There are certain risks to consider with a rental. Renting a car seat along with a rented car, for instance, can be a bad decision. Another hidden danger you may not have considered is that toll charges and tickets from cameras can cost significantly more when you’re driving a rental.
According to The Washington Post in 2022, the co-founder of car rental company Kyte, Ludwig Schoenack, has declared that “historically, tolls have been a profit center for car rental companies.” One reason for this is that a rented vehicle often uses a rented transponder. There’s a charge for that, and then, of course, the toll itself must be paid. Different rental companies offer different services and methods of doing so. Hertz’s PlatePass All-Inclusive Tolling service is pre-paid for each day of the rental and available in 25 U.S. states, including Florida, California, and Washington State. Hertz notes that drivers who don’t register for PlatePass, or who use toll roads outside the program, may be charged administrative fees, on top of the highest applicable toll charges.
It’s critical, then, to be fully familiar with the policies of your rental company and any toll roads you may cover on your journey, to avoid unpleasant and expensive surprises. Enterprise warns, “You are responsible for all costs, fines, violations, and tolls, as well as an administrative fee we charge for processing and billing.” This also means that should you get a traffic camera ticket, it’s often not just the fine you’ll be paying. In the case of Avisa $20 admin fee is charged for processing parking or traffic tickets, meaning that a fine that would’ve been a round $100 (for example) is suddenly 20% more.
How additional traffic camera charges may be applied
Traffic cameras automatically capture shots of offending vehicles. In the case of a rented car, the rental company will be identified as the registered owner of the car. The driver bears the ultimate responsibility for paying the fine, but how this is handled depends on the company used and the location of the offense.
Enterprisefor instance, notes that “a municipality or toll road authority” sends it, as the owner, details of a violation or toll charge (usually electronically-only because it’s faster than physical tickets). Some areas allow Enterprise to officially transfer liability, so the driver can pay the relevant body as they would if they’d been driving their own vehicle at the time. In such cases, Enterprise adds, “our standard administrative fee still applies.” A possible delay in receipt of this notice from a rental company could result in its arrival after the driver has already paid the body that issued it, in which case the driver can complete a proof of payment form from some providers.
When renting a vehicle, it’s possible to avoid some of the additional costs beyond paying directly before the rental company sends its own bill. If you have your own E-ZPass Transponder, you may be able to use it with the vehicle and thereby avoid using TollPass Service. This can be important because Alamo notes that the service itself costs $4.95 daily, capped at $34.65. The longer you intend to drive a vehicle and the more potential tolls there may be on your route, the more critical it becomes to understand these additional costs. There are certain things you need to do before renting a car, and this is one of them.
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