Have you avoided payming your New York State Thruway tolls? If so, get ready to be stopped by Troopers and be banned from the road. The jig is up!
There are 570 miles of NYS Thruway between Buffalo and New York City and if you are a serial toll evader get ready to be banned – maybe even have your vehicle impounded.
The Thruway Authority adopted a new rule addressing serial toll evaders that will be enforced by New York State Troopers using license plate readers.
Jennifer Givner, Chief Media and Government Relations Officer for the NYS Thruway said, “The vast majority of regular passenger vehicle users of the Thruway pay their tolls. These new enforcement measures are aimed at serial toll evaders.”
Exclusion of Vehicles from Thruway System for Non-Compliance’ rule states: Vehicles violating any of the rules and regulations of the Thruway Authority, as well as other vehicles or vehicle types owned or operated by the owner and/or operator of such vehicles or types, may be excluded from the Thruway system permanently or for a specified time.
Senator Dean Murray (R,C) weighed in saying “I'm happy to see them taking affirmative action to address the problem. The Thruway Authority is losing $40 million per year. The MTA loses exponentially more. Whether it's toll evaders or fair evaders, the system is losing hundreds of millions a year.”
The theft of services from Thruway and MTA toll evaders adds up to real money. MTA loses approximately $700 million a year to fare evaders and the Thruway Authority loses between $35-55 million a year.
“I'm happy that they're taking this action to target the violators rather than what happens most of the time, which is, they calculate their losses then raise the tolls/fares. That hits law-abiding citizens even harder taking more out of their pockets to make up for what the Authorities are losing. All that does is punish those that are doing it right,” said Murray. “I'm glad they're taking the right approach by focusing on those who are violating the rules and are trying to get away with it.”
“This is a very new provision for us at the Thruway, this is part of what's called the Tolls by Mail Enhancement Act that was just adopted after a public process, it was adopted at the end of December. The exclusion process is new for us and violators will be excluded at the Thruway Authority's discretion,” says Givner. “
What drivers may not realize is that right now if you do not pay three toll bills within five years, there is a regulation that allows for your registration to be suspended.
If you are pulled over anywhere in New York State with a suspended registration it’s at law enforcement's discretion, whether it's state police or local law enforcement, they have the discretion to impound your vehicle.
When asked what the exclusion process could look like Givner said, “I don't want to go into all the details right now, but I want to ensure you on the record that we are closely monitoring out-of-state trucking companies, out-of-state motorists, all of our motorists in terms of egregious toll violators, and we have programs in place and in the works to address these egregious violators.”
Murray said, “If the Thruway Authority needs any kind of legislative action to make the enforcement logistics work, I'm more than happy to help them. This is the right approach. It sends the right message to law-abiding New Yorkers.”
Some of the largest toll evaders are commercial trucking companies – one from Montreal Canada owes over $500,000. Most serial evaders are out of state drivers and many are from New Jersey and Connecticut. Out of state toll evaders have accumulated over $120 million in unpaid tolls.