If you’re bothered by a toll of $3.90 to cross the Golden Ears Bridge, consider a charge of $35.40 each time you made the trip.

That’s what Maple Ridge resident Dave Webb was charged each time he crossed in August in a Hertz rental car.

Those bills soon added up to hundreds of dollars.

“It’s close to $500, it’s $468 and change,” Webb said last week.

Webb rented a Mazda 3 for two weeks in August after his own car had been stolen.

During those two weeks he crossed the bridge a dozen times for work purposes. At $35.40 a crossing, the bills soon reached into the hundreds of dollars.

The bill though didn’t come from TransLink or Quickpass, but from ATS Processing Services, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., the company contracted by Hertz to collect tolls and violation charges on its rental cars.

ATS Processing is a division of American Traffic Solutions.

Webb didn’t have an option about whether he paid or not because his credit card was automatically billed.

“I don’t have a choice. On Oct. 20 they just charged my credit card, the same credit card that I used to rent a car.”

But several days and a few phone calls later, Webb got some relief.

After checking with Visa, Webb learned his charges have been reduced from $35.40 a crossing to $6.50 for each of the 11 crossings – with a $2.60 administration fee included as part of that $6.50 charge. For some reason, on his 12th crossing, he was only billed the $3.90 toll amount.

Paula Rivera, a spokesman for Hertz Rental Car, said the initial $30 administration fee was charged because cars were being processed as toll violators, which could require court-processing time.

“We were not informed about electronic tolling that would be taking place on the Golden Ears Bridge.”

Now Hertz wants to work with TransLink so that Platepass, another division of American Traffic Solutions, can process rental car crossings as simple electronic toll charges.

PlatePass explains on its website that its service will help rental car customers “avoid costly toll violation fines otherwise incurred if high-speed toll lanes are used without special equipment.”

Teresa Benton, with ATS Processing Services, said the administration fee was incorrect and Webb’s Visa account has been credited.

“That was an incorrect fee that he had been charged.

“As soon as ATS was aware of the discrepancy, we jumped right on it and corrected it.” That happened Oct. 10, she said.

An administration fee of $2.60 a crossing is something Webb likely can live with. “I don’t know if it’s enough to get excited about. It’s not a back-breaking amount.”

But it may cause him not to rent a car from Hertz.

He pointed out Discount Car Rental charges a flat fee of $10 for toll administration, plus the toll charges themselves, no matter how many times a customer crosses the bridge.

Webb still hasn’t received a revised statement from ATS Processing.

“They haven’t sent me anything that has the correct fee on it.”

He’s also wondering if he’ll have to pay GST on a bridge toll, which would be a tax on a tax.

“My general opinion is that this whole (tolling) exercise is an unmitigated disaster from start to finish. I’d rather pay more gas tax than deal with this.”

TransLink’s tolling strategy has created a new layer of bureaucracy that “doesn’t seem to be functioning properly and that’s got to be costing them a fortune.”

How much is the Quickpass contract costing TransLink? he asked.

He pointed out when he used a courtesy car from Boyd Autobody, the company just called him later to ask him to pay the toll charges.

According to TransLink spokesman Drew Snider, Quickpass just bills Hertz, “and Hertz has paid its bills.”