That plastic E-ZPass transponder you’ve mounted next to your rearview mirror for years — that sends drivers scrambling when they fall off the windshield when you approach a toll booth — may be a thing of the past by the end of the year.
The New Jersey Turnpike Authority is replacing the devices with sticker-based tags that don’t require batteries. The transition to the sticker tags has begun and while there is no timeline, they could be introduced by the end of the year. The authority will first test sticker tags in a pilot program before gradually rolling them out statewide.
The sticker tags won’t have a battery and will be embedded with digital chips. Other states such as Georgia and Massachusetts have already replaced transponders with sticker tags equipped with digital chips.
The move by the authority will save it millions of dollars in replacing old transponders when the batteries expire. The average transponder battery life is between eight and 10 years.
In 2022, the authority spent nearly $8 million replacing almost a million transponders with dead batteries, according to NJ.com.
Besides saving money, the sticker tags are more difficult to remove or misuse. E-Z Pass is used on the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway, Atlantic City Expressway, Delaware River Port Authority, Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission, Cape May County Bridge Commission, Burlington County Bridge Commission and the Delaware River and Bay Authority bridge. The Turnpike Authority also runs the Garden State Parkway.
