The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) has overturned a staff decision to save money by leaving toll rates off their toll tickets. At their monthly meeting yesterday the Commissioners told staff to get the toll rates back on tickets as soon as possible.
CEO Joe Brimmeier: "Our staff made the decision not to print (tolls) on tickets to cut costs, in particular as more people sign up for E-ZPass and fewer people take tickets. However, we heard loud and clear from our customers that we got ahead of ourselves on the decision, so the commissioners directed us to order a new batch of toll tickets with (tolls) shown."
(The Turnpike Commission uses the transit word 'fares', we render it 'tolls.' - editor)
Staff estimates are the agency would have saved up to $100,000 annually by printing tickets without listing toll rates, so they would not have to trash a surplus each year as new toll rates made the tickets obsolete. Turnpike tolls are set to rise each year now under state Act 44 of 2007, which uses the Turnpike to generate some $500m/year for non-Turnpike purposes.
The main function of tickets is to carry information on the point of entry of a vehicle on a magnetic strip which gets handed to a collector at the end of the trip in order to compute the toll. Printing of toll schedules on the ticket has been quite incidental to their function.
However the change upset a few people and drew savage press and political comment.
Following the commissioners order the Turnpike is asking its ticket supplier Electronic Data Magnetics of Highpoint NC to cut in half the normal delivery time for new tickets and have them available by March or April 2011.
The tickets without any toll schedule on them will be issued as planned from Jan 1 on. They are already being shipped to the Turnpike's interchanges, and will be used until the replacement tickets-cum-tollrates are manufactured.
Turnpike officials note that the discount for using a transponder on the Penn Pike increases under the toll rates going into effect Jan 1, and urge users of the Turnpike to sign up for a transponder account, eliminating the need to take a ticket, and stop to hand it back at trip's end.
CEO Joe Brimmeier: "Our staff made the decision not to print (tolls) on tickets to cut costs, in particular as more people sign up for E-ZPass and fewer people take tickets. However, we heard loud and clear from our customers that we got ahead of ourselves on the decision, so the commissioners directed us to order a new batch of toll tickets with (tolls) shown."
(The Turnpike Commission uses the transit word 'fares', we render it 'tolls.' - editor)
Staff estimates are the agency would have saved up to $100,000 annually by printing tickets without listing toll rates, so they would not have to trash a surplus each year as new toll rates made the tickets obsolete. Turnpike tolls are set to rise each year now under state Act 44 of 2007, which uses the Turnpike to generate some $500m/year for non-Turnpike purposes.
The main function of tickets is to carry information on the point of entry of a vehicle on a magnetic strip which gets handed to a collector at the end of the trip in order to compute the toll. Printing of toll schedules on the ticket has been quite incidental to their function.
However the change upset a few people and drew savage press and political comment.
Following the commissioners order the Turnpike is asking its ticket supplier Electronic Data Magnetics of Highpoint NC to cut in half the normal delivery time for new tickets and have them available by March or April 2011.
The tickets without any toll schedule on them will be issued as planned from Jan 1 on. They are already being shipped to the Turnpike's interchanges, and will be used until the replacement tickets-cum-tollrates are manufactured.
Turnpike officials note that the discount for using a transponder on the Penn Pike increases under the toll rates going into effect Jan 1, and urge users of the Turnpike to sign up for a transponder account, eliminating the need to take a ticket, and stop to hand it back at trip's end.
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