Rhode Island

Some Cars Were Charged By Rhode Island's Truck-Only Tolls

Nearly 1,800 people reported erroneous charges

Rhode Island’s truck-only tolling system has incorrectly charged roughly 1,800 passenger cars, at least.

Peter Alviti, director of the state transportation department, said he’s aware of the problem and has been working for months with the company that installed the gantries to correct the issue, according to The Hummel Report published by The Providence Journal.

Alviti said that if a car is near a truck passing through the tolls, occasionally the system will pick up the transponder in the car instead of the truck. Nearly 1,800 people reported erroneous charges, out of nearly 19 million tolling transactions since the system went live in 2018.

But, Alviti acknowledged, the state doesn’t know how many more people were charged and didn’t notice it on their bills.

“The system is actually performing better than what the contract calls for it to perform,” Alviti said. “The unfortunate thing is a few people did get nicked. And we’re sorry that they did, but I assure them we know about it. It’s a problem that’s being fixed. Shortly we’ll be down to near zero of those instances.”

The trucking industry is suing over the truck-only system.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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