National and Tolls?

[rimomma66]

Hi All-
I know that if you rent from National at MCO, you pay the daily and the tolls through them. BUT, does it work the same renting in oh, say, Rhode Island and driving to FL and driving around Orlando? Will the transponder they give me here work in FL because I know our EZ Pass doesn't?
Thanks!!

 

[bumbershoot]

I don't the answer to your question.

But "I know that if you rent from National at MCO, you pay the daily and the tolls through them"....in case you don't know, you don't *have to* do this. You can just pay the tolls in cash if you'd like, assuming you're staying around the Orlando region (not going to Miami on the turnpike, for example, where they have no cash lanes).

 

[OKW Lover]

Hi All-
I know that if you rent from National at MCO, you pay the daily and the tolls through them. BUT, does it work the same renting in oh, say, Rhode Island and driving to FL and driving around Orlando? Will the transponder they give me here work in FL because I know our EZ Pass doesn't?
Thanks!!

Your RI (or other northeast state) transponder will not work in FL.

Also, as the PP noted, you do not have to pay tolls through National when you rent at MCO. You can simply stop at the cash lanes on the toll roads in Orlando.

 

[rimomma66]

Your RI (or other northeast state) transponder will not work in FL.

Also, as the PP noted, you do not have to pay tolls through National when you rent at MCO. You can simply stop at the cash lanes on the toll roads in Orlando.

Thanks!!
I know my EZ Pass won't work, but I wasn't sure if National had some different "all systems" transponder that came with all of their cars since I'm renting in RI and driving down. Oh well, stopping and plunking change it is!

 

[Lewisc]

Your RI (or other northeast state) transponder will not work in FL.

Also, as the PP noted, you do not have to pay tolls through National when you rent at MCO. You can simply stop at the cash lanes on the toll roads in Orlando.

Thanks!!
I know my EZ Pass won't work, but I wasn't sure if National had some different "all systems" transponder that came with all of their cars since I'm renting in RI and driving down. Oh well, stopping and plunking change it is!

An EZ Pass transponder won't work in FL. Rental agencies do have the equivalent of "most systems" transponder. Rental agencies use something called platepass. Cameras read the license plate number which is used to bill the rental agencies. The expense of such a system is, at least one, reason why the rental agencies charge a service fee.

 

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

An EZ Pass transponder won't work in FL. Rental agencies do have the equivalent of "most systems" transponder. Rental agencies use something called platepass. Cameras read the license plate number which is used to bill the rental agencies.

Some rental car agencies rely on PlatePass for toll billing but some rental car companies actually put a SunPass transponder (in Florida) in the rental car. So theoretically someone who rents a car in RI and drives to Florida with a rental car using the PlatePass system could go through all tolls and properly get billed later even in FL while someone in a RI rental car that has an EZ-Pass transponder in it could use it throughout the northeast at EZ-Pass system tolls but not use it in Florida because the tolls would not register.

BobK/Orlando

 

[AlexDurrani]

A number of toll agencies like our HCTRA here in Houston give account holders the ability to add temp cars based on their plates to their account. This helped me when I bought my new car. I use the toll roads here in Houston extensively to get to and from work everyday and a lot of the ones i use are EZ-Tag only roads where cash is not accepted. The cost really isn't high enough to justify the service fees that the rental car companies tack on for this convenience. That being said I use the service to make my travels a lot easier.

 

[rimomma66]

Thanks. I finally broke down and called the local National desk and they said the ones they have are EZ Pass, so I won't bother since I already have my own. I'll just have to take some change to FL with me!

 

[pinkibekki]

Watch out for those tolls going down and back. We drove to Virginia (from NH) a few months ago and it ended up costing us almost $70 in tolls RT! Thank goodness we have ez-pass. It was $8 to get out of MD going north and then DE hits you with another $4 to get in there! Most of the tolls now are dollars not change ;-)