A recent newspaper article highlighted the supposed problem experienced by an American tourist who had a $150 penalty added to his rental car bill because he ‘forgot’ to pay the toll when he drove through the new tunnel on State Highway One, north of Orewa. The tourist didn’t seem to think he’d done anything wrong, and in any event he thought that he should have only had to pay $2.
The newspaper must have been short of stories, because if the reporter had done a little investigation, the conclusion would have been that it was the tourist’s own fault.
For starters, toll roads are not uncommon in the US. Over there they are referred to as turnpikes — Ford even named one of its Mercury cars as a Turnpike Cruiser, and that was in the early ’60s.
Click Go the Toll Gates
This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the opening of the Auckland Harbour Bridge. That was the North Island’s first toll road. A local broadcaster of that time, Les Andrews, even produced and sang a parody song called Click Go the Toll Gates. The South Island’s first toll road was the Lyttelton tunnel. Since then there has been the Tauranga-Mount Maunganui toll bridge, and a short section of highway into Tauranga from the Kaimais that took about 20 minutes off your drive from Hamilton.
I can recall some worrying times with the Auckland Harbour Bridge in the early days. On the first occasion I drove over it, I had the two shillings and sixpence (equivalent to 50 cents) in my shirt pocket but would my 1937 Austin Seven actually make it to the top! It did, of course, so I paid my toll at the booth, drove off the Onewa Road off ramp, hung a right and then back over the bridge — only to find that the gradient was actually steeper from the North. I should have had more faith. The little Austin powered her way to the top, albeit in second gear — which was just as well, as I had yet to learn the niceties of double-declutching into first gear, should the need arise!
The second occasion was when a friend and I were returning from the very first Pukekohe Swap Meet. Halfway up the Harbour Bridge, we realised that we’d spent all our money at the swap meet and we needed 25 cents for the toll. A search of our respective wallets yielded nothing. Then I had a bright idea. Invariably there would always be a few coins under the back seat. I clambered over into the back (I wasn’t driving, you understand), pulled the seat out, and as luck would have it, there was a total of 33 cents in loose change. Back then there was just no excuse for not being able to pay the toll.
Read the ‘Terms and Conditions’
More recently I had occasion to rent a car in Perth, and not from my usual Mr Budget. So, I thought it a good idea to read the ‘Terms and Conditions’ before heading out into the traffic. The first thing I spotted was the $150 penalty that would be charged to my credit card if I incurred any traffic infringement that necessitated the rental firm to simply forward this on to me.
That meant if I got even a parking ticket, or a speed camera fine, in addition to the fines, the rental company would slug me further with an ‘administration fee’ of $150. Believe me, it was a real incentive to be careful out there. Prior to that I had got rid of my American Express Gold Card (with unlimited credit) because I discovered that rental car companies charged the whole cost of a replacement rental car to my card. Thus, if I had a mishap I had to try to get the cost of the car back from the rental company!
On a recent trip to Sydney I was waiting behind another renter at Mr Budget’s counter, and the clerk was attempting to tell this tourist about Sydney’s toll roads, and that if he didn’t pay as he went through, Mr Budget would charge his credit card $150 for each infringement — and the renter would still be responsible for paying the tolls. She told him this about six times. However, the tourist wasn’t listening properly and I’m convinced he went off thinking that the rental company would pay any tolls incurred. I’d have loved to see his face when he opened his credit card bill.
For my part, I elected to steer clear of the toll roads, as some of them were electronic accounts only, with no ability to pay as you drive through.
The American tourist who lamented the $150 penalty should have read his rental contract’s terms and conditions. I’m quite sure that if he rented his car in Auckland he would have been told about the toll road. Like his Sydney counterpart, he should have listened to the instructions when he picked up his car. Fortunately, Mr Budget does not charge an administration fee when he sends me those action photos of me hooning past those parked vans that take nice three-quarter pictures of your rental car at speed! Maybe they should? It might make all of us drive a bit more carefully in someone else’s vehicle.
And, speaking of speed cameras — in Brisbane the police have one of their speed cameras hidden in the snorkel of a 4WD! How sneaky is that? All the locals know about it apparently, but I only knew it was there because it flashed someone in front of me!
Maybe our American tourist would have been better off catching a bus? The cost would surely have been less than the $150 penalty. And I still don’t accept that, having seen the sign warning him about the toll road, he simply forgot about paying it. Yeah, right!
