The largest number of overbilling mistakes occurred at the Fort McHenry Tunnel. 

If you thought your monthly charges for tolls in Maryland were too high, it wasn’t your imagination. An audit of the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) conducted by the Maryland Office of Legislative Affairs shows that motorists using major toll facilitates around the state were overcharged.

Mistakes included charging cars for the wrong axle count, double billing, and incorrect charges for distance traveled. The MDTA blamed the errors on lower staff during the pandemic and installation of new tolling equipment.

The audit was triggered by dozens of complaints to the state government's fraud and abuse hotline. Problems with billing were found as far back as 2016, but the majority of the excess charges were found in 2020.

Most of the issues were at five tolling stations:

  • Fort McHenry Tunnel – customers billed at the wrong axle count and double-billed in excess of $84,400.
  • Francis Scott Key Bridge – customers double-billed during May and April of 2020.
  • Intercounty Connector and the I-95 Express Toll Lanes – camera misread on both routes resulted in customers being overcharged. The misreads occurred from April 6 to August 18, 2020, on the ICC and October 6 to October 9, 2020, on the I-95 express lanes.
  • Thomas J. Hatem Memorial Bridge – customers billed for the wrong number of axles from October 21 to November 26, 2019, totaling $67,000.

In May 2019, the MDTA began replacing equipment to get rid of cash toll booths and switching to all video tolling. The agency began noticing problems with software and equipment in December. In many instances, the errors were discovered before the customers were billed.

The audit also found the MDTA did not verify that contractors collected the correct amount of money and that the contracts in place did not protect the state.

As a result of the audit, the MDTA will do a review on December 1, 2021, to find and reimburse accounts that were overbilled.

Are you a part of this fiasco? Share your thoughts in the comments.