Illinois Tollway Fare to Spike 40% on Jan. 1

By Michele Fuetsch, Staff Reporter

This story appears in the Nov. 24 print edition of Transport Topics.

Trucks that run on the Illinois Tollway are bracing for the 40% toll hike that kicks in on Jan. 1, part of a long-range plan that by 2017 is expected to raise truck tolls by 60%.

The increase is part of a rate schedule that the tollway’s board of directors devised in 2008 and reaffirmed in 2011 over the objection of truckers in Illinois and throughout the Midwest.

The tollway is a system of four highways: the Reagan Memorial Tollway, which carries Interstate 88 traffic; the Veterans Memorial Tollway carrying I-355; the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway carrying I-90; and the Tri-State Tollway carrying interstates 94, 294 and 80.

Currently, toll amounts vary depending on the highway segment and where a truck exits.

For example, a truck with five axles or more with an electronic tollway pass that runs the 96-mile length of the Reagan Memorial Tollway west from Chicago to the endpoint in Dixon, Illinois, currently pays a toll of $27 during the day and $20.30 at night.

The 40% increase on Jan. 1 will put the fare at $37.80 in the day and $28.42 at night.

The 60% increase will bring the daytime toll to $43.20 and the nighttime toll to $32.50, tollway officials said.

“What we’ve been doing right now is going back and looking at what lanes we’re impacted in and what customers, and we’re starting to have conversations with those customers about having to increase the rates,” said Michael Burton, president of C&K Trucking, a largely intermodal fleet headquartered in Chicago Ridge, Illinois.

“Right now, the trucking industry can’t really absorb these additional costs,” Burton said, adding that the conversations with customers will begin after Thanksgiving.

Matt Hart, executive director of the Illinois Trucking Association, said: “In the short term, there’s going to be a lot of trucking companies that eat that toll increase; but in the long term, it will just mean a higher price for the goods and services that are delivered on the Illinois Tollway.”

On top of the 40% toll increase in January, there will be an additional 10% increase in 2016 and a second 10% increase in 2017.

“The increase is the first for commercial trucks and trailers since 2005,” tollway spokesman Dan Rozek said.

Paul Grane, vice president of Grane Transportation, an Illinois-based family dry van carrier, questioned how large and small operators can absorb these increases without re-evaluating their business models and their pricing.

“A 60% increase in Illinois truck tolls will be disastrous for the Midwest and anything running through northern Illinois,” Grane said.

And starting in 2018, tolls for trucks — but not cars — will automatically increase annually by an inflation factor tied to the urban consumer price index.

“Trucks account for less than 20% of the traffic, yet we pay over 40% of the toll revenue, and we think that the automobiles should be paying a little bit more,” Hart said.

Rozek noted, however, “Toll rates are typically higher for trucks and cars that tow trailers than for cars and motorcycles because their weight causes more damage to roads, ultimately impacting agency maintenance costs.”

Hart said that the trucking association plans to press Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner (a Republican who in January will replace Democrat Patrick Quinn) and his appointees to the tollway board to rescind the automatic increases.

To avoid the ever-rising toll rates, truckers will start diverting to local roads that are not built for them, and that will present a safety problem, he added.

The toll increases will help pay for the toll road agency’s congestion relief program and its 15-year, $12 billion capital program, Rozek told Transport Topics.

“As part of a more comprehensive commercial vehicle strategic plan, the tollway is also considering ways to enhance truck parking along the tollway system and is exploring new customer service features that can improve account management for commercial vehicle fleets,” he added.

His agency was applauded for planning to pour the toll revenue back into the system.

“To their credit, they are investing in their roads, and they are adding capacity and they’re adding exits,” Hart said.