Say goodbye to your tollway transponder? Tollway poised to start using stickers

The Illinois tollway is poised to switch to a sticker system to collect tolls instead of transponders.

At a Thursday committee meeting, officials said the stickers would be 90% less expensive than the current hard-case transponders.

Executive Director Cassaundra Rouse said there would be no deposit for the stickers; currently transponders require a $10 deposit, which administrators said has been a barrier for some I-PASS customers.

“We’re excited to launch this,” Rouse said.

The shift will be rolled out in the coming months but customers with existing transponders can keep them until they expire.

The full tollway board is expected to weigh in later Thursday morning.

Numerous other states are using sticker technology.

In California, the Orange County-based Transportation Corridor Agencies started using “FasTrak” stickers technology for its toll roads in 2019, media relations manager Michelle Kennedy told the Daily Herald. “Sticker transponders are smaller, sleeker and less obtrusive than the hard-case transponder with less visual impact on the customer’s vehicle,” she said. “Sticker transponders use radio frequency identification (RFID) and there is no battery, which means no beep, and they last until you remove them from your vehicle.”