A driver couldn’t renew her registration because she owed more than $1,400 in tolls, but the violations belonged to someone else.
Kasheita Turner is a habitual toll violator. In reality, she rarely takes toll roads.
“I do not even live near a toll road. My job is literally 30 minutes away, in Rosedale. “There are no tolls to get to Rosedale, Maryland,” Turner explained.
However, she discovered that she owed $1,481 in overdue tolls, including $1,175 in civil penalties, which prevented her from renewing her expired registration due to a toll flag.
“I noticed that the license plate wasn’t mine. So, my three letters are ‘6EA’, and they told me I owed tolls for a license plate [beginning with] ‘6FA,'” Turner explained.
This problem dates back to 2021. She initially called customer service and was able to clear the tolls, but in January 2024, she sought assistance from WMAR-2 News Mallory Sofastaii.
“Once I reached out to you, then it got taken care of, and they told me that they had put controls in place where I would be put on a special list to catch this so it wouldn’t happen again,” Turner told me.
But it happened again. And for the past few weeks, she has attempted to resolve the issue with E-ZPass customer service.
“The first time I called was on Tuesday, and the wait time was 68 minutes. So I said, ‘Okay, I’ll call you guys back.’ I called back, and it had been 93 minutes. Okay, make a call two days later. “The wait time was an hour and six minutes,” Turner stated. During the interview, Turner tried to call again. The wait was 48 minutes. She also stated that she had requested a callback but had not received one.
“It’s almost like it’s a part time job, trying to call these people and getting the situation in order,” Turner told me.
She contacted Sofastaii again, and he then contacted the Maryland Transportation Authority. Within a day, the incorrect toll charges were cleared, allowing Turner to renew her registration.
Sofastaii also inquired with the MDTA about how and how frequently this occurs. In an email, a spokesperson responded
“If a license plate’s alpha/numeric sequence is mistaken for another, we will add it to our exceptions list. We conduct ongoing checks to intercept and transfer transactions to the correct license plate.”
Currently, this exceptions list contains approximately 777 accounts.
The MDTA is still looking into why this process did not work for Turner. This article will be updated once they respond. The spokesperson also stated that their lane-side vendor has a 99.8% accuracy rate when identifying license plates on two-axle vehicles traveling through MDTA facilities.
When asked about the frequency of these mix-ups, the MDTA stated that they do not track the number of disputes involving E/F license plates. “The fact that AI can impersonate a celebrity, yet you guys can’t see the difference between an E and an F, it’s kind of alarming,” Tucker said.
Turner remains skeptical that the problem will be permanently resolved, and she isn’t alone in her dissatisfaction with the difficulties in renewing registration.
As of January 8, nearly 89,000 drivers were facing tolls.
Sofastaii asked the MDTA why they don’t send out multiple notices of overdue tolls to help drivers avoid penalties that drive up outstanding toll debt. They stated that they are required to send one notice, and drivers have 30 days to pay before being assessed a $25 penalty per toll.
“The fact that we have to go to our senators, you, and outsiders to get a response on issues that could, you know, land us in collections. It prevents us from renewing our vehicles. “That’s ridiculous and unfair,” Turner said.
The MDTA also stated that the average wait time to speak with an E-ZPass customer service agent is 40 seconds; however, wait times have increased due to a spike in calls related to a text message scam claiming drivers owe unpaid tolls.
Currently, they are handling over 500 calls per day regarding this issue alone, and the MDTA stated that call wait times can vary. Monday is their busiest day.
