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How long until the Illinois Tollway goes completely cashless?

Started by I-39, July 23, 2016, 09:22:36 PM

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quickshade

Quote from: dvferyance on August 22, 2016, 08:31:32 PM
Quote from: SEWIGuy on August 03, 2016, 04:43:05 PM
Quote from: dvferyance on August 02, 2016, 05:53:29 PM
Quote from: SEWIGuy on July 30, 2016, 10:27:23 PM
Quote from: dvferyance on July 27, 2016, 10:56:57 PM
What's the big deal about going cashless? If you don't want to pay cash just get I Pass. Who cares what the other motorist do.


Cash is more expensive for the Tollway Authority.  You have to pay people to handle it and there is risk involved with theft.
The Indiana toll road does not man any booths on the exit ramps. It's all automatic by machines I got all dollar coins back for change. Only the mainline plazas at both ends still have workers and that will probably be all automated too in the near future. They have the machines there too.


Right.  But the money still has to be transported from the toll booth to some office somewhere, accounted for against expected receipts, and then transported to the bank.  Along the way some sort of security must be provided as well.

Electronic tolling does this so much easier.  Pretty much all the manual labor is done on the front end.  (Basically stuffing the iPass into an envelope and mailing it out.)  Everything else is done electronically and cash doesn't have to be handled.
But you still have to hire workers to do that. So it makes the argument of not having to pay people a mute point.

The difference is you have to pay toll booth workers to collect tolls, But support people in the main office can not only handle incoming calls but they can look into billing problems, toll violations, mailing out letters and ipass transponders. So instead of paying someone to do one job, you can pay the same price and have them handle multiple tasks.


SEWIGuy

Quote from: dvferyance on August 22, 2016, 08:31:32 PM
Quote from: SEWIGuy on August 03, 2016, 04:43:05 PM
Quote from: dvferyance on August 02, 2016, 05:53:29 PM
Quote from: SEWIGuy on July 30, 2016, 10:27:23 PM
Quote from: dvferyance on July 27, 2016, 10:56:57 PM
What's the big deal about going cashless? If you don't want to pay cash just get I Pass. Who cares what the other motorist do.


Cash is more expensive for the Tollway Authority.  You have to pay people to handle it and there is risk involved with theft.
The Indiana toll road does not man any booths on the exit ramps. It's all automatic by machines I got all dollar coins back for change. Only the mainline plazas at both ends still have workers and that will probably be all automated too in the near future. They have the machines there too.


Right.  But the money still has to be transported from the toll booth to some office somewhere, accounted for against expected receipts, and then transported to the bank.  Along the way some sort of security must be provided as well.

Electronic tolling does this so much easier.  Pretty much all the manual labor is done on the front end.  (Basically stuffing the iPass into an envelope and mailing it out.)  Everything else is done electronically and cash doesn't have to be handled.
But you still have to hire workers to do that. So it makes the argument of not having to pay people a mute point.


You have to pay *some* people yes.  But you don't have to pay as many people.  (toll booth operators, security, etc.)

Really is this that hard a concept to figure out?  Personnel costs clearly go down with electronic tolling.  Did anyone claim that it eliminated all personnel costs?




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