E-ZPass Backlog Creates Call Center Traffic Jam

BALTIMORE, Md. (WJZ) — The Maryland Transportation Authority has been receiving an unprecedented magnitude of telephone calls pursuing the ongoing processing of deferred tolls.

The MDTA switched to an all-electronic tolling strategy to support collectors and the traveling nationalist successful the aboriginal stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Weighing shutdowns and layoffs, the bureau deferred billing for tolls successful the outpouring of 2020.

READ MORE: State Of Emergency: Maryland National Guard Prepares To Open New Testing Sites As Coronavirus Cases Skyrocket

Now, MDTA has begun to process those fees. As a result, a increasing fig of radical are calling the telephone center. Most of the calls person been made drivers who went done toll booths betwixt March 2020 done October 2020 without an E-ZPass, according to the agency. The bureau shared an illustration from November 2021 wherever the halfway received 180,000 calls.

“I conscionable tried to telephone yesterday (Thursday). All day, I was trying to get them to reply the phone,” Dundalk nonmigratory John Davis said. “You tin lone instrumentality truthful much. They’re not answering the phones astatine all.”

The deferred tolls volition proceed to station until summertime 2022.

READ MORE: Laurel Man Charged In Commercial Armed Robberies successful Howard County

Aside from complaints astir the agelong hold times to get done to the telephone center, Davis and respective different radical allege the MDTA is overcharging during the processing of tolls.

“They charged maine $120. It’s expected to beryllium $30,” Davis said. “What I beryllium them, I’ll wage them. But if I don’t beryllium them that, I don’t deliberation I should person to wage it.”

The astir cost-effective mode to question toll roads successful Maryland is to utilize an E-ZPass, according to MDTA officials. The transponder is linked to a slope relationship oregon recognition card. The bureau recommends that radical support a affirmative equilibrium connected their accounts and guarantee their existent vehicles are listed connected the transponder. Drivers tin besides enroll successful Pay-By-Plate, which automatically debits their account.

MORE NEWS: Annapolis, Anne Arundel Fire Departments Ask For Public's Help To Alleviate COVID-19 Strain On First Responders

If a idiosyncratic needs to wage a toll bill, past they tin bash truthful in-person astatine a lawsuit work halfway Monday done Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Also, they tin usage the callback diagnostic erstwhile unit is capable to enactment it. The fig for that diagnostic is 1-888-321-6824.