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IBTTA’s Toll Excellence Awards recognize the very best projects and programs the international tolling industry has to offer. Each year, we celebrate IBTTA toll agency/operator and private sector members whose creative, innovative, and positive programs set a new standard of excellence. You must be an IBTTA member in good standing to be eligible for consideration. For questions about the Toll Excellence Awards Program, please contact Erin Mosher.
2026 Submissions will be accepted March 16 - July 2, 2026.
For categories and guidelines, review the Submit a Project Tab above.
2025 Toll Excellence Awards Winners
Transitional Duty Program
Supporting Recovery, Sustaining Service: Illinois Tollway’s Transitional Duty Program
Launched in 2022, the Illinois Tollway’s Transitional Duty Program has become a model for workforce innovation, blending care for employees with operational strength. The program integrates 24/7 nurse triage, telehealth, real-time injury analytics, and tailored modified-duty assignments to keep staff engaged in meaningful roles during recovery. The results are tangible:
- 71% claims closure rate
- $351,000 in indemnity savings
- 54% reduction in total costs
- 56% fewer lost workdays in 2024
The Illinois Tollway is focused on supporting employees through recovery to ensure they stay connected to their teams and their purpose, while customers benefit from consistent roadway maintenance, reliable service, and safer operations. This proactive, data-driven, and people-first approach has made the Transitional Duty Program a cornerstone of the Tollway’s culture of care and accountability.
Raising Customer and Public Awareness about the Toll Text Scam
Guarding Against Smishing: Ohio Turnpike Protects Customers
In response to a nationwide “smishing” scheme impersonating toll agencies and attempting to collect fraudulent toll charges, the Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission (OTIC) launched a fast, coordinated multimedia campaign to protect customers and the public. Beginning in April 2024, the OTIC deployed Scam Alerts to more than 600,000 E-ZPass customers, issued four news releases, and leveraged social and traditional media to warn drivers how to spot and report fraudulent texts. A PSA video featuring a local media personality amplified the message, generating more than 323,000 paid views on Facebook, thousands of impressions on Turnpike TV at the Ohio Turnpike’s 14 service plazas, and wide national media coverage including CNBC. The campaign also included updates to the customer service call center IVR, which—together with the outreach—cut weekly call volume by 67% and reduced callback wait times from over an hour to just nine minutes.
By equipping customers with clear instructions, restoring confidence, and providing a model other agencies can replicate, the Ohio Turnpike’s campaign demonstrates how communications excellence safeguards both the public and the industry—earning the OTIC IBTTA’s 2025 Toll Excellence Award in Communications.
New York Central Business District Tolling Program and Congestion Relief Zone
Historic First: New York’s Congestion Relief Zone Reduces Gridlock and Advances Access
On January 5, 2025, New York City launched the first cordon-based congestion pricing system in the U.S., the Central Business District Tolling Program (CBDTP), creating the Congestion Relief Zone in Manhattan. Despite the highly complex policy and regulatory environment, this project demonstrates how tolling can deliver meaningful public benefits while balancing competing needs. The results have been immediate and measurable: traffic entering the zone has declined 12–13% year-over-year, speeds have improved, bus and paratransit trips are more reliable, crashes and noise complaints are down, and nearly $160 million was generated in the first quarter—on track to fund $15 billion in transit improvements across the region. The program also dedicates $248 million to mitigation efforts, including $100 million for Environmental Justice communities, and provides new discount and exemption plans for low-income drivers and people with disabilities.
Through unprecedented community engagement, careful design, and a seamless rollout, New York’s CBDTP sets a new global standard for social responsibility in tolling—earning MTA Bridges and Tunnels IBTTA’s 2025 Toll Excellence Award in Social Responsibility.
Drive Smart Florida: A Behavior Change Safety Campaign
The Central Florida Expressway Authority’s (CFX) Drive Smart Florida campaign is designed to combat the leading causes of preventable crashes on CFX expressways through a targeted behavior change marketing campaign (BCM). Designed utilizing the principles of BCM, which combines psychology with consumer insights to drive action, the goal of the campaign is to foster a culture of safety and courtesy and address the leading causes of crashes on its expressways including distracted driving, speeding, unsafe merging, work zone incidents, and road rage. Rather than relying on fear or guilt, the campaign emphasizes positive reinforcement and practical solutions, helping drivers see the immediate benefits of safe behaviors. CFX conducted in-depth research, segmented priority audiences, and rolled out targeted micro-campaigns such as “Smart Drivers. Safe Workers.” for work zones, “Merge Like a Master” to improve merging, the “Three-Second Rule” to reduce rear-end crashes, and “CARma Your Commute” to counter road rage. Since launching in 2023, the campaign has generated more than 12 million paid media impressions, 3 million earned media impressions, and 35,000 website visits, while building five new community partnerships.
By fostering empathy, engagement, and lasting behavior change, CFX’s Drive Smart Florida has set a new standard for safety communications—earning the agency IBTTA’s 2025 Toll Excellence Award in Safety.
Cashless Tolling Conversion
One Night, One System: Kansas Turnpike’s Seamless Cashless Conversion
On July 1, 2024, the Kansas Turnpike Authority (KTA) executed a full-system conversion to cashless tolling—one of the most significant technology undertakings in its 70-year history. In a single night, KTA replaced its trip-based ticket system with an advanced per-mile, all-electronic tolling platform, constructing 36 new toll zones with 72 gantries, installing equipment at 42 toll zones, and deploying next-generation roadside collection systems integrated with a new, state-of-the-art back office. At the heart of this modernization is the innovative “One Account” system, which unifies transponder and license plate transactions into a seamless customer experience while improving operational efficiency and revenue assurance. Since launch, KTA has distributed more than 343,000 transponders, achieved rising ETC adoption, and maintained strong collections. A smooth workforce transition and a communications campaign reaching more than 50 million people further supported customer acceptance.
By pairing bold technology deployment with thoughtful implementation, KTA has set a model for industry-wide modernization—earning IBTTA’s 2025 Toll Excellence Award in Technology.
Habitual Violator Enforcement Remedies Program
Protecting Revenue, Promoting Fairness: CTRMA’s Habitual Violator Program
The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA) implemented its Habitual Violator (HV) Enforcement Remedies Program to ensure all road users contribute their fair share to the region’s transportation system. Supported by state legislation, the program employs a graduated approach—beginning with courtesy letters and escalating, when necessary, to registration renewal blocks, prohibition orders, and on-road enforcement. This structured, data-driven process has delivered measurable results: in 2023, 28.6% of habitual violators made payments, monthly revenues increased consistently, and the program achieved an extraordinary 2,171% return on investment. Behavioral shifts are equally significant, with a 55% reduction in repeat violations among those completing the full remedy process. By pairing enforcement with thoughtful customer communications, CTRMA has improved awareness of toll payment obligations and transformed initial opposition into public support. Through technology integration, strategic collaboration, and a fair, transparent process, CTRMA’s HV Program demonstrates operational excellence and sets a model for revenue protection and system integrity—earning IBTTA’s 2025 Toll Excellence Award in Toll Operations, Engineering & Maintenance.
MTA Bridges and Tunnels Central Business District Tolling Program
AI-Powered Tolling at Scale: TransCore Powers New York’s Congestion Relief Zone
In partnership with MTA Bridges and Tunnels, TransCore delivered the U.S.’s first congestion pricing system, launched on January 5, 2025, in Manhattan’s Central Business District. Designed for one of the world’s most complex urban environments, the compact all-overhead solution minimized disruption, preserved historic infrastructure, and blended seamlessly into the city streetscape. At its core, the system leverages a novel application of AI and machine vision to process every vehicle as a video-based transaction from all-overhead enclosures, ensuring accuracy and scalability across millions of daily entries. The results have been immediate: tens of thousands fewer daily vehicle entries, improved weekday rush-hour speeds, fewer collisions, drastic reduction in noise complaints, and hundreds of millions of dollars generated for needed transit improvements.
With features like variable pricing algorithms, AI-based video classification, and APIs for multimodal third-party integration, TransCore’s solution sets a global benchmark for congestion pricing innovation—earning IBTTA’s 2025 Toll Excellence Award in Private Sector Innovation.
The Use of Data and Data Analytics for Road Traffic Management
Faster Detection, Safer Roads: Valerann's AI-powered Platform Reduces Incident Detection Time and Improves Road Safety.
In collaboration with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and Roughan & O’Donovan, Valerann deployed its AI data fusion platform, Lanternn, to enhance real-time traffic management and incidence response on Irish motorways. Lanternn ingests and processes in real time large volumes of structured and unstructured data from multiple data sources - floating car data, roadside sensors, CCTV, navigation apps, weather reports and historical data to deliver an accurate and comprehensive traffic information on a single pane of glass.
Tested on the M1 and M6, the pilot demonstrated on average 25-35 min reduction in incidents detection time, including detection of a multi-vehicle crush within one minute by consolidating 134 individual alerts from 5 sources. The results: faster operator response, reduced congestion and secondary crashes, and higher detection rates, with 47% of M1 and 65% of M6 incidents flagged earlier. Lanternn also detected additional incidents; if scaled nationwide, this equates to up to 20 additional incidents daily.
Hardware-agnostic, cloud-native, and predictive by design, the project demonstrates how AI and the use of data analytics can revolutionize roadway safety and efficiency—earning Valerann IBTTA’s 2025 Toll Excellence Award in Private Sector Innovation.
2026 Submission period: March 16 - July 2, 2026
Be sure to download and reveiw the Guidelines document below. A submission link will be live on Monday, March 16.
Award Categories for Public Sector Members
Eligibility: Toll Agency/Operator/Non-North American Group Members
There are six award categories for Public Sector Members. Public Sector Winner(s) are eligible for the President's Award.
- Administration & Finance
- Customer Service & Marketing Outreach
- Safety
- Social Responsibility
- Technology
- Toll Operations, Engineering & Maintenance
- President's Award - given to the best sumbission overall in Public or Private sectors.
Award Category for Private Sector Members
Eligibility: Suppliers of products or Consulting Services to the industry.
There is one category for Private Sector Members.
- Private Sector Innovation Recognition Award
Up to three (3) organizations who submit a project or program that has in some way furthered the mission of IBTTA and the tolling industry may be given an award.
Past Toll Excellence Awards Winners
Commodity Hedging Strategy
The objective of the Commodity Hedging Strategy is to protect the Company (“N3TC”) against wild fluctuations whilst ensuring that it benefits from any downward movement in the dollar’s price of oil or upward movement in the Rand exchange rate. With the assistance of N3TC’s technical personnel, the projected consumption of bitumen and diesel was determined for each six monthly period to 31 December 2009. A competitive tender process was entered into with the financial institutions, the result of which was that derivative contracts were taken out for each six month period based on the projected consumption and a price determined by reference to the aggregate of the forward curve of the Rand exchange rate and the relevant commodity benchmark derived from the dollar oil price.
TxTag: A New Model for Introducing Electronic Tolling
In 2006, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) opened the fi rst toll roads in the Austin area and introduced a new state-of-the-art electronic toll tag, named TxTag. User-paid roadways were completely new to the area, and potential customers were generally not aware of modern toll methods and their convenience. Three program decisions led to unprecedented results in the tolling industry: 1) investing in a comprehensive marketing and outreach campaign to educate the public about the new toll roads and TxTag, 2) using pricing and other incentives to encourage people to test drive the new roads and sign on early with the TxTag program, and 3) giving TxTags away free of charge for more than a year. Within a month after tolls were first charged, tag penetration averaged 75 percent daily – 81 percent during peak periods – and there were more than 200,000 funded TxTags installed on vehicles. TxDOT rapidly achieved its goal of converting drivers accustomed to complaining about traffic into customers willing to pay to drive on modern new toll roads.
Crosstown Expressway Authority
Submission Category: Operations
The Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority has built an exceptional transportation project to address the severe traffic congestion facing daily commuters to downtown Tampa — a 10-mile long set of reversible express lanes using a state-of-the-art open road tolling (ORT) system. The heart of the new facility is an elegant, distinctive three-lane, reversible bridge, constructed in segments at an off-site factory, then delivered to the Expressway and assembled in the median of the existing fourlane roadway. Because of its unusual design, the bridge was built entirely within the existing right-of-way, dramatically reducing project costs and virtually eliminating any impacts to the adjacent community or the environment. The reversible lanes are for cars and express buses only and have more than doubled the capacity of the existing tollway, completely eliminating congestion during peak commuting hours. And, in addition to the world’s first reversible ORT solution, the toll system also includes an innovative video toll collection product to provide non-stop travel for customers on the new bridge. This combination of timesavings, convenience, reliability and safety has resulted in traffic volumes that are more than 25% over original projections for the first year of operation.
Waterway Program
Autovias S/A is a private-sector company, which has been awarded a 20-year government franchise for Lot 10 of the “São Paulo State Highway Franchise Program.” Currently, it is responsible for managing 316.5 km of highways, and the area under its direct management is the geoeconomic region of Ribeirão Preto, Araraquara, São Carlos and Franca. The highway grid under Autovias jurisdiction comprises five highway segments located in the Northwestern region of the São Paulo State, extending into the State’s central area. The toll road system operation involves a number of activities, including infrastructure construction works, which often cause topography and landscape changes to occur, modifying the behavior of water dynamics within catchment areas, leading to: erosion, settling, decreased ground-water infiltration, particularly in aquifer recharge capacity, and direct changes in the local hydrological cycle. In mid 1998, Autovias created the “Waterway” (Via das Ãguas) program, aimed at mitigating the impacts felt by natural resources, in particular water resources, as the entire highway grid which it manages is located on an aquifer recharge zone. It consists of building rainwater containment dams along the highway grid managed by the company, particularly in the areas of public-supply springs, waterways and headwaters located within the drainage basins of the Sapucai-Mirim, Pardo and Grande rivers. The objectives of the system are: to store rainwater fl owing from the highways and adjacent areas; to slow down the kinetic speed of such water, allowing it to infiltrate and consequently recharge the aquifer; and to prevent the water table from lowering and the ground from eroding and being dislodged along drainage areas.
TRIP - Turnpike Roadway Information Program
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) – which operates 537 miles of toll roads – has long recognized the critical nature of effectively communicating roadway conditions with the traveling public, media, emergency responders and internal management. With a goal of expanding its information-dissemination capabilities, the PTC launched a new Turnpike Roadway Information Program – TRIP. TRIP gathers information through automated data and video feeds from the PA Turnpike’s 24/7 Traffic Operations Center along with information from roadway crews, police, and emergency responders and delivers it to the public via its Interactive Travel Web Map, service-plaza message boards, the toll-free telephone call-in advisory system, and the automated Preferred Traveler e-mail and text message notification systems. This integrated communications network program enables the PTC to deliver accurate and consistent real-time travel information to nearly 190 million annual customers, further proving the PTC’s axiom, “You’re never alone on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.”
Crosstown Expressway Reversible Express Lanes
The Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority has built an exceptional transportation project to address the severe traffic congestion facing daily commuters to downtown Tampa — a 10-mile long set of reversible express lanes using a state-of-the-art open road tolling (ORT) system. The heart of the new facility is an elegant, distinctive three-lane, reversible bridge, constructed in segments at an off-site factory, then delivered to the Expressway and assembled in the median of the existing four lane roadway. Because of its unusual design, the bridge was built entirely within the existing right-of-way, dramatically reducing project costs and virtually eliminating any impacts to the adjacent community or the environment. The reversible lanes are for cars and express buses only and have more than doubled the capacity of the existing tollway, completely eliminating congestion during peak commuting hours. And, in addition to the world’s first reversible ORT solution, the toll system also includes an innovative video toll collection product to provide non-stop travel for customers on the new bridge. This combination of timesavings, convenience, reliability and safety has resulted in traffic volumes that are more than 25% over original projections for the first year of operation.
TollTag Interoperability with the Dallas/Fort Worth International and Dallas Love Field Airports
In September 2003, the Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) Airport, a public governmental agency of the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, contracted with the NTTA through an interlocal agreement (ILA) to utilize the NTTA's electronic toll collection system (the RITE system) and related clearinghouse functions to support DFW parking revenue collection. It extended the ILA in 2005 to install AVI technology and was soon followed by the City of Dallas, who in March 2005 contracted with the NTTA to use the NTTA's AVI technology for the Dallas Love Field Airport in a similar manner. The nature of the agreements between the NTTA and the two airports is an exemplary model of successful governmental relations and a text-book case study in the ability of focused, determined public organizations working together for the benefit of their mutual constituents/customers.