DiNapoli Audit: State Thruway Authority Has Improved the Accuracy of Toll Collections

The state's Thruway Authority (Thruway) generally bills drivers accurately for tolls, according to an audit by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. The audit identified some exceptions and recommended better monitoring and corrective actions.

"The Thruway Authority has come a long way since it first introduced cashless tolls, but some problems remain," DiNapoli said. "Even a smaller percentage of unreadable or inaccurate tolls can mean loss of revenue to the state or aggravation for New Yorkers facing incorrect bills. I appreciate the efforts the Authority has undertaken to fix the issues we identified."

In 2024, Thruway reported $1 billion in toll and related revenues, up from $804 million in 2021. E-Z Pass accounts for 95% of all tolls collected in 2024. Comptroller DiNapoli's previous audit from May 2023 found the TA needed to improve its collections process.

The latest audit found improvements but work that still needs to be done. For example, auditors looked at collections over a three week period and found 92,000 tolls couldn't be charged because vehicles' license plates were unreadable. At one exit, interchange 25A near Schenectady, some 36,000 tolls were incorrectly charged and another 8,000 that should have been charged but were not, for an error rate of about 5%.

The audit also found Thruway needed to provide stronger oversight of the more than 12,000 non-revenue E-Z Pass tags that do not get charged, as well as the toll discounts it gives to certain drivers. In looking at a random sample of 75 non-revenue tags, Thruway was unable to provide supporting documentation for the eligibility of 46 (61%) tags, making it unclear whether they were being used by eligible individuals

Thruway created the Office of the Toll Payer Advocate (TPA) in December 2019 to help customers resolve toll-related issues, using guidelines with a set of criteria to address the most common issue, reducing violation fees. Auditors found that Thruway did not always follow its own guidelines. In an examination of 50 cases, 20 were for toll-related issues on the Thruway. Of those, 12 received fee reductions that exceeded the amounts allowed by the criteria. While Thruway has the authority to give reductions over its own guidelines, the audit determined that it should document and explain why it's doing so to ensure a fair and responsive process for everyone.

Thruway does not have a workable method for dealing with undeliverable mail. Auditors looked at 48 toll bills or past due notices mailed out by the Authority's vendor and found 25 were undeliverable. Of those, 21 were for New York and Massachusetts plates and instead of resolving the problem, the vendor continued to send mail to the undeliverable addresses. For toll payers to be treated fairly, they must be notified of the amount of payment due to enable them to avoid accruing penalties.

The audit made nine recommendations for improving toll collections and customer service including a review of collections at Exit 25A to ensure charges are accurate, a periodic review of transactions to identify inaccuracies and their cause to prevent them from recurring, a review of non-revenue and discount tags to ensure eligibility, and documentation of toll settlements that are outside of guidelines.

Thruway generally agreed with the audit findings and said it has already taken steps to implement some of the recommendations.

Audit
NYS Thruway Authority: Selected Aspects of Toll Collections

Related Work
NYS Thruway Authority: Selected Aspects of Toll Collections (May 2023)