407ETR tollroad in Toronto Canada is offering a frequent user bonus program that provides free kilometers on weekends and discounts on gasoline purchases. Letters are going out to 100,000 transponder account holders (about one sixth of the total) telling them their entitlements under the frequent use program. (One sixth is based on 780k transponders in use of which we guess - 407ETR chooses not to release the number - 600k might be for light vehicles and 180k for commercial vehicles.)

In an announcement Feb 1 407 ETR Concession Company say it is a "four-year, $40m" program. C$40m is $34m so that's $8.5m/year or 2.4% of overall toll revenues at present of about $357m (C$420m).

For the most frequent users the discounts on tolls and fuel will constitute 10 to 15% of their monthly bills, 407 ETR say.

The company presents the rewards program as altruism, attributing to Antonio de Santiago, the chief executive this: "This (program) is great news for our customers. We are thanking our most frequent customers by giving them instant, easy-to-use savings."

A toll discount plan in general terms was part of the company's overall settlement last summer of a set of disputes with the provincial government so it was under a legal obligation to produce something of this kind.

In addition by concentrating benefits on weekends when traffic is lighter it is offering trips at relatively little cost.

The C$40m cost of the program is based on an estimate of toll revenue if the travel was done at full toll rates. To the extent the free kms (miles) are new trips that wouldn't have been undertaken tolled, there is no loss of toll revenue.

Details

The incentive plan for is light vehicle users with transponders, and applies to accounts in good standing (no outstanding balance owing of more than 35 days) and kicks in when travel on the tollroad is over 400km (240mi) per month during a six month qualifying period. The pike introduced a heavy vehicle reward program July 1 2006.

The light vehicle rewards program has four tiers based on transponder kilometers traveled, and each tier grants a set amount of free kilometers at weekends plus discounts on gasoline purchases. The program operates over six month periods, and at the end of the six months customers are informed of their eligibility for the next six month period.

Other details of the rewards plan:

- no enrolment needed, the company just tells customers their eligibility in mailings

- free kilometers go by tiers 40km (Sundays), 55km (Sundays), 85km (Sats & Sundays), 140km (Sats & Suns)

- customers get a "Gas(oline) Savings Card" with a barcode that can be used at Petro-Canada gas stations for fuel savings of C2c, 3c, 5c and 9c/off per liter (7c, 10c, 17c, US30c/gallon) depending on km traveled on the pike per month

This is an exclusive arrangement between 407ETRCC and Petro-Canada which has 240 participating stations in the greater Toronto area and ,1400 Canada-wide.

see http://www.407etr.com/Rewards/index.html

BACKGROUND: 407ETR which is 108km long (67mi) reports 2,124m veh-km traveled (1,320m veh-miles) in 2006 based on average daily trips of 292k. Workday trips average 357k. Revenues for 2006 have not yet been announced but based on $357m in tolls (C$420m @85c/C$) in 2005 we're guessing they've got around 8% more or $386m (C$454m) in 2006. On that basis they got $3.62/trip (C$4.27) and 18.2c/km (C21.4c) or 29.3c/mile.

407ETR is the largest privately concessioned tollroad in north America. It has no cash toll collection being entirely electronic - transponders for regular users and license plate camera reads followed by a bill in the mail (video tolling) for others.

#3 in North American TRs by width

In maximum number of travel lanes 407ETR is the third largest tollroad in North America after the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway, each 14 lanes. 407ETR's central section is now ten. Next largest tollroads are the Sam Houston Tollway in Houston TX, Tristate Tollway in Chicago IL, Delaware Turnpike, New Hampshire Turnpike, all eight lanes each. (There may be others but we can't think of them - email us and we'll add.)

North American tollroads are spotty in reporting vehicle-miles traveled - the best measure of total travel done since number of transactions reflects the frequency of tolling points as much as traffic. 407ETR with 2.1b veh-km (1.3b veh-miles) is still way behind the New Jersey Turnpike 10.1b veh-km (6.3b vmt) and Garden State Parkway 9.8b veh-km (6.1b vmt).

TOLLROADSnews 2007-01-30 UPDATED & EXPANDED 2007-02-01