Texas Toll Booths Cater To Consumers

In Dallas, the North Texas Tollway Authority, an authority that is responsible for collecting tolls, has been scrutinized for months due to its toll collecting policy. This policy charges drivers who do not pay up at the toll booth fines of hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars. Because the NTTA has been under fire in the public eye, it announced today two steps it says that will target improving customer satisfaction.

The first measure that the NTTA took was to allow all drivers to use the electronic toll collection lanes, including those who do not have one. They are able to do this without being punished with a twenty five dollar fine.

Before this endeavor, drivers who didn't have toll tags that used the electronic lanes on the Dallas North Tollway were looked at as violators and would subsequently be fined twenty five dollars for each time they passed through an electronic toll booth, rather than a cash booth.

However, after February eighth, the drivers lacking a toll tag who use the electronic lanes will be given the opportunity to pay for the tolls before being slammed with the additional twenty five dollar fine. But these toll charges will continue to be calculated at the cash rate, which is twice as high as the rates paid by toll tag consumers.

Despite all this, the change won't affect the NTTA's collections policy in any other way and it will not stop consumers with no toll tags and who do not pay off toll bills sent to their homes from being charged twenty five dollars for every unpaid toll. This is a policy that can turn a week's worth of tolls into a thousand dollar bill.

The NTTA's second move was to appoint an internal auditor as a sort of mediator, which will be available to frustrated customers who have already complained their way through NTTA customer service hierarchy without a result that was satisfactory. The auditor will then review the account and decide if customer service and billing reps have followed their own rules. - 39468