TRENTON, NJ — The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission is working with its E-ZPass service providers — TransCore and Conduent — to proactively adjust the accounts of E-ZPass passenger-vehicle customers overcharged in the Trenton-Morrisville (Route 1) Toll Bridge’s right E-ZPass-only lane between February 1 and July 7.
This automated process currently is projected to be completed on or about September 9. When E-ZPass customers will see the retroactive adjustments reflected in their accounts, however, will depend on the respective customer service center that issued their E-ZPass transponder and administers their account.
Affected E-ZPass motorists are requested to refrain from making individual requests on Trenton-Morrisville Bridge passenger vehicle misclassifications while this electronic adjustment process is underway.
A damaged piece of electronic tolling equipment in one of the bridge’s two E-ZPass-only lanes sporadically caused thousands of passenger vehicles to be classified as a truck and charged a $9 toll instead of the prescribed $1.25 fare between February 1 and July 7.
An investigation Commission staff conducted with TransCore and Conduent in recent weeks has determined that of the roughly 1.4 million toll transactions recorded in the problematic Trenton-Morrisville toll lane between February and early July, around 86,000 of them (or about 6.1 percent) involved passenger vehicle misclassifications. TransCore is the Commission’s in-lane toll service provider, largely handling the hardware and software that records and relays transactions at Commission tolling points. Conduent is the company that operates the regional New Jersey E-ZPass Customer Service Center, which processes the toll transactions and violations recorded at Commission toll bridges.
The recent problem at the Trenton-Morrisville (Route 1) Toll Bridge initially appeared to be confined to SUVs, vans, pickup trucks, and cars with higher profiles, but investigation revealed misreads occurring intermittently with virtually any type of passenger vehicle.
The damaged piece of in-lane toll equipment – an overhead LED/infrared vehicle profiler unit that classifies vehicles for toll charges – apparently had been struck on multiple occasions by flat-bed trailers stacked with poorly anchored loads of crushed motor vehicles.
The compromised reader was replaced July 7. Customers have not reported any equipment-induced misclassifications or overcharges occurring in that lane since that date. Follow-up testing also has determined the replaced unit to be operating correctly.
In the wake of the investigation into the issue, the Commission has requested State Police to increase patrols in the area of the toll bridge to combat E-ZPass equipment strikes by poorly loaded flat-bed trailers.
Because of the irregularities of when misreads occurred and which vehicles were impacted at the Trenton-Morrisville Toll Bridge, the Commission is urging passenger-vehicle E-ZPass customers who used the bridge between February and early July to check their past account statements for possible overcharges, but refrain from seeking individual refunds while the automatic account adjustment process takes place. As noted above, E-ZPass adjustments for vehicle misclassifications at the Trenton-Morrisville Bridge should appear in future account statements.
