The time of the rectangular plastic E-ZPass tags may be coming to an end, as the New Jersey Turnpike Authority begins testing new stickers on its work vehicles, writes Larry Higgs for NJ.com.
A few weeks ago, the authority began to test the new stickers on its vehicles, and if testing over the next several months is successful, the stickers could be replacing tags by the fourth quarter of the year, said Turnpike Authority CEO Kris Kolluri.
“They are cheaper and theft proof,” he said. “If you remove them, they break.”
The sticker is designed to stay on the windshield permanently. If it’s peeled off, the RFID chip and the antenna are damaged, leaving the sticker useless.
“We spend $6.50 for each tag, these are under a dollar,” Kolluri said.
The stickers also don’t require a battery, which will save the authority millions in replacing transponders after the batteries wear out.
The authority spent $8.4 million on the New Jersey E-ZPass Consortium in 2022, replacing 920,000 transponders with worn-out batteries.
For those hoping to use the sticker in multiple vehicles, aftermarket companies offer an adhesive plastic strip that allows the transponder to be removed from the windshield without damaging the chip.
Read more about the new E-ZPass stickers currently being tested by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority in NJ.com.
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