Beware of Sixt toll road admin fees in Florida!

Kayakgirl_2

Hi All,

Just been researching car hire costs for Florida and was amazed to discover that Sixt car rental company charges $36.99 per week of a car rental period for E-Tolls. So, over a three week period the charge will be as high as $110.97 - even if a driver does not even use any toll roads or only incurs toll fees of $5 throughout the whole rental period!

Wow, I can't believe that Sixt can get away with that charge. I rented with Alamo last year for 3 months in Florida and I didn't travel along any of the toll roads so did not incur any charges.

Needless to say, I won't be booking with Sixt anytime soon.

mad_rich

This is common with a lot of car rental companies in the US, not just Sixt.

You can always (?) opt-out. Sometimes the E-Toll machine has to be physically deactivated for the duration of the rental (often there's a radiation-proof box in the glove box to place it in, to prevent the automatic toll collection.

Off_PeakReturn

[QUOTE=mad_rich;58874147]This is common with a lot of car rental companies in the US, not just Sixt.

You can always (?) opt-out. Sometimes the E-Toll machine has to be physically deactivated for the duration of the rental (often there's a radiation-proof box in the glove box to place it in, to prevent the automatic toll collection.[/QUOTE]


Is this really an option then? Have you personally been able to do this? Recently? The reason I ask is because we'll be flying into Miami and our rental car will be with Dollar and their tolling costs seem excessive! We don't intend to drive along the toll roads either....

mad_rich

You'll have to check with Dollar for the details.

There are different e-tolling systems around the country. It differs not only by location, but by car company and where the car is actually registered.

When we hired in New York with Hertz, there was a gadget in the glove box which would allow us to drive through the e-toll lane. You had to seal it in a special radio-proof box to prevent it from working, and then pay cash at the tool booth. I kid you not. If you forgot to do that, you'd be charged again for the toll, and a daily hire fee.

In our case, the daily fee would only be charged if the gadget had been used, so if you don't use any toll roads you might be OK? I don't know how they do things in Florida...

pollypenny

Travelling regularly to Florida, into Tampa, we have our own Sunpass for toll roads.

We have never been asked to pay for any toll service at Alamo, Dollar or National.

Off_PeakReturn

According to my research for car rental from Miami airport and https://www.sunpass.com/rentalcar, the following car rental companies charge thus:

1) Dollar - $36.99 for Pass24 (pre-paid toll scheme which is mandatory at check-in according to the young woman I spoke to at Dollar Reservations call centre). This includes all tolls although it's excessive and unnecessary if one does not drive on toll roads and this is still possible - even from Miami Airport!

2) Sixt - $36.99 per week. More of a rip-off than Dollar.

3) Hertz and Advantage - PlatePass, if used - $2.95 per rental day plus tolls. Maximum fee is $14.95 per rental month.

4) Avis - SunPass/Epass, if used - $14.95 maximum per rental month plus actual tolls.

5) Alamo - Toll-by-Plate, if used - $2.95 per day plus tolls. Maximum $14.95 per rental plus tolls.

(PS. I cancelled my Dollar booking and re-booked with Alamo).

Regards,
OPR