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Toll Revenue Assurance Committee (TRAC)

Co-Chairs

  Jessica Carson
E-470 Public Highway Authority
Co-Chair

Jessica Carson began her career with E-470 in 2007 as the Operations Coordinator, and is now the Director of Operations. Carson leads the E-470 Operations team, which is responsible for tolling services, customer service, roadside assistance, image processing, incident management,  email marketing efforts, media buys, traditional and digital advertising content, the social media presence, public relations, community relations, customer correspondence, and much more.

Carson has a double major from the University of Iowa in Journalism/Mass Communication and Psychology, and a minor in English. In addition, she obtained her MBA from the University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business in 2017. She utilizes this eclectic background to lead her team to obtain its strategic objectives. Carson says her career goal is to be considered an innovative leader within the business community. Carson has encountered many exceptional leaders throughout her career and hopes to become an individual that inspires others to be great. Leadership is a skill that takes time and discipline to acquire and she feels her work at E-470 and involvement within the transportation industry will help her reach that goal.

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  Mark Muriello
IBTTA
Co-Chair

Mark Muriello is the Director of Policy & Government Affairs for IBTTA.  Mark has thirty-eight years of experience in transportation and public finance, covering bus, rail, marine terminal, bridge, tunnel, and toll operations, as well as in the electric utility industry.  As the former Deputy Director of Tunnels, Bridges and Terminals for The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Mark oversaw the operations, maintenance and planning for the agency’s six tunnels and bridges and two interstate bus terminals that connect the New Jersey and New York City.  These facilities have a ten-year capital investment plan of $4 billion, and collectively serve more than one million customers each weekday and produce $1.8 billion in revenue annually.  Mark has a distinguished record of accomplishment in highway operations, tolling, finance, transportation planning and policy.  Mr. Muriello served on the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association’s Board of Directors while at the Port Authority and in a leadership capacity in a number of industry and national transportation organizations, including the E-ZPass Group, the Transportation Research Board, the OmniAir Consortium, and the Eastern Transportation Coalition. 

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Members of the Committee

To view a complete member listing of this Task Force, please visit the Committees, Task Force and Working Groups page

Committee Objectives, Subcommittees, and Timeline

Objectives
  • Create a group of industry leaders to discuss the impacts of lost revenue and assess best practices and potential improvements in collections and prevention of revenue loss.  Lost revenue includes unbillable transactions and uncollectable bills due to a variety of reasons, including but not limited to camera issues, lack of OCR training, equipment failures, incident downtime, unreliable DMV information, customer behavior, inefficient collection processes, etc.
  • Discuss solutions to improve the ability to correctly identify and bill customers: Whether customer behavior or inconsistent processes for identifying the registered owner of the vehicle, finding the right person and address to bill for video tolls has always been a challenge for agencies. These issues include customers updating information with the DMV, technology at the lane, DMV retrieval and formatting, etc.
  • Discuss options for billing process improvements to encourage customers to pay on time: Fines, fees and the overall billing process have an impact on when the customer pays and how much payment they provide. Ease of making payment, such as web application, the company website and IVR and the customer service team all impact collection rates and should be analyzed for effectiveness.
  • Explore the role of enforcement practices on payment rates on initial contact and in collection success rates in the event of non-payment of toll bills.  Identify enabling actions needed and supporting processes for such practices, including, but not limited to legislation, appeal processes, and adjudication methods.  Also, assess the differences in practices and collection tools for out-of-state violation transactions vs. in-state transactions. 
  • Seek to collect agency data on collection rates on invoices, in the violations process, and via the enforcement and adjudication processes.  Assess whether correlations between collection success and the various processes and practices in place.  Attempt to gather collection costs and revenue returns to provide a cost-benefit assessment and business case for various approaches.
  • Collect various terms and conditions in collections contracts in place to evaluate best practices. 
  • Leverage existing or already completed studies on this topic to support our initiatives: Identify which agencies and consultants have studied these issues in detail and work with them to obtain the results as a starting point for our discussions. Identify where we can help further the research with our collection experience and knowledge.
TRAC Subcommittees
  • Data and Analytics Subcommittee: Develop and improve the RevFinder online toll collection self-assessment tool to help users understand their big picture performance in terms of revenue collection, recovery of outstanding tolls due, and effectiveness through each step of the collection process. Continue to extend the RevFinder data set, ensuring robust peer-to-peer exchanges and industry level- performance improvements. Add functionality and analytical capability to RevFinder to continue its ongoing value and contributions to electronic tolling collections.
  • Best Practice Implementation Subcommittee: Document and communicate best practices through toolkits, guidance/reference materials, information exchanges, and communications programs. Link best practices to the RevFinder improvement strategies.
  • Pricing Practices Subcommittee: Explore how differentiation in toll pricing by payment method is used to drive collection rates by incentivizing collection methods with the greatest certainty, least cost, and most timely financial posting.Investigate effective uses of fines, fees, and penalties in driving collection of unpaid tolls, and understand how these policies affect motorist behavior change, public opinion, political acceptability, and social and income equity. Conduct interviews with targeted toll operators to produce case studies on pricing practices. Document and communicate best practices through toolkits, guidance/reference materials, information exchanges, and communications programs.
  • Interstate Toll Violation Reciprocity: Understand the nature and requirements behind the existing interstate violations reciprocity agreements. What are the best practices and pathways to successful implementation? Are there other interstate mechanisms, compacts, or partnerships that lower the hurdles for state legislative requirements? Continue partnerships with the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) and the Eastern Transportation Coalition and seek new partners with other national stakeholder organizations (e.g., law enforcement, legislative, etc.) to identify solutions. Collect information from the states that indicate opportunities to pursue collective and coordinated regional programs. Identify legislative models, interstate compacts, and other forms of agreement that are replicable among states. Explore effective enforcement measures and the legislative underpinnings to enable implementation of effective programs to address fraud and abuse.
Presentations and Resources

This meeting was held October 11, 2021 by the Lost Revenue Task Force at the 89th Annual Meeting & Exhibition in Anaheim, CA.

View Presentation Slides