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Since February, the Customer Assistance Plan has been in place to benefit drivers for nine months, offering a civil penalty waiver for video tolls. That grace period was set to expire, but got a two-week extension and will now end at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 14.
The grace period initially was set to conclude at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 30.
Officials said that the change was to “accommodate a last-minute rush and deliver on MDTA’s mission to provide premiere customer service, (so) the board voted to extend the waiver grace period deadline by two weeks.”
The approval came after a last-minute rush that overwhelmed MDTA customer service and call centers due to high participation among Maryland motorists with midnight looming.
“While the Customer Assistance Plan has been in place for nine months, unfortunately, many customers have waited until the very end to take advantage of the opportunity to pay their outstanding Video Tolls without penalty,” they added.
For every Video Toll transaction paid in full during the grace period, the corresponding civil penalties will be waived.
"The Customer Assistance Plan is not toll forgiveness, nor is it an elimination of tolls owed,” according to MDTA officials. “The MDTA encourages drivers to pay every outstanding toll they can to have the associated civil penalties waived and have their toll and civil penalty debts reduced.”
During the grace period, more than $150 million in civil penalties have been waived and approximately 773,000 drivers and businesses paid outstanding video tolls to wipe the slate clean.
When the clock strikes midnight on Thursday, Dec. 15, officials emphasized that "toll debt referrals to Central Collection Unit (CCU) for collections actions and to the MDOT Motor Vehicle Administration (MDOT MVA) for vehicle registration suspensions will resume, and all Video Tolls and civil penalties are due based on their printed due dates.
“If customers with outstanding video tolls fail to reconcile their balances, they will be unable to register vehicles with MDOT MVA.”
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