Audit reveals late bills, improper charges, duplicate billing impacted thousands at Maryland tolls
BALTIMORE - The Maryland Transportation Authority is working to find out how thousands of drivers have been overcharged at Maryland toll facilities.
A new state report shows more than 82,000 customers were potentially overcharged for using one or more of Maryland's toll facilities.
The audit revealed those drivers received late bills, improper charges and duplicate billing.
There are nine toll collection sites across Maryland and they have been cashless for more than three years.
But, according to the audit, it has caused processing problems.
Lisa Quintanal told WJZ she has more than $1,000 in unpaid tolls because her bill was sent to her months late.
"It took two years before I received a packet in the mail," Quintanal said.
Quintanal is one of thousands who had delayed bills and were overcharged at Maryland toll facilities.
Results in this month's legislative audit shows that nearly 83,000 drivers were affected.
The audit is the result of dozens of drivers reporting problems to the state's fraud hotline.
"It never ends. It's always money, money, money, money," Quintanal said.
The report shows about $645,000 of potentially faulty charges.
The majority of those questionable transactions were at three toll sites—the Intercounty Connector, Bay Bridge, and Fort McHenry Tunnel.
But, at the Hatem Memorial Bridge connecting Harford and Cecil Counties, the audit identified more than a $500,000 in potentially improper toll charges for those on the $20 per year discount plan, wrongly charging some customers wrongly over and over again.
"Based on our data analysis, we identified approximately $435,000 in potentially improper toll charges related to 10,474 Thomas J. Hatem Memorial Bridge discount plan customers that warrant further follow-up by MDTA," the report states. "Under the discount plan, customers pay $20 annually for unlimited trips by a two-axle vehicle and should not be charged tolls if the vehicle has a properly mounted E-ZPass transponder."
MDTA told WJZ that an equipment problem at the Hatem Bridge has been fixed and all the transactions flagged by the Office of Legislative Audits have been credited.
Many of the inaccurate toll charges occurred over the first holiday season during the pandemic-between Dec. 24, 2020, to Jan. 15, 2021, according to the analysis.
During that time period, 4,465 customers were charged 7,813 tolls totaling $62,595, per the report.
"Based on our review of the related vehicle images taken by tolling cameras for 37 judgmentally selected tolls during the spike period, we believe MDTA should have dismissed 25 of these tolls relating to 23 customers since the vehicle images showed a properly mounted transponder or the image was insufficient to determine if the transponder was properly mounted," the report states. "For 11 of those 25 tolls where the photographic image was insufficient to determine if a transponder was properly mounted, since the license plate number was associated with the E-ZPass account we believe the burden should have been on MDTA to prove user error by a discount plan customer before charging a toll."
MDTA told Maryland lawmakers it disagrees these issues are part of a larger problem, saying it identified 15 overcharges over a four-day period at the Fort McHenry Tunnel and the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
Of the 230,000 transactions, that reflects an error rate of less than .0001 percent.
"They need to change it back the way it was, not this video tolling," Quintanal said.MDTA did not accept WJZ's request for an interview Thursday, but provided a statement, reading in part, "While the special review included no formal recommendations, the MDTA described several measures to the Office of Legislative Audits that effectively address the findings. If any of our customers ever has a question about their account, please reach out to us at 1-888-321-6824 or visit our customer service centers so we can research your questions and provide customer assistance."
For a list of E-ZPass Maryland Customer Service locations, click here: https://driveezmd.com/contact-us/.
