E-ZPass license plate reader incorrectly sends bill to wrong driver

    BALTIMORE (WMAR) -- A driver couldn't renew her registration because she owed over $1,400 in tolls, except the violations belong to someone else.

On paper, Kasheita Turner is a chronic toll violator. In reality, she hardly ever takes a toll road.

“I don't even live near a toll road. My job is literally 30 minutes away, it's in Rosedale. There are no tolls to get to Rosedale, Maryland at all,” said Turner.

And yet, she discovered she owed $1,481 in overdue tolls including $1,175 in civil penalties, preventing her from renewing her expired registration because of a toll flag.

“I noticed that the license plate was not my license plate. So, my three letters are ‘6EA’, and they were telling me that I owed tolls for a license plate [starting with] ‘6FA,’” Turner said.

This problem dates back to 2021. The first time, she called customer service and was able to get the tolls cleared, but in January 2024 she asked WMAR-2 News Mallory Sofastaii for assistance.

“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 recalled.

But it did happen again. And for the past several weeks, she’s tried sorting it out with E-ZPass customer service.

“The first time I called it was on Tuesday, the wait time was 68 minutes. So, I said, ‘Okay, I'm going to call you guys back.’ I called back, it was 93 minutes. Okay, call two days later. The wait time was an hour and six minutes,” said Turner.

During the interview, Turner attempted to call again. The wait time was 48 minutes. She also mentioned that she had selected the callback option but never received a return call.

“It's almost like it's a part time job, trying to call these people and getting the situation in order,” said Turner.

Once more, she contacted Sofastaii, who then reached out to the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA). Within a day, the incorrect toll charges were cleared, enabling Turner to renew her registration.

Sofastaii also asked the MDTA how this is happening and how often. In an email, a spokesperson replied:

“If a license plate has an alpha/numeric sequence that is mistaken for another license plate, we will add the plate to our exceptions list. We conduct checks, on an ongoing basis, to intercept any transactions and transfer the transactions to the correct license plate.”

Currently, there are around 777 accounts on this exceptions list.

The MDTA is still researching why this process didn’t work for Turner. This article will be updated with their response. And the spokesperson added that their lane-side vendor operates with a 99.8% accuracy rate when identifying license plates on two-axle vehicles traveling on MDTA facilities.

When questioned about the frequency of these mix-ups, the MDTA stated they do not track the number of disputes linked to 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,” Turner commented.

Turner remains skeptical that the issue will be permanently resolved, and she isn’t alone in her frustrations regarding the difficulties in renewing registration.

As of January 8, nearly 89,000 drivers faced toll flags.

Sofastaii asked the MDTA why they don’t issue multiple notices of overdue tolls to help drivers avoid penalties driving up outstanding toll debt. They said they’re required to send one notice and then drivers have 30 days to pay before they’re assessed a $25 penalty per toll.

“The fact that we have to go to our senators, we have to go to you, we have to go to outsiders to get a response for issues that could, you know, they could put us in collections. It stops us from renewing our vehicles. That's kind of ridiculous, and it’s not fair,” said Turner.

The MDTA also shared that their average wait time to speak with an E-ZPass customer service agent is 40 seconds; however, wait times have increased due to a surge in calls related to a text message scam claiming drivers have unpaid tolls.

Currently, they are handling over 500 calls daily concerning this issue alone, and the MDTA noted that call wait times can fluctuate. Mondays are their busiest day.