NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Cashless tolling on the Kansas Turnpike starts Monday, and Turnpike CEO Steve Hewitt said those with a KTAG already know the drill.
"You don't have to get a new KTAG," Hewitt said. "It's going to work the same way. So you're going to go through different zones on the Turnpike versus paying at the booth. We are taking those booths out, number one. That's the main infrastructure thing. Eventually, those booths are coming out. You don't have to stop at the booth to pay. KTAG customers don't have to worry about moving over to the KTAG lane. Just continue to move. We'll ding your KTAG, bill you the normal way. It'll look maybe a little different on your bill when you see it come in, but virtually no change."
If you don't have a KTAG, get one. If you only drive once or twice a year and don't have one, this is how that will work.
"If you don't have a KTAG, it's going to cost you basically double in tolls," Hewitt said. "Nevertheless, it's okay. If you don't want, I'm on the Turnpike once in a blue moon, and I don't want to have to worry about getting a KTAG, not a problem. You drive through. You have options here. The first option, do nothing. I'm going to take a picture of your license plate. I'm going to look up your registration. I'm going to send you a bill in the mail. That's the first thing. You don't have to worry about it. Within 30 days, you just pay that bill. Or you can go early and go online to our DriveKS.com or our app on your smartphone at DriveKS and pay your tolls early if you want to. But it's really going to be really easy because, you know, you're not going to have to worry about stopping at the booth."
Tolls will actually be less expensive in the new system.
"The average cost is about 5.2 cents a mile for a passenger car," That's going to 4.8 cents. Your tolls are coming down. For a commercial truck, you know, a five-axle big truck, it's going from, you know, to 13.8. So that's dropping even from 14. So I think those are the really good things that our commercial as well as our passenger vehicles are going to see a lower per mile rate, simplistic, easy to manage, understand, and we want to pass the savings or efficiency on to customers. Now, if you do not have a KTAG, real simple, just double that."
They will round up to the next penny on the toll if it isn't even.
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