Toll road operators continue to rip off drivers

THE Financial and Consumer Rights Council has teamed up with Money magazine to call for a reform in the way motorists are billed by road toll operators.

It is an issue Wheels has raised before, with Victoria University law professor Denis Nelthorpe slamming the system, which adds unnecessary costs onto overdue toll notices that can spiral into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Money magazine, and the Financial and Consumer Rights Council claim an unpaid toll of just $2.07 can attract an administration fee of $10 – an almost 500 percent rise.

“A $10 fee for a $2.07 toll is simply crazy,” Money magazine editor Effie Zahos says.

“I challenge toll operators to justify these fees.”

In Victoria, a motorist without an electronic tag is slapped with an administration fee of $12.14, on top of an inflated $11.84 toll charge.

The Tolling Customer Obudsman is clearly aware of the issue, with Micahea Arnold saying the topic of excessive fees is “constantly brought up by toll road users”.

Financial and Consumer Rights Council’s manager of policy and campaigns Tom McIntosh is calling on toll operators to change their ways.

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“Transurban must stop slamming Australians with excess fees,” he said.

“If energy, bank, water or phone companies acted like this there would be uproar.”

“Phone providers don’t send a different bill for every phone call. Banks don’t issue an invoice for every swipe of a credit card. Why do we tolerate our road operators doing this?”

Denis Nelthorpe told Wheels the ballooning costs puts some of our countries most vulnerable into sticky legal situations which can be difficult to get out of.

“Imagine if, for your mobile phone bill, they didn’t sue you for non-payment at the end of a three-month period, they sued you for every single call; put stamp duty, service fees, and court fees on every single call,” he explained.

“It means that an amount of $2000 to $3000 [of debt] turns into $100,000.

“The system is so heavily based on revenue raising that common sense and proportionality have gone out the door.”