Out-of-state vehicles on Illinois Tollway

[Badger39]

(1) While driving through Chicago twice this weekend I pondered: with the tollways no longer accepting cash, what happens when a car with non-Illinois plates and no account drives though without later going online and paying?  I assume they get a mailed invoice, but what happens if they don't pay.  (Note: I'm legal - with a transponder.)

(2) Are there plans to tear down the manual toll lanes?

[TheHighwayMan3561]

(1) While driving through Chicago twice this weekend I pondered: with the tollways no longer accepting cash, what happens when a car with non-Illinois plates and no account drives though without later going online and paying?  I assume they get a mailed invoice, but what happens if they don't pay.  (Note: I'm legal - with a transponder.)

Probably depends on how much they racked up. It's obviously unspoken, but if it's not worth the cost of the labor for tracking someone down, they'll let it go until that plate racks up enough tolls owed to justify finding them and sending them a bill.

Illinois has been the one state I have driven in that puts responsibility on the driver to come to the toll agency and pay their tolls rather than having the driver sit back and wait for a bill that may or may not come.

[SkyPesos]

I wonder the same about US license plates using ON 407.

[djsekani]

I drove a rental car multiple times on the toll roads near Chicago over the past couple of weeks. Like a good citizen I went and created a Tollway account later, entered the dates and license plate of the rental, and found no pending charges. What do you do at that point?

[Crash_It]

(1) While driving through Chicago twice this weekend I pondered: with the tollways no longer accepting cash, what happens when a car with non-Illinois plates and no account drives though without later going online and paying?  I assume they get a mailed invoice, but what happens if they don't pay.  (Note: I'm legal - with a transponder.)

Probably depends on how much they racked up. It's obviously unspoken, but if it's not worth the cost of the labor for tracking someone down, they'll let it go until that plate racks up enough tolls owed to justify finding them and sending them a bill.

Illinois has been the one state I have driven in that puts responsibility on the driver to come to the toll agency and pay their tolls rather than having the driver sit back and wait for a bill that may or may not come.

There are many signs along the tollway telling you where to pay online.

[oscar]

Illinois has been the one state I have driven in that puts responsibility on the driver to come to the toll agency and pay their tolls rather than having the driver sit back and wait for a bill that may or may not come.

The Orange County (CA) toll road system also has a similar option to pay online, before the bills go out. This lets car renters avoid rental company surcharges on the toll bills they get from the agency.

I wonder the same about US license plates using ON 407.

I drove the newest parts of the 407 and 418 toll roads earlier this month, in a car with Virginia plates. I didn't notice any opportunity for online payments, similar to the one in Illinois (where I paid the tolls with an E-ZPass transponder). No bill yet from Ontario. Also none for "pay by plate" roads in Oklahoma and Texas, earlier this year.

[GaryV]

I wonder the same about US license plates using ON 407.

They bill you eventually, with a hefty surcharge.  I assume someone searched the public records for my plate number.

Don't know what would happen if I hadn't paid it online after I got the bill.

[edwaleni]

If a foreign plate passes through ISTHA and the customer doesn't pay, what do they do?

They submit a plate ID request with the state's DMV to acquire an address. They mail the bill to the address.

However, some states DMV don't respond to information demands from toll highway authorities, just law enforcement.

So if a single plate racks up more than $500 in unpaid charges, a legal complaint is filed through the Northern District of Illinois for an unpaid collection.

Then the States Attorney's office files a legal demand with the states DMV for the current address. Once the address is acquired a demand letter is sent for payment, provide a written response or to appear in court.

The largest issue I have read about is that once the toll authority gets an address from the DMV, either on demand or through legal methods, it is usually not the current address and so nothing happens.

Several toll authorities have tracked significant unpaid tolls (ie: Pennsylvania) and marked them as uncollected.

As long as the uncollected remains a small percentage of overall revenues, they don't spend a large amount of resources on it.

But I have read about car owners reporting a stolen plate with their DMV when they get a demand letter.

[Joe The Dragon]

But about Canada? If someone from that drives all over the usa an racks up tolls then what can the USA really do with people from canada force them to pay up at the border?
Have 407 ERT join ez-pass and back bill people both ways?

[SkyPesos]

But about Canada? If someone from that drives all over the usa an racks up tolls then what can the USA really do with people from canada force them to pay up at the border?
Have 407 ERT join ez-pass and back bill people both ways?

Would be nice if Ontario (and the 407 specifically) join E-ZPass, but I don't think that will happen anytime soon.

[JayhawkCO]

I had a situation kind of like this when I was in Halifax recently.  I didn't realize that the toll bridge on NS-111 didn't take credit cards and I hadn't changed over any U.S. money over to Canadian dollars since I was paying everything with a card.  I was forced to go through the lane that only took transponders since I didn't have any looneys on me.  I'm hoping they don't send me a huge bill for what would have been a ~$0.75 US toll.

Chris

[hotdogPi]

I had a situation kind of like this when I was in Halifax recently.  I didn't realize that the toll bridge on NS-111 didn't take credit cards and I hadn't changed over any U.S. money over to Canadian dollars since I was paying everything with a card.  I was forced to go through the lane that only took transponders since I didn't have any looneys on me.  I'm hoping they don't send me a huge bill for what would have been a ~$0.75 US toll.

Chris

Are you sure they didn't accept US dollars?

[JayhawkCO]

I had a situation kind of like this when I was in Halifax recently.  I didn't realize that the toll bridge on NS-111 didn't take credit cards and I hadn't changed over any U.S. money over to Canadian dollars since I was paying everything with a card.  I was forced to go through the lane that only took transponders since I didn't have any looneys on me.  I'm hoping they don't send me a huge bill for what would have been a ~$0.75 US toll.

Chris

Are you sure they didn't accept US dollars?

It was only a coin basket to toss into.  I didn't even have any quarters on me to try.

Chris

[edwaleni]

But about Canada? If someone from that drives all over the usa an racks up tolls then what can the USA really do with people from canada force them to pay up at the border?
Have 407 ERT join ez-pass and back bill people both ways?

I would imagine the States Attorney files a request with the PDMV. Depending on how much reciprocity there is in the criminal code, $500 being the minimum in Illinois, it may be higher in say, Alberta.

As for Mexico, I doubt they get enough violators to warrant a request.

As for EU plates, the same. It is legal to drive on ISTHA routes with EU plates. But if you do it long enough and with high enough unpaid charges, ISHTA could request a BOLO on the plates and if it passes through trigger an alert to the local traffic authorities on their whereabouts. There are several YouTube videos of foreign nationals temporarily importing their vehicles with EU plates and blowing through the toll transponders overhead.  I never, ever have heard of a US toll authority go after a EU plate holder in their native country.

I know of one US citizen who drove all over the EU in a rental, got cited, never paid any tolls (except at the Chunnel) and never heard from anyone.

[US20IL64]

I-Pass is connected with EZ-Pass, so other states are involved, too.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

(1) While driving through Chicago twice this weekend I pondered: with the tollways no longer accepting cash, what happens when a car with non-Illinois plates and no account drives though without later going online and paying?  I assume they get a mailed invoice, but what happens if they don't pay.  (Note: I'm legal - with a transponder.)

I live in Ohio, still don't use turnpikes/toll roads/bridges enough to warrant buying a transponder. Last several times I went through (and by) Chicago, I kept track of which toll roads I was on and paid my tolls online.
Only once, must of been 3 to 4 years ago, did I get a mailed invoice from Illinois for what they claim were unpaid tolls. I wrote a letter back saying this was false and included printed copies of invoices showing I paid them, and never heard back from them.

[NJRoadfan]

It depends on if your home state has an agreement with IL, or how much they charge per transaction to look up MV registration records. Many states charge more per record request than the average toll resulting in a net loss for the agency trying to collect. Most agencies sign agreements with neighboring states to get registration data for little or no fees. I'd imagine folks from IN and WI get bills in the mail regularly.

[ET21]

(2) Are there plans to tear down the manual toll lanes?

Yes the manual lanes are being torn down slowly. Central Tri-State will be the most noticeable with the rebuild but I've seen them tearing stuff down at the Aurora toll plaza on 88.

Looks like they'll also begin to do something with the Touhy Plaza but they are causing a new backup to form with merging traffic from I-90. Was a stupid lane closure tbh, did nothing for 3 months and now finally they start.

[SEWIGuy]

If a foreign plate passes through ISTHA and the customer doesn't pay, what do they do?

They submit a plate ID request with the state's DMV to acquire an address. They mail the bill to the address.

However, some states DMV don't respond to information demands from toll highway authorities, just law enforcement.

So if a single plate racks up more than $500 in unpaid charges, a legal complaint is filed through the Northern District of Illinois for an unpaid collection.

Then the States Attorney's office files a legal demand with the states DMV for the current address. Once the address is acquired a demand letter is sent for payment, provide a written response or to appear in court.

The largest issue I have read about is that once the toll authority gets an address from the DMV, either on demand or through legal methods, it is usually not the current address and so nothing happens.

Several toll authorities have tracked significant unpaid tolls (ie: Pennsylvania) and marked them as uncollected.

As long as the uncollected remains a small percentage of overall revenues, they don't spend a large amount of resources on it.

But I have read about car owners reporting a stolen plate with their DMV when they get a demand letter.

And my guess is that all of this is cheaper than employing people to manually work the toll lanes.

[abefroman329]

Looks like they'll also begin to do something with the Touhy Plaza but they are causing a new backup to form with merging traffic from I-90. Was a stupid lane closure tbh, did nothing for 3 months and now finally they start.

Are they ever gonna take down that test equipment?  I assume it's for toll-by-plate, but this "test" has been going on for at least ten years.

[Crash_It]

Looks like they'll also begin to do something with the Touhy Plaza but they are causing a new backup to form with merging traffic from I-90. Was a stupid lane closure tbh, did nothing for 3 months and now finally they start.

Are they ever gonna take down that test equipment?  I assume it's for toll-by-plate, but this "test" has been going on for at least ten years.

Then you and everyone else would get mad at the required lane closure for them to do it.

[abefroman329]

Looks like they'll also begin to do something with the Touhy Plaza but they are causing a new backup to form with merging traffic from I-90. Was a stupid lane closure tbh, did nothing for 3 months and now finally they start.

Are they ever gonna take down that test equipment?  I assume it's for toll-by-plate, but this "test" has been going on for at least ten years.

Then you and everyone else would get mad at the required lane closure for them to do it.

I wouldn't, I travel that section of I-294 like once every other month.

[6a]

I wonder the same about US license plates using ON 407.

They bill you eventually, with a hefty surcharge.  I assume someone searched the public records for my plate number.

Don't know what would happen if I hadn't paid it online after I got the bill.

Good to know, as I just used it last month. Waaaaay better than the 401.