“E-Zing” the Way for Business Travelers

Many of us have taken advantage of the “E-ZPass” (also Fast Lane, FasTrak, Sun Pass, etc., depending on where in the country you live), to help ease the hassles of highway toll booths and the inevitable traffic back-ups they cause. In case you’re not familiar with these types of passes, they are pre-paid toll passes that have an electronic sensor and typically attach to the windshield of your vehicle. They enable you to slow down and pass through a specified toll lane without having to stop; the sensor reads your pass, and deducts the amount of the toll from your account. The E-ZPass started in New York in 1993, and now services much of the northeast, with other versions available throughout the United States (I-Pass in Illinois, SunPass in California, etc.). Electronic toll passes enable travelers to save valuable minutes, and sometime hours, by eliminating or substantially reducing toll-booth traffic. Many passes are in fact movable from one vehicle to another—so a family need only have one, provided you remember to take it with you in whichever vehicle you are using. However, they still only work regionally, and therefore many business travelers have experienced the frustration of flying across the country, driving a rental car, and sitting in toll-booth traffic. Now, rental car companies are looking into fitting their rental fleets with electronic toll passes. Budget Rent A Car is leading the way, by offering the option of renting an E-ZPass transponder for 99¢ a day, plus toll expenses—a minimal cost considering the hours of time it could save a hurried business traveler—for its fleet of rental cars based in Newark, NJ. Certainly other rental car companies will quickly follow suit. The next step will be universal transponder technology—that is, a pass that will work wherever in the country the traveler may be. There are also new technologies that could enable travelers to use their credit card, cards similar to the new MasterCard PayPass, or license plate passes, as a universal payment device. Whichever way the universal technology goes, we’re sure travelers will be universally pleased about not having to wait in traffic any more!