Demara Morrow is the chief financial officer of a small manufacturing company in Dallas. The company manufactures and installs cabinets for customers throughout the metropolitan area. To be profitable, you need reliable roads with predictable travel times.
Morrow said that for projects along the Dallas North Tollway, where tolls tend to be more predictable, toll costs are built into the project “because we knew we had to go through the toll road to get there.” Stated.
This differs from toll roads, which employ dynamic pricing, a toll system that requires drivers to pay more to travel in toll lanes when free lanes are at their busiest. The idea is that this pricing structure will improve traffic flow during peak hours. “You never know what you’re going to pay.”
To estimate tolls, the company's delivery trucks are equipped with GPS trackers and routed from the millwork company's southeast Dallas office. Morrow sends the client's address directly to the tracker, so drivers can find the most efficient route. Even if they're using a phone, there's still a problem, she says. She said, “Whether it's Android or Apple, even if you say no to toll roads, if you don't unclick freeways, you could be forced into toll roads.”
It can be expensive.
On toll roads such as the Fort Worth Expressway, it's not uncommon to pay more than $25 for each of the five daily trips between the company's offices south of Dallas and customer sites, for a total of more than $100. .
In some cases, drivers mistakenly end up on toll roads, or GPS devices direct them onto toll roads to avoid traffic hazards or bottlenecks. Many of the trucks must also enter undeveloped communities where roads and other rights of way have not yet been fully paved. In some cases, drivers may stop to purchase supplies on the way to the job site, leaving them pressed for time to arrive on time.
Once on a toll road, it can be difficult to get off. Additionally, new hires may not have purchased fare tags yet, which could drive up costs, she said.
“They have very limited access to recognize where they are, what they're doing, and get out of there.”
In Morrow's role, she is tasked with contacting the North Texas Toll Road Authority to pay the company's toll bills. However, the agency will not agree to a payment plan. “It’s all or nothing,” she said. “The fee structure is unmanageable. It's unmitigable. There's nothing you can do about it and it's excessive for what it is. It's just a profit center.”
Fees and fines also seem arbitrary, she said. These bills can amount to more than $1,000 each month. “You can't negotiate with the NTTA and say, 'What do we do?' How do we fix this? You can't negotiate with the NTTA. You can't negotiate with the collection agency. You can't make payment arrangements.”
And her company has no choice but to pay up or face registration suspension or vehicle repossession.
At one point, her attention was drawn to the toll that would cost nearly $120 to get from Cockrell Hill in Dallas to downtown Fort Worth in the summer of 2022.
In another situation, a company had to pay tolls for a stolen vehicle.
“It didn’t matter that I filed a police report and everything else, but I still had to pay $500 in tolls.”
