Purchasing SunPass?

[joelkfla]

Wondering about EZ pass mid Atlantic. Rumor has it we''ll be able to merge soon.

That's what I'm waiting for, but I think I'll end up buying the Sunpass.

Anybody know when they plan to merge?

The Feds say it has to working by October 2016, but SunPass still has not said that it will meet that deadline.

 

[Sue M]

We were charged the transponder fee for eight days when we rented through Budget in May, think it was something like $19.95 for the rental period, for use of the convenience of the transponder. Would absolutely do it again if traveling a lot on toll roads. We told them at the rental counter, then you flip the switch to on in the rental vehicle. The actual cost of the tolls was tracked by Sunpass and the cost of the transponder plus the cost of the tolls was billed separately by Budget to the credit card we gave Budget on file. It was SO WORTH it for convenience, would do it again. We use Easypass in the TriState Area, Turpike, Parkway, Bridges, etc and "gone" are the days for us fumbling for tolls and waiting in NON EASY PASS lanes.

I'm not sure I understand that? Budget charged you $19.95 to use one of their transponders? Plus tolls of course.

I just arrived last night, in So Fla, renting with Alamo. I finally decided to buy my own transponder. It was $19.95 at Publix and I'll have it for next trips. I should have done it years ago when they came out with the small portable transponder. We're here for 10 days before we drive up to WDW.
Unfortunately I can't get the App, my cell phone is Canadian, and we don't have the US App Store. But it was easy. I activated on the phone, and can go on their web site to sign in and manage acct.
I put $30 in my acct. you don't have to have the auto refil. You can add money at any time.

 

[jerseygal]

I'm not sure I understand that? Budget charged you $19.95 to use one of their transponders? Plus tolls of course.

I just arrived last night, in So Fla, renting with Alamo. I finally decided to buy my own transponder. It was $19.95 at Publix and I'll have it for next trips. I should have done it years ago when they came out with the small portable transponder. We're here for 10 days before we drive up to WDW.
Unfortunately I can't get the App, my cell phone is Canadian, and we don't have the US App Store. But it was easy. I activated on the phone, and can go on their web site to sign in and manage acct.
I put $30 in my acct. you don't have to have the auto refil. You can add money at any time.

This is the first time that we rented a transponder for a rental car. I will keep that in mind regarding just purchasing it and having it for the future. Now here's a further question, we have an "EASY PASS" that we use all over the tri state area mostly. I wonder if you can use that Easy Pass on the highways in Florida, or MUST it be through Sunpass, a transponder? When I read here that you must PURCHASE a transponder to use the Sunpass system it is different than Easypass. When you sign up for Easypass they send you FREE the Easypass device for each vehicle that you own. You ONLY pay for the toll use with Easypass, . INTERESTING!

 

[joelkfla]

This is the first time that we rented a transponder for a rental car. I will keep that in mind regarding just purchasing it and having it for the future. Now here's a further question, we have an "EASY PASS" that we use all over the tri state area mostly. I wonder if you can use that Easy Pass on the highways in Florida, or MUST it be through Sunpass, a transponder? When I read here that you must PURCHASE a transponder to use the Sunpass system it is different than Easypass. When you sign up for Easypass they send you FREE the Easypass device for each vehicle that you own. You ONLY pay for the toll use with Easypass, . INTERESTING!

Right now, only SunPass and local FL transponders (Epass, etc.), and transponders from a few other Southeastern states (I think GA & NC) work in FL.

BUT -- EZpass & SunPass are working on interoperability. As I said in the previous post, they're supposed to have it working by 10/1, but they haven't said yet that they will make that date. I would expect EZpass to be accepted in FL sometime within the next year, at the latest.

 

[jerseygal]

Right now, only SunPass and local FL transponders (Epass, etc.), and transponders from a few other Southeastern states (I think GA & NC) work in FL.

BUT -- EZpass & SunPass are working on interoperability. As I said in the previous post, they're supposed to have it working by 10/1, but they haven't said yet that they will make that date. I would expect EZpass to be accepted in FL sometime within the next year, at the latest.

Thanks for the info! HOPE SO!

 

[Sue M]

This is the first time that we rented a transponder for a rental car. I will keep that in mind regarding just purchasing it and having it for the future. Now here's a further question, we have an "EASY PASS" that we use all over the tri state area mostly. I wonder if you can use that Easy Pass on the highways in Florida, or MUST it be through Sunpass, a transponder? When I read here that you must PURCHASE a transponder to use the Sunpass system it is different than Easypass. When you sign up for Easypass they send you FREE the Easypass device for each vehicle that you own. You ONLY pay for the toll use with Easypass, . INTERESTING!

I see your Easy Pass question was answered! I think it's odd too about charging for a transponder. We don't have toll roads (yet) but do have bridge tolls and we don't have to pay for a transponder either. I don't know why Florida does. For residents the sticker is a lot cheaper than the portable unit.

If I was renting from Budget I'd def buy my own transponder. Budget is sort of a rip. Charging you the total cost of a transponder to rent it. Last time I looked at Budget (a few years ago) they also had an admin fee, and if you just went thru toll once, didn't matter, you were charged that admin fee daily for length of your rental. I hope since you rented their transponder they aren't charging you an admin fee on top of it.

I use Alamo. Previously, before I decided to buy transponder, Alamo does charge by plate. They don't have transponders in their cars. And you only pay the admin fee on the days you go thru tolls. I never knew about the difference in policies between Budget & Alamo. Being that my stays in Ft. Lauderdale area are generally 10 days, those extra fees from Budget really add up. I never use them anymore.

 

[jerseygal]

I see your Easy Pass question was answered! I think it's odd too about charging for a transponder. We don't have toll roads (yet) but do have bridge tolls and we don't have to pay for a transponder either. I don't know why Florida does. For residents the sticker is a lot cheaper than the portable unit.

If I was renting from Budget I'd def buy my own transponder. Budget is sort of a rip. Charging you the total cost of a transponder to rent it. Last time I looked at Budget (a few years ago) they also had an admin fee, and if you just went thru toll once, didn't matter, you were charged that admin fee daily for length of your rental. I hope since you rented their transponder they aren't charging you an admin fee on top of it.

I use Alamo. Previously, before I decided to buy transponder, Alamo does charge by plate. They don't have transponders in their cars. And you only pay the admin fee on the days you go thru tolls. I never knew about the difference in policies between Budget & Alamo. Being that my stays in Ft. Lauderdale area are generally 10 days, those extra fees from Budget really add up. I never use them anymore.

Interesting. Planning a Ft Lauderdale stay next May tentatively for a few days, then headed up to Disney Vero, one of our fav resorts to relax. Tentatively staying at the Ft Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach Resort..looks AWESOME, great reviews!

 

[Sue M]

Interesting. Planning a Ft Lauderdale stay next May tentatively for a few days, then headed up to Disney Vero, one of our fav resorts to relax. Tentatively staying at the Ft Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach Resort..looks AWESOME, great reviews!

It is!! We've stayed there and the Sheraton a few doors away. Take the water taxi, it's really a tour, they usually tell you about the area you're passing thru on the canals, and great sightseeing. It's a step on/off service. Highly recommend it. One of the stops is nearby at the Bahia Mar to get it.
We now stay a bit north in Deerfield beach. We're here for 10 days before we head up to Wdw. So I now get a place with a kitchen. And it's closer to my moms assisted living home.
Love the Marriott beach harbour, great choice.

 

[Hopefully]

Right now, only SunPass and local FL transponders (Epass, etc.), and transponders from a few other Southeastern states (I think GA & NC) work in FL.

BUT -- EZpass & SunPass are working on interoperability. As I said in the previous post, they're supposed to have it working by 10/1, but they haven't said yet that they will make that date. I would expect EZpass to be accepted in FL sometime within the next year, at the latest.

Do you know whether FastPass from Mass is working with SunPass and Florida? I know they do not work yet, but wondering if it is in the plans
Just got my free FastPass Transponder yesterday. MA is moving toward cashless, higher cost if you are billed, tolls as well. The transponder was free. The literature that accompanies it says it only goes as far as North Carolina right now. Wondering about the future.

 

[Capt_BJ]

July 2015

By Glenn Garvin

Miami Herald

By the middle of next year, Florida’s prepaid SunPass electronic toll device will be accepted throughout a wide swath of the southeastern United States, allowing a driver to travel most toll roads from Texas to South Carolina without ever getting out of their cars or slowing down to toss coins in a box.

“We are really making progress on this,” said Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti, executive director and CEO of the Florida Turnpike, during a Tuesday presentation at a meeting of nearly 600 toll-road operators in downtown Miami’s InterContinental Hotel.


Florida already has reciprocal deals with Georgia and North Carolina that allow SunPass to be accepted on their toll roads, while those states’ electronic tolling devices are good here. Testing of transponders is already under way to add South Carolina to the mix, Gutierrez-Scaccetti said, and Texas and Alabama are expected to come on board next year.

Expanding SunPass’ reach will only increase its booming business, she added. Despite pockets of fierce resistance to newer, passive transponders that pay tolls without much fanfare — people “get a little nervous when they get a transponder that makes no noise telling them they’ve paid,” Gutierrez-Scaccetti said — 100,000 new SunPasses are sold every month.

“We don’t understand where all the people are coming from,” she said. One possibility: Canada. The SunPass is now on sale at the Thousand Islands Bridge border crossing that connects southeastern Canada to upstate New York.


Florida’s new compatibility agreements with other states are part of a nationwide rush for national compatibility of electronic tolling devices mandated by Congress in a 2012 transportation appropriation. Congress set a deadline of 2016 for what’s known in the industry as “interoperability.”

And although almost nobody thinks the deadline will be met, it was clear at the three-day convention of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association that ended Tuesday that the 35 states and territories that operate toll roads are charging ahead hard.

The most dramatic gains have been for the E-ZPass, a tolling device that is now used in 15 northeastern states and is about to add Kentucky. That’s a giant leap for a system that started out linking seven neighboring bridges and roads in a small region that extended across the borders of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The decision to go to a common tolling system wasn’t some utopian desire for a universal American culture, said P.J. Wilkins, executive director of the E-ZPass Group, but a simple recognition that some drivers in the area could barely see through all the toll-related stickers and transponders on their windshields.


“You could have a driver ... who needed three of them or four of them or six or seven,” Wilkins said.

The expansion of toll reciprocity has come despite major technological hurdles. Three different tolling systems are in wide use across the country, and making them compatible with one another has been a challenge — especially since they have to be perfectly compatible.

E-ZPass takes in $10 billion in tolls a year, noted Wilkins. “If you lose one-tenth of 1 percent of that, that’s a whole lot of unhappy customers,” he said.

The challenges of compatibility go beyond the transponders and license-plate scanners into bookkeeping and other business practices, which often differ wildly from state to state. “The computer part is the easy side,” said David Machamer, assistant executive director of the Oklahoma turnpike authority. “It’s the business practices” that really complicate the process.


Bridging alien business cultures can be so difficult that Gutierrez-Scaccetti — who worked for the New Jersey Turnpike authority before moving south — unveiled a new T-shirt. INTEROPERABILITY MEANS ALL, Y’ALL, it says on the front. On the back: AND THAT MEANS YOUSE GUYS TOO.

 

[joelkfla]

Do you know whether FastPass from Mass is working with SunPass and Florida? I know they do not work yet, but wondering if it is in the plans
Just got my free FastPass Transponder yesterday. MA is moving toward cashless, higher cost if you are billed, tolls as well. The transponder was free. The literature that accompanies it says it only goes as far as North Carolina right now. Wondering about the future.

The plans are to have all transponders from anywhere work everywhere, which was supposed to happen by 10/1/16, but when it will actually happen is anybody's guess.

If they're telling you it works as far as NC, then it must be part of the EZpass system, so it should work in FL when we get EZpass interoperability.

 

[joelkfla]

July 2015

By Glenn Garvin

Miami Herald

By the middle of next year, Florida’s prepaid SunPass electronic toll device will be accepted throughout a wide swath of the southeastern United States, allowing a driver to travel most toll roads from Texas to South Carolina without ever getting out of their cars or slowing down to toss coins in a box.

Well, it's the middle of next year, and we still haven't gotten past those 1st 2 states.

 

[Hopefully]

The plans are to have all transponders from anywhere work everywhere, which was supposed to happen by 10/1/16, but when it will actually happen is anybody's guess.

If they're telling you it works as far as NC, then it must be part of the EZpass system, so it should work in FL when we get EZpass interoperability.

Thank you joelkfla!!!
So is everywhere south of NC part of the EZPass system? Trying to insure I understand.
We are thinking of driving from MA to FLA next year.

 

[joelkfla]

Thank you joelkfla!!!
So is everywhere south of NC part of the EZPass system? Trying to insure I understand.
We are thinking of driving from MA to FLA next year.

No, everything from NC northward and IL eastward is. FL, SC, GA, & AL are not. Here's a map.

Everything might be working together by the time of your trip. If not, SunPass will take care of FL & GA.

 

[Hisgirl]

I shared this on here before, but just wanted to give yall a heads up. For our April trip, we were super careful to ONLY drive through the cash only lane and pay with quarters. We even took photos as we did this, got a receipt etc because we have gotten letters in the mail after returning home, saying we had missed a toll, when we knew we had paid each time.

So once again, after returning from our WDW trip, we got a charge saying we had skipped several tolls. We KNEW this was false. I called and asked for the specific toll locations and did some research on a map. EVERY SINGLE TOLL I SUPPOSEDLY MISSED WAS IN MIAMI AND I WAS IN ORLANDO.
So heads up. Be diligent!

 

[jekjones1558]

I am totally confused. We were last at WDW in March and just used the 2 toll booths each way on 417 from MCO to International Drive exit. I have had trouble with the "throw in your quarters" lane in the past, which is why we go to the booth. I have not seen a need to buy a Sunpass, since the only toll road we use is 417 to and from our resort ($3.00 each way). Are there no longer toll booths with attendants? We will be returning in January. Will there be booths with attendants then?

 

[KrazeeK120]

I am totally confused. We were last at WDW in March and just used the 2 toll booths each way on 417 from MCO to International Drive exit. I have had trouble with the "throw in your quarters" lane in the past, which is why we go to the booth. I have not seen a need to buy a Sunpass, since the only toll road we use is 417 to and from our resort ($3.00 each way). Are there no longer toll booths with attendants? We will be returning in January. Will there be booths with attendants then?

There are toll booths with attendants...now. From what I understand, many tollbooths will be cashless/unmanned at some point in the future, however.

 

[Geoff_M]

Also the Turnpike rest stops sell them too.

Just an FYi to those thinking about picking up a transponder at a service area along the way, when I've looked into doing this I've found that the toll road authorities usually stated that it may take several hours after you activate a newly purchased transponder before it can be used. Additionally, they (E-ZPass for example) say that you also need to allow a few days before your transponder will be recognized by other toll roads and/or in other states that are part of their system.

I just ordered an I-Pass (E-ZPass) from Illinois (because they don't hit you with a monthly fee) because I can never remember to buy one in advance when we go to Chicago or Wisconsin. It's good to hear that Florida might be joining the same network soon.

 

[Fire14]

Just an FYi to those thinking about picking up a transponder at a service area along the way, when I've looked into doing this I've found that the toll road authorities usually stated that it may take several hours after you activate a newly purchased transponder before it can be used. Additionally, they (E-ZPass for example) say that you also need to allow a few days before your transponder will be recognized by other toll roads and/or in other states that are part of their system.

I just ordered an I-Pass (E-ZPass) from Illinois (because they don't hit you with a monthly fee) because I can never remember to buy one in advance when we go to Chicago or Wisconsin. It's good to hear that Florida might be joining the same network soon.

do you happen to have I pass Website? I need to get off my butt and order one for Il trips. Be great if works on Oh and IN toll rd also but those are not PITA IL is.

 

[Geoff_M]

do you happen to have I pass Website? I need to get off my butt and order one for Il trips. Be great if works on Oh and IN toll rd also but those are not PITA IL is.

I-Pass DOES work in Indiana and Ohio... and the rest of the E-ZPass states. I drove to Gettysburg a couple of years ago and borrowed an I-Pass from a friend (who added my car to his account), and it works just fine in Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania... and I saved a bunch on tolls!

Here's the link to start the ordering process: LINK
Note: Don't wait too long to try and respond to the order link they send you, I waited until the next day and the personal link they sent me the previous day was expired... trying the process again with the same e-mail doesn't fix the expiration!