Four months after tolls removed, drivers owe millions in unpaid bills
Just over four months have passed since the provincial government made it free to cross the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges, but drivers still owe more than $40 million in unpaid tolls.
Following through on an election promise, tolls were removed from the bridges on Sept. 1, with the goal of promoting fairness for people living south of the Fraser River.
Although tolls were no longer charged after midnight that day, Transportation Investment Corp. (TI Corp.), which oversees the Port Mann, and TransLink, which owns the Golden Ears, were left to collect about $75 million in outstanding bills.
The Port Mann Bridge has generated more than $500 million in toll revenue since it opened in 2012, with a recovery rate of 98 per cent. At the beginning of September, about $45 million was outstanding, and TI Corp. had collected about half of that by the end of December.
“Since the start of tolling, the vast majority of drivers have always paid their tolls, and they continued to pay their tolls,” said Greg Johnson, spokesman for TI Corp.
Since the Golden Ears Bridge opened in June 2009, TransLink has collected $308 million in tolls. Its collection rate is more than 96 per cent. When tolls were removed, about $30 million was owed to the transit authority. Over the last four months, it has collected more than $10 million of what is owed.
TI Corp. has reduced its operations significantly since tolls were removed. When tolling was in place, there were two walk-in centres in Coquitlam and Surrey, and a full call centre. Since Sept. 1, the walkin centres have been closed and call centre hours have been reduced.
The walk-in centre in Coquitlam was housed in a building owned by the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, but the stand-alone building in Surrey is vacant and TI Corp. is working with the province to determine how to use the space.
Treo, which collected tolls for the Port Mann, previously employed about 100 people. There are now 15 employees remaining, collecting payments and issuing refunds. Johnson said it’s unclear what will happen to those employees once all tolls have been collected.
Johnson said the call centre takes about 600 calls per day, all of which are about toll payment.
TransLink has also scaled back its contract with Quickpass, the service used for electronic tolling on the Golden Ears, but is still using the service to collect outstanding tolls and close accounts.
There are some serious consequences for being a scofflaw, in addition to interest charges.
Customers with unpaid tolls may have payment enforced by a Refusal to Issue (RTI), which means that if they go to renew their driver’s licence or car insurance, they will have to pay the outstanding tolls first. In the case of Treo bills, a $20 RTI fee is applicable.
Johnson said RTIs should be on all accounts that remain unpaid at the end of January. Those who used the Golden Ears Bridge are hit with an RTI when their balance is more than 120 days overdue.
According to the latest statistics from TI Corp. and TransLink, the number of vehicles crossing the two bridges has continued to climb since tolls were removed.
On the Port Mann, from Sept. 1 to Dec. 31, 17.24 million vehicles crossed the bridge, up 32 per cent from the 13.02 million that crossed during that time period in 2016. The month so far with the highest increase was December — 37 per cent more vehicles crossed the bridge than December 2016.
Golden Ears Bridge crossings for the last four months of 2017 are up 30 per cent over the previous year. The month with the highest increase in crossings was October (33 per cent), when 1.52 million vehicles used the bridge compared to 1.14 million in October 2016.