Toll FL

Having enjoyed the freedom of the Illinois Tollway on my recent Road Trip  to visit Nebraska and North Dakota I was researching Central Florida for any of the latest attractions to write about but came across the joined up thinking of Toll FL instead.

The issue in the past has been trying to avoid the horrendously greedy charges that rental car companies try to get away with by providing a transponder for EZ Plate or I-Pass for use on Toll roads to allow you to drive through without stopping. Seemingly it is a thing of the past to pay cash for a Toll to a cashier or to throw into a hopper to operate the barrier. Some States allow the pass for use on their highways with neighbouring States and if you are resident in America you can buy a pass to have it delivered to your home address so you are all set when you arrive. The blocker in the past has been the restriction on Rental Cars because of course you don’t know the plate before you collect the car and can’t set up an account online in advance.

I was pleased discovering the Illinois Tollway and it was very clear that you can set up an account with them ahead of arrival and select the dates that the account should be active for. When you know the plate of the car you just link it to the account. It took nearly two weeks for the charges to start showing but once they appeared the system worked perfectly. The only difference was if you had the transponder then the charge was 50% of the cash or pay online fee. As the most expensive charge was $3.50 it didn’t really make a difference. Fox Rent A Car for example, charge $15 per day with a maximum of $90 for the privilege of having Plate-Pass which electronically reads the number plate of the car but you still pay the toll charge in addition to the Car Rental surcharge.

If you are visiting Orlando in the future and going to be renting a car, which let’s be honest is most of us, then consider a Visitor Toll Pass for use on Florida’s Toll Roads. Only available currently at Orlando International Airport the pass is hung from the rear view mirror for the entirety of your visit and acts as an EZ Pass. The Visitor Toll Pass boasts that it is the cheapest way to pay for tolls in Florida and that you can save up to 80% of the fees with it.

Download the Visitor Toll Pass App, create an account and reserve your pass with a payment card. At the end of Terminal A just before the Car Rental Facility are vending machines that will dispense the reserved pass to you when you scan the QR code. 

A $10 is charged as a deposit for the hang-tag which is returnable if your toll fees are less than $10 so long as you return the hang-tag after your rental period. There are drop boxes at Orlando International Airport clearly visible before you enter the terminals.

Remember to decline the car rental toll transponder so that you are not charged for both methods.