LOUISVILLE, KY – Bestpass has unveiled a toll management system designed specifically for those who lease equipment of any size – and by 2018 it expects to include most Canadian toll routes in its North American network.

Leased Equipment Toll Solution (LETS) features re-billing from the lessor to lessee, allows transponders to be transferred from leased providers to customer accounts and back again, and offers the ability to customize the service for individual leasing provider needs. It includes all major U.S. toll roads and more than 40 tolling groups.

Existing Bestpass customers will be able to transfer transponders in leased vehicles to their Bestpass accounts.

Tolling is a burden for leasing providers that have to decide to bill back toll fees or eat the related costs, said John Andrews, Bestpass president and Chief Executive Officer. Often they don’t learn about the fees until late payment penalties are already applied. But the new service offers the option of a managed bill.

“The lessees get coast-to-coast toll coverage as well as a comprehensive and accurate accounting of their toll. And the tolling authorities benefit by a reduction in violations and a guarantee in payment through their existing relationship with Bestpass, which last year processed more than US $450 million in tolls,” he said.

“Tolling is a fact of life in trucking,” Andrews added. He also expects more of it in the U.S., with the Trump administration signalling that it wants to upgrade roads without raising the deficit. The funds will need to come from somewhere.

LETS is already being piloted by a national leasing service provider. When asked who that was, however, he would only confirm that it is not Ryder or Penske.

Bestpass is actively looking to add Canadian and Mexican toll routes to its network, too. Toronto’s 407 toll highway may be “a straggler”, but most of Canada’s truck-related routes should be covered by Bestpass in 2018, Andrews said, responding to a question from Today’s Trucking. It already supports the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan, and is included in Request for Proposals on the planned Gordie Howe Bridge in the same area.

“We’ve had plenty of meetings,” he said of other Canadian toll highways and bridges. “But they move at government speed.”

Bestpass has more than 300,000 transponders on the road, and processes about US $1.5 million in tolls per day.