Uni Transponders

[roadman65]

Anyone planning to invest in these?  From what I heard it works in 19 states and covers all the toll roads east of the Mississippi.

[1995hoo]

Anyone planning to invest in these?  From what I heard it works in 19 states and covers all the toll roads east of the Mississippi.

I looked into it when they introduced it, but I decided against it (and the new SunPass Pro) because I have E-ZPass Flex transponders and neither the Uni nor the SunPass Pro offers that capability. Now that E-ZPass works in Florida, I cancelled our SunPass account.

[ran4sh]

As a Georgian, I am waiting to see how my state implements E-ZPass before getting one.

Anyone planning to invest in these?  From what I heard it works in 19 states and covers all the toll roads east of the Mississippi.

Except South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, etc

[doorknob60]

I have one. So far I've only used it on rental cars. Used it in Florida and it worked well on various toll roads around Orlando. I tried to use it on one of the tunnels in Portsmouth, VA, but I never got charged. Nothing posted to my E-Pass account, but I also never got charged by my rental car company or anything (I disabled their transponder, but they can still get billed by mail and pass on the charges if they get them). This was in June so if I was going to get charged, it would have happened by now.

I'm guessing a previous renter used their EZ-Pass and didn't remove the license plate from their account, and had their account charged instead of my transponder being read for some reason*. I did put the car's license plate in my E-Pass account while I had it, but if multiple different toll pass accounts are registered to one license plate, it's a crapshoot what would happen there if the transponder wasn't read (I guess it must have not read, I did change lanes near where they are read so I could have messed it up that way; there weren't signs banning lane changes though). Hopefully the actual transponder works, technically I have no way to know (though the actual transponder definitely worked in Florida due to how quick the charges posted, I don't know if the Florida vs EZ-Pass transponder works differently).

* A similar situation happened after I returned my rental in Orlando. I didn't remove the rental car's license plate right away after returning it, it slipped my mind. I did remember to do it later in the day (forget if it was when I got home, or during my stopover at PHX). About 3 hours after I returned the car, someone drove it through one of the tolls nearby, and eventually (after a week or 2) posted to my E-Pass account. It was only about $2, no big deal. Guess I was just paying it forward, and karma came around to give me a free tunnel crossing in VA.

[MASTERNC]

Why get this rather than an NC QuickPass?  They work in the same states (with the same exclusions mentioned earlier) and the NC transponder is cheaper (if you don't get the Flex option).

[sprjus4]

^ For states that aren't on the E-ZPass network.

Only 19 states currently accept E-ZPass. Texas/Oklahoma/Kansas, Washington, California, Colorado, South Carolina, etc. all have their own networks that aren't interoperable.

Me personally, I have both an E-ZPass and SunPass (now obsolete due to the integration w/ E-ZPass), along with a TxTag for travels around that state (also useful for when I took the Kansas Turnpike).

[Rothman]

Heh.  "Only 19."  Which pass is accepted in more?  Or nearly as many?

[sprjus4]

Heh.  "Only 19."  Which pass is accepted in more?  Or nearly as many?

Not saying 19 is a bad thing, quite frankly it's impressive, but there's still work to be done. I think getting Texas/Kansas/Oklahoma is the next step in the system. That would get half the country on one interoperable system, with small exceptions like SC, AL, etc. but those don't have tolls on major highways (until I-10 Mobile happens anyways).

[ran4sh]

Why get this rather than an NC QuickPass?  They work in the same states (with the same exclusions mentioned earlier) and the NC transponder is cheaper (if you don't get the Flex option).

As I implied in my earlier reply, some states' E-ZPass may actually be better depending on where you drive. For example, Georgia offers the HOV 3+ exemption on I-85, but not for SunPass or NC QP users. If Georgia's E-ZPass (when they offer it) engages in similar "transponder discrimination", then for me it may be better to get an E-ZPass from GA even if NC's transponder price is lower.

Also, Uni advertises that you can move their transponder from car to car. NC doesn't, and it doesn't look like it's actually allowed despite the NC E-ZPass transponder being a similar hard case type as other E-ZPasses.

[1995hoo]

North Carolina definitely purports to prohibit moving the transponder between vehicles.

[MASTERNC]

North Carolina definitely purports to prohibit moving the transponder between vehicles.

If it reads correctly, how will they know if it's in a different vehicle?

In any case, the Minnesota E-ZPass might be an option since that has an HOV switch.

[1995hoo]

North Carolina definitely purports to prohibit moving the transponder between vehicles.

If it reads correctly, how will they know if it's in a different vehicle?

....

I don't know, I decided not to get one because I didn't like their "one vehicle per transponder" policy. North Carolina offers a device with the HOV switch, but I'm just plain less interested now that E-ZPass works in Florida.