Fueling with less fuss: Coming soon, an E-Z way to gas up in Maine
E-ZPass — the cashless technology that lets you pay Maine Turnpike tolls without stopping your car — may also soon speed up your fueling up.
The organization that operates the system, the E-ZPass Interagency Group, is expanding an agreement with a mobile payments startup to allow drivers with an E-ZPass transponder to make gas station purchases via text.
The mash-up has been working in Massachusetts for the past two years, and a deal announced Tuesday means the option will be available to drivers in 19 states including Maine.
Here's how it works. An app from a Delaware-based vendor, PayByCar, connects with E-ZPass to identify drivers when they pull up to the pump. Purchases are not billed to the E-ZPass toll account, but to whatever source the driver has designated. There are no PIN codes; the driver receives a text prompt to make the purchase and then another message to confirm it.
Over the next two years, PayByCar will roll the service out to several hundred gas stations, according to a news release. The company would not specify in which states it will begin expanding, or when Maine might see service. In some areas, the technology will also cover the costs of parking facilities.
The E-ZPass system says it is the largest interoperable toll collection program in the world, consisting of toll agencies in 19 states. They include all those in the Northeast except Connecticut and Vermont.
In Maine, the turnpike is currently the only highway where E-ZPass operates.
"The E-ZPass Group is pleased to announce the expansion of the ‘Driven by E-ZPass’ program, which will enable drivers of nearly 55 million vehicles with E-ZPass tags to perform mobile payment transactions beyond tolling," said P.J. Wilkins, executive director of E-ZPass Group and IAG Service Corp., in the news release.
“We think it’s appropriate that the E-ZPass tag, the original in-vehicle payment solution, should also be useful for non-toll payments like fuel and parking."
Most Recent
Most Recent
Great idea. Finally someone is thinking.
1 Comments