Scanner flaw inflates tolls on Golden Ears Bridge thousands, receive, mistakes, system, false

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Scanner flaw inflates tolls on Golden Ears Bridge
TransLink says 200 false billings sent to drivers in June



METRO VANCOUVER - A flawed toll scanning system on the Golden Ears Bridge generates thousands of vehicle misclassifications each month, mistakes that can cost drivers who receive falsely inflated bills.

About 200 such false billings were recorded in June alone, according to TransLink spokesman Drew Snider.

The laser beam sensor used to detect the type of vehicle that’s crossing the bridge has an accuracy rate of more than 99 per cent, according to Snider.

TransLink recorded approximately 850,000 bridge crossings in June. That means up to 8,500 vehicles were misclassified.

But Snider said not all of those misclassification errors end up on drivers’ bills. “There is a system of checks in place to spot possible misclassification of vehicles before the bills go out,” he said.

The checks include staff at TransLink’s contractor for the toll system, V-Flow, who cross-check photos taken of crossings with the registered class of the particular vehicle.

Approximately 200 misclassifications slipped through the system in June, based on V-Flow’s records and calls from victims of these errors, said Snider. Figures for previous months were not immediately available.

Snider said TransLink is aware of the system’s flaw and is trying to get it fixed.

“There are different ways that the misclassification could happen,” Snider said. “The laser system might misclassify a vehicle when it’s very rainy, or if there’s a long shadow, or anything that makes the vehicle appear longer.”

Snider couldn’t comment on the specific ways staff are attempting to resolve the problem.

But he said he “would think” it will be fixed before the system is installed on the new Port Mann Bridge that opens at the end of next year.

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Randy Mennear was wrongly billed for two crossings over the Golden Ears Bridge on the same day.

Usually, it costs Mennear $2.80 to cross the bridge in his pickup truck, which is classified as a car for tolling purposes. But on the two times he crossed it on April 4 in a return trip, he was charged $5.65.

“I always scan my bills, I’m pretty good that way,” Mennear said. “And these two charges were right at the top, both on the same day, so they jumped off the page at me.”

Mennear noticed his pickup truck was misclassified as a small truck, instead of as a car.

Mennear makes return trips on the bridge once or twice a week on average, and this has never happened to him before.

So he called TransLink.

“I wanted to find out why it was classified as a small truck,” Mennear said. “So the woman pulled up photos of the two crossings, and when she offered a refund credit right away, I knew there was something wrong.”

It turned out that the electronic toll system, which is used on the bridge instead of traditional toll booths, had erroneously recorded his truck as towing a trailer.

The system uses laser beams to detect what kind of vehicle is crossing the bridge, records the time and date and takes a photo. This allows TransLink to quickly check the system when errors occur.

Mennear said the TransLink representative told him over the phone there are several reasons for such an error, including heavy rainfall that can fool the lasers into thinking a trailer is being towed when the vehicle passes the sensor.

But Mennear is worried the problem could be affecting many other people.

“I was a little horrified,” Mennear said. “I mean, think about how many people [are] out there who just pay their bills without going through them.”

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A flawed toll scanning system on the Golden Ears Bridge generates thousands of vehicle misclassifications each month, mistakes that can cost drivers who receive falsely inflated bills. About 200 such false billings were recorded in June alone, according to TransLink spokesman Drew Snider