Hundreds of trucking companies, mostly from out of state, have collectively racked up $5.2 million in unpaid tolls in two years, according to the Ohio Turnpike Commission.
In something of a public shaming, the organization released a list of 315 companies that owe at least $5,000 in unpaid tolls to the turnpike, which connects northern Ohio to Indiana and Pennsylvania.
About 90% of those companies are out-of-staters. The Turnpike Commission said it only added the companies to the public-facing list if they have been sent at least three invoices and been sent to collections via the Ohio Attorney General’s office.
“It could be that they don’t have a transponder, or it could be that they’re ignoring their invoices,” said Brian Newbacher, a spokesperson for the Ohio Turnpike Commission. “It’s not fair to the people who do pay the tolls and it’s not fair to our operation.”
The $5.2 million is a small slice of annual revenue – the turnpike received $388.5 million in toll revenue last year. But unpaid tolls deflate the total. And turnpike officials suspect that truckers are removing front-facing license plates or otherwise obscuring them to avoid identification and toll payments, Newbacher said.
Spokespersons for the Ohio Attorney General’s office didn’t respond to inquiries.
The biggest debtor on the list, NYC Trucking Inc., owes about $156,000. Federal transportation records list a residential home in Philadelphia as the company’s address. The company didn’t respond to a phone call.
Some companies proved difficult to locate. Cargo Best Inc. owes about $121,000. Its physical address, listed in federal transportation records, is a loading dock in Chicago. Its mailing address is an office building in St. Petersburg, Florida. Several extensions from its corporate phone line are defunct.
Uzboys Trans owes $120,000 in unpaid tolls. Alex Abdullev, who identified himself as the company’s owner, said he believes Ohio’s two-year-old open road tolling system (as opposed to the traditional, gated model) sometimes misses the transponder.
He said neither his company nor his drivers shirked any tolls.
“Why would I avoid tolls on purpose?” he said.
However, he said the practice is real within the industry, and he expressed sympathy. Tolls are expensive, he said, and it has gotten a lot harder to make money moving freight. Gas prices are high and the freight market isn’t as strong as it was.
“Everything is expensive nowadays,” he said. “In this trucking business, it’s hard to survive.”
Pamir Express, which lists a residential Pennsylvania address in federal transportation records, owes nearly $85,000. A person who answered a company phone declined to give his name. He said the Turnpike unfairly charged the company for both its cabs and its trailers, and he said the transponder didn’t work. He also said Pamir Express paid the full $85,000.
Newbacher, from the Ohio Turnpike Commission, said the attorney general’s office has no record of payment as of Monday evening, but there is sometimes a 72-hour lag after payments are made online or by phone.