company for the toll plus a small administration fee. The rental car company then adds the toll amount to your invoice plus a service fee. This past summer, I drove a Hertz car without a transponder from Florida to Massachusetts and drove through toll collection points in about eight states.  When I dropped the car off at Logan Airport, Hertz had recorded all of the tolls on my bill. I also found out that their policy was to limit my total fees for using their toll system to $10 per week.

  • Aaron

    In Puerto Rico, the rental car companies include the cost of the transponder and bill you for the tolls you accrued a few days after the rental. Perfectly fair. Why can’t this be done in other states? Answer: Scam.

  • Absherlock

    Not everyone who rents cars drives on toll roads, so I’d be a little put out if the cost of the transponder (whether it’s fifteen dollars a day or a flat fee) was added to the cost of the rental and I ended up not using it. 

    Perhaps what we should be doing is pushing for all of the states to have interchangable systems that don’t require a license plate to register.

  • http://www.mikechurch.com pete838

    Florida also has portable transponders that can be purchased by the consumer and between vehicles, and most roads still have cash lanes. The trick with the portable is to register the rental car plate number on the Sunpass website. Of course most travelers don’t know this and get stuck with big bills, or pay cash for the tolls and are double billed through the rental company.

  • cjr001

    Test post.

  • cjr001

    Test again