E-ZPass volume discounts for truckers offered by Penn Pike NOT a racket - COUNTERPOINT

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is getting a bum rap on one of the counts against it in the sensational lawsuit (see http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/4553) by Ralph Bailets, the Turnpike's former financial manager - the progressive volume discounts for truckers for E-ZPass.  Bailets' view of the trucker discounts looks to be a narrow accountant's perspective on what is a more complex, mutually beneficial - and defensible - program.

William 'Bill' Joyce, a longtime head of the New York State Motor Truck Association (NYSMTA), currently an independent consultant on trucking and tolls, tells us he's happy to take some credit as the author of this program, which he points out has been embraced by many toll authorities, not just the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Joyce did a lot to shape the program for progressive volume discounts for truckers, and he says, it arose out of many discussions with the late John Platt between about 2000 and 2005.

Both living and officed in the Albany NY area they did a lot of the devising the truck volume discount program for E-ZPass over breakfasts together, Joyce tells us. Platt was executive director of the New York State Thruway Authority, and then of the E-ZPass Inter Agency Group.

Joyce, who left NYSMTA in 2008 says both he and Platt approached the E-ZPass trucking discount program on the basis that it had to be beneficial to both the toll authorities and truckers, or it wouldn't fly.

Also, he says, the program had to be open to all - no special favors for anyone - or it couldn't be sustained politically.

Joyce says his trucking association never made any political contributions in Pennsylvania: "There were NO political contributions made by BESTPASS (the NYSMTA volume discount brandname) by myself or anyone on staff to anyone in Pennsylvania."

He says there were also no political contributions in Ohio, Maryland or New Jersey either associated with truck discount programs: "Any demands would have been out of line and a deal-breaker for us."

In New York the association had a political action committee predating Joyce's time, and which continues. It does lobby in New York state but Joyce doesn't think it pursued any quid pro quos.

He says the volume discount program was, and is, a key to getting high usage of E-ZPass by truckers. Without larger organizations taking on the marketing and customer service functions of E-ZPass large numbers of truckers would never have signed up, he argues.

The volume discount program for E-ZPass was not new in principle. There had been volume discounts pre-electronic tolling with "chargeplates."

The large organizations like his trucking association were able to reach truckers and push E-ZPass in a way no toll agency could. They had the resources to do bonding agreements, design reports and billing to suit truckers, and were able to offer toll account management to truckers as part of a package with fuel taxes and other non-toll services.

A number of medium sized trucking companies who could have got volume toll discounts on their own account valued the bundling of services by the NYSMTA that they stuck with the association's BESTPASS program.

The volume discount program was devised in large part to advance interoperability. It was promoted in New York State, at least, with weigh station bypass services and tolls bundled, and the use of a "Fusion" dual mode transponder that worked with both ASTMv6 for weigh stations nationwide, and IAG protocol for E-ZPass tolling.

Joyce says that the major users of truck volume discount programs are NYSMTA under the brand BESTPASS, PRE-PASS which was started for weigh station bypass, and a number of big truck leasing companies such as Penske and Ryder. He's sure the discount programs allow the toll authorities to efficiently outsource parts of their programs, reduce their costs and bring a lot of trucks into electronic tolling that wouldn't be there otherwise.

That makes Ralph Bailets' complaint on the trucking discounts invalid, he argues - persuasively for us.

see http://www.nytrucks.org/

http://www.bestpass.com/home/

NOTE: Will Joyce says the photo above left is a bit old. 1970 or 1980?

TOLLROADSnews 2010-02-03