#MACPASS COMMERCIAL DRIVERS#

#MACPASS COMMERCIAL DRIVERS#

Oops!”Īlthough it’s not apparent from the online application form, Snider says it is possible for drivers to sign up for a MacPass without giving any personal information. “When a guy says, ‘Oh I’m home every day at five and I have dinner with my kids every single night,’ you subpoena his E-Z Pass and you find out he’s crossing that bridge every night at 8:30. The Journal quotes one lawyer as saying the information is useful in battles over child custody. According to the National Law Journal, an American legal magazine, US lawyers are starting to subpoena electronic toll records called E-Z passes in divorce cases. There are also concerns about the possible use of such information in civil cases. The bridge commission promises not to release such information for commercial purposes, but Snider acknowledges police can get warrants for it to help in criminal investigations.

Their report points out that electronic toll systems like MacPass record when drivers cross the bridges and link this to personal data such as credit card numbers, mailing and email addresses, phone and fax numbers as well as makes and models of vehicles.

Professors at Dalhousie’s law school raised serious concerns last year in a report commissioned by Canada’s privacy commissioner. Snider’s MacPass sales pitch sounds almost too good to be true-and in some ways it is. The commission also plans to drop the $30 MacPass deposit starting in 2008 as a further inducement to get more drivers to sign up. It’s likely, he adds, that at least half the lanes at both bridges would still accept cash.). If the URB agrees, the commission plans to provide more express lanes for drivers who attach the credit-card sized MacPass antenna to their windshields (Snider says the commission hasn’t decided yet, exactly, how many bridge lanes would be MacPass-only and how many would still accept coins. Snider estimates the bridge commission would also save $200,000 in annual administration costs if the Utilities and Review Board approves the plan to ditch the tokens by 2008. MacPass would reduce traffic congestion, saving more than 81 thousand hours a year in time and 1.7 million litres of fuel, while reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 4.2 million tonnes. He adds that consultants have worked out an “astounding set of numbers” to demonstrate the benefits if 80 percent of drivers sign up for MacPass (at present, just over half of them have). “MacPass is by far, from the bridge commission perspective and for the majority of our customers, the most efficient way to pay the tolls,” says the commission’s general manager Steve Snider. Other payment types on phones, including Google Pay and Apple Pay, also are accepted.So, the Halifax-Dartmouth Bridge Commission wants to phase out tokens in its campaign to get more people to sign up for MacPass, the electronic payment system that lets drivers breeze through the toll booths without a care in the world.

The Mackinac Bridge Authority still accepts cash, credit and debit cards for tolls. Surveys have shown that few Mackinac Bridge customers currently use other tolling transponders.

MacPass is the only tolling transponder currently in use at the Mackinac Bridge I-Pass, E-ZPass, SunPass, etc., though similar, are not accepted. The toll will be $4 for the first trip but customers will not be charged for the return trip if completed within 36 hours. Though the MacPass is not exclusively for commuter customers, MacPass holders with passenger vehicles can still qualify for the commuter discount toll if they make both a northbound and southbound trip within 36 hours. Drivers should still watch for toll collectors and customers walking across lanes. MacPass customers can use toll lanes designated for MacPass by the overhead signs, or any open lane. New passenger vehicle MacPass accounts require an initial deposit of $80 and a $7 one-time set-up fee commercial accounts require a $200 deposit and the same $7 one-time set-up fee.

Macpass commercial