Toll Booth Efficiency - E-ZPass

Chase Manhattan Bank is running the service center for an automated toll service operating at multiple locations in the New York City area.

The E-ZPass Customer Service Center is now open. It will provide marketing, account administration, customer service, and transaction processing for, and daily payment to, the five toll authorities that make up the consortium running the program.

E-ZPass offers the frustrated drivers of the New Jersey/New York/Delaware area an easy and quick way to get through the many tollbooths the region faces. Consumers who buy the pass open a pre-paid account and get a tag they stick in their rear windows. Instead of stopping to pay a live operator or throw coins at a machine, they simply drive through special gates. The tag has a small, electronic device that transmits information as a driver passes through the gates. The toll is paid instantly and charged to the driver's account.

The E-ZPass accounts themselves can be paid by credit card, cash or check. Accounts paid by credit card automatically replenish as funds get low. Accounts paid by cash or check trigger a warning at the gate when funds are getting low.

The pass is good at 20 major bridges or tunnels and several entrances to thruways, and more locations are planned in the Northeastern United States.

Copyright © 1999 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 9, No. 1, 1/99