Quick Transport Solutions Inc.

Should Trucking Companies Invest in a Toll Management Solution?

There’s a lot to think about when running your own trucking company. From truck driver training to retention, safety, equipment procurement and more. Yet, there are also regulatory burdens that trucking companies must consider. Take tolling as one example. Did you know that there are over 50 tolling authorities across the country? In all, they cover over six thousand miles of road. Even worse, each has their own methodology for tolling, which causes no shortage of heartburn for trucking companies.

And while we have seen a rise in cashless tolling, that does not mean tolling has become simplified. In fact, the opposite has occurred. Toll management has become an increasingly byzantine endeavor, whether it comes down to interoperability, license issues, or otherwise; managing toll situations has become more complicated than ever. Many businesses run into specific tolling challenges.

First, there is a hefty amount of paperwork and administrative tasks that go into managing tolls. You’ve also got to handle multiple transponders, deal with haphazard customer service from vendor partners and possibly miss the train where volume discounting is concerned.

Each of these headaches will affect your business’ efficiency in specific ways, including in wasted time and loss of revenue. Today, it is more important than ever to have a streamlined toll management process in place to keep your business thriving. Now we will discuss the challenges that trucking companies face and how toll management providers can help to overcome them.

Drowning in Paperwork

Fleets who decide to do the work themselves find themselves drowning in paperwork. Interstate providers must deal with multiple tolling agencies, invoices, violations, and more. The maze becomes all-consuming and the amount of paperwork involved is mind-numbing. You need a way to support your staff and relieve the pressure valve of paperwork.

Adding insult to injury, approximately 3% of all electronic tolls result in a misread, and not disputing these misreads can lead to a bill that is up to 60% more than it should be. How much money are you throwing down the drain because of simple misreads? In the age of ever-decreasing margins, whatever it is, you can’t afford it.

By using a toll management provider, you not only save time and expenses by cutting down on administrative work related to managing multiple tolling accounts by consolidating all of them into a single bill, but you’ll have a more meaningful picture of toll usage across the entire fleet.

Tolling management providers typically provide their clients with consolidated billing, meaning that all tolling data is contained on a single, reconciled invoice. This cuts down on the paperwork burden, while flagging possible violations that can be better monitored and investigated to avoid paying for tolls that are, in fact, misreads, and just pay for the tolls your drivers actually incurred.

Avoiding the Transponder Shuffle

It’s not only having too many individual tolling accounts that can be overwhelming; juggling numerous, individual transponders can add to your administrative burdens. And it doesn’t matter if you’re a small, medium, or a large fleet. If you’re going it alone, you’re likely juggling a variety of tolling transponders.

Keeping track of this transponder data can be as confusing and overwhelming as handling the paperwork coming in from the tolling authority. By going it alone, you’ll need to stay on top of toll usage, and, more specifically, if the truck has the correct transponder(s) for its given route. This will apply particularly in cases of determining misreads and violations that go along with the transponder.

By using a toll management provider, you’ll likely have access to on-demand reporting, which will allow you to filter through all toll data by transponder, truck, state, day, and month. And with just a few clicks of a mouse, you’ll have the ability to assign, activate, and deactivate transponders.

Ensuring Stellar Customer Service

Having to deal with a tolling authority’s customer service portal can be frustrating and challenging. Some tolling authorities only have automated customer service, and mistakes can only be reconciled in person at a local office. This can be highly inconvenient for a fleet operation headquartered in another state.

The result: Wasted time and the potential for the payment of an unnecessary toll or violation. Using a toll management provider allows you to bypass this headache, by relying on the provider’s expertise and connections with the individual tolling authorities.

For example, many toll management providers are created in partnership with the municipalities in which they operate in. They understand the hardships and challenges fleets experience, particularly, in relation to tolling. You want a provider with industry knowledge that allows it to represent the fleet’s account with the agencies, making future issues easier and quicker to resolve without fleet personnel having to endure the headache by trying to manage it on its own.

Cashing in on Discounts

By managing their tolls on their own, small and even mid-size trucking companies miss out on the volume toll discounts that mega fleets with thousands of vehicles often receive. This is one of the clear advantages of using a tolling management provider. In addition to passing on transponder discounts, many tolling authorities will offer commercial fleets volume discounts based on frequency of travel or volume of the tolls.

For example, toll management systems give small and mid-size fleets access to the highest possible volume discounts, which many fleets would likely not qualify for on their own. These discounts, which are available in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and elsewhere, can top 20%.

While saving money on tolls directly is an attractive, bottom-line goal, improving overall efficiency should be your paramount aim when managing your fleet’s tolling needs, and this is the result of resolving these challenges head on with a tolling management provider.

While fleets of any size can manage tolls on their own, they’ll likely face serious headache-inducing inefficiencies that will waste precious administrative time and budgetary dollars. Turning to a tolling management provider will not only eliminate the headaches of inefficiency, but deliver the benefit of a streamlined, robust handling of your entire fleet’s tolling needs.

While there are several tolling management providers available to fleets today that will help your fleet better manage your tolling program, some are better than others. You want one that delivers a combination of four specific set of values that, taken together, to ensure you are handling the toll situation smoothly and by the numbers.

This combination of four benefits are comprised of:

Accuracy, consisting of:

  • Daily transaction audits.
  • Misread identification and correction.
  • Violation mitigation and processing.

Expertise, including:

  • Team of toll experts for all toll industry questions.
  • Valuable tools to empower toll data analysis.
  • Notification of industry updates that will impact your business.

Consolidation, delivering:

  • Simplified toll reporting with one account.
  • Single monthly statement, which facilitates easier toll transaction reconciliation.
  • Comprehensive toll data in one easy-to-access location.

Savings, including:

  • Back-office efficiency, allowing you to get back to your core business.
  • Highest possible discounts at all tolling facilities.
  • Reduced amount of money tied up in multiple toll deposits and bonds.

Rhode Island Defends Itself

Meanwhile, in New England, a lawyer for the state of Rhode Island had to defend the state’s tolling scheme to the First Circuit court of appeals, where a case currently stands against it. The case was being made that road tolls qualify as a tax. In this case, trucking companies would have to bring their lawsuit under a different jurisdiction.

The fact is, there has been a noticeable trend among states to move towards a highway tolling scheme aimed at trucking companies and other transportation providers. A study completed by Texas A&M University found that toll costs for trucking companies can often be 3 to 6 times higher than what passenger vehicle operators pay. Nor do toll roads benefit truck drivers.

While the jury is still out on exactly how tolls effect trucking companies, much of the anecdotal early evidence points to inordinate cost passed on to the truck drivers. One of the most noticeable effects of a toll increase on the interstate, is the increased costs of running products where they need to go. This cost has increased significantly. Truckers have seen this cost effect on trucking companies.

Fortunately, knowledgeable trucking companies can turn to technology for solutions. Toll management systems simply make your life a lot easier. Is it time to begin looking into implementing one for your trucking company?

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x
About QuickTSI

QuickTSI is your one-stop-shop for everything you need to run your transportation and freight logistics business. Our website allows you to post loads or find trucks, post trucks or find loads, look up carrier profiles, view trucking companies, find truck driving jobs, and DOT medical examiners.

Mailing Address

Quick Transport Solutions, Inc.
11501 Dublin Blvd. Suite 200
Dublin, CA 94568

Contact Us

510-887-9300
510-284-7280

Terms & Conditions    Privacy Policy

Cookie Policy    Content and Data Usage

© 2011-2024 Quick Transport Solutions Inc.