If you live in Victoria and own a car, something well worth having is a toll road account. Many motorists who use Melbourne’s CityLink and EastLink tollways on an irregular basis buy exorbitantly priced one-time trip passes, deciding against setting up an account because they think it costs too much, when in reality there is an option that costs you nothing to setup and maintain.
The first toll road in Melbourne was CityLink, which went live with their fully electronic system in 2000. Initially the only company in the game was CityLink operator Transurban with their e-TAG system, and this is where most people in Victoria had their first experiences of toll road accounts: hefty account keeping fees, even if you hardly drove on the toll road.
Thankfully competition was on the way, with the Australian Transport Council having set a standard for electronic tolling in the late 1990s, meaning that tags issued any any company in Australia would work on any other road. At first few took advantage of this, as it would have required Victorian motorists to deal with a company they had never heard of located in Sydney or Brisbane.
The big change hit in 2008 when Melbourne’s second tollway opened – EastLink. As well as running their own tollroad, operator ConnectEast also aggressively marketed their toll accounts to anyone in Victoria, boasting that their ‘Breeze’ windscreen tag was a third smaller than the clunky device issued by Transurban, but the real clincher was the lower account keeping costs.
So the cheap account I mentioned? It is a ‘Breeze Pre-Paid Tag Account’ from ConnectEast. To sum up the deal…
- You pay $40 to set up an account,
- The entire $40 gets put onto the account as toll credit,
- If you don’t travel for years the money will just sit there without charge,
- You can add however many cars as you like to the account,
- You can request an (almost) infinite number of tags to place in your cars,
- The tag works on both CityLink and EastLink without any extra fees,
- You can also drive on bridges, tunnels and tollways interstate and you don’t get charged a ‘roaming fee’ like some other companies do.
The only downside to the Breeze Pre-Paid Tag Account is the $30 minimum topup amount, and the minimum balance requirement – currently $12.18. I’m guessing the interest earned on the pool of money sitting in a few hundred thousand toll accounts is how ConnectEast make their money.
I’ve currently got four vehicles included on my Breeze account: my own car, plus those belonging to all my family members, which has saved my Dad a number of times when he gets lost in Melbourne and ends up on CityLink by mistake!
Links
- Breeze Pre-Paid Tag Account at the EastLink website
- Transurban e-TAG account options (I told you they rip you off – now it’s tag fees!)
- Breeze or Citylink… which tag is best? (over at the Whirlpool forums everyone agrees)
Footnotes
- When you add a new vehicle to your toll account, you are automatically backdated for toll charges incurred up to 72 hour before. I discovered this after driving my new car down CityLink without having added it to my account.
- If you drive a ute or cab chassis, you might save money on tolls by using a New South Wales RTA tag: they classify you as a car, not a more expensive light commercial vehicle.
- The first modern toll road in Victoria was actually the West Gate Bridge, which had toll booths at the city end from opening in 1978 until 1985, when it was decided to make the bridge free to all. But that is a story for another day.
The Breeze account benefits were probably to soften the blow of the Scoresby Freeway broken promise from a few years back. I live right near the Monash – Eastlink interchange and noted the very low numbers using Eastlink in the first few years. At that time they were not even paying their interest on the loan from the construction cost of $2.5 billion (inflated in part due to the shortened construction time for 40km of road … yes I’m a civil engineer-history nerd-part time gunzel myself!!)
Since then the traffic levels have steadily risen but remain well below the original prospectus forecasts (since ajdusted to make the spin seem better). Interestingly VicRoads widened cross routes at the time like Wellington Road and Ferntree Gully Road to six lanes in part to encorage use. along with the Dandenong Bypass stuck in the Dingley Freeway reservation. The following site gives a useful comparison of toll road performance and volumes:
http://chartingtransport.com/2012/03/03/traffic-volumes-on-australian-toll-roads/
It is worth noting the Scoresby Freeway (F35) reservation was set aside in the 1960’s only as far south as the Dingley Freeway (F2 – itself in place since the 1950’s at least). Post 1969 Melbourne transportation plan the reservation was extended to Seaford.
Personally … owing to where I live I use Citylink occasionally but hardly use Eastlink at all.
Interesting ‘soften the blow’ theory there, but it was the government that decided to make the road tolled. The current operator ConnectEast is just in it for the money, hoping to collect more money in tolls over their 39-year concession period to make back what they paid to build the road.
Of course, by entering the established tollway tag market with a more competitive offering, they hoped to snatch market share from Transurban. On that front they seem to have won, even though the money to be made there looks to be very marginal.
The data over the the Charting Transport site is very interesting – in a post-GFC world we can see how the financial wizard made up all kinds of figures to justify Public Private Partnerships, only for them to fall short.
Don’t forget the contract was awarded back in 2005 on the basis of trying to deliver lower tolls, hence the account described above and plenty of spin about delivering the lowest tolls per km in the country and smaller ‘breeze’ tags (like anyone cares) Connect East was awarded the contract over Transurban at the time.
The Eastern Freeway (F19) extension to Ringwood and Scoresby Freeway (F35) were originally separate projects. The latter (only) was eventually declared a Road of National Importance and attracted partial Federal funding (the decision itself political in nature). Issues with the long tunnel for the Eastern extension untimately led to the hare-brained idea to combine the two projects and delay them significantly – all the time insisting it would be finished by 2008. In the end they decided to toll the lot of it straight after State election and squeeze the construction time into three years instead of six or seven. The business case was sold on some inflated traffic estimates as shown in the link above. In reality the tunnels should have probable been tolled and the Scoresby built as a separate job with Federal assitance.
The Westgate was tolled only on the bridge itself with the Lower Yarra Freeway west of Williamstown Road free for the locals to use upon opening in 1971, with the bridge and accompanying ‘Westgate Expressway’ delayed until 1978 ater the collapse and subsequent Royal Commission. As you noted traffic was low leading to abolition.
Here is an article about the two consortia that put in bids for the construction of EastLink: the Transurban-led group was the loser:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/06/11/1055220655971.html
And now that you mention it, I do recall seeing some spin at the time around the ‘cheaper tolls’ and ‘smaller tags’:
http://www.eastlink.com.au/downloadFile.aspx?file_id=170
On a related theme, a few years later the Auditor-General criticised the government for failing to compare the cost of the two EastLink bids with that of a publicly-built tollroad:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/eastlink-tender-botched-auditor/2005/12/15/1134500945034.html
East link is an absolute rip off, Costs us over $180 per month to still sit in traffic, add to that the ridiculous price of car registration and we are paying way too much for our roads. West Gate Bridge done it right and collected money until it was paid for and then the tolls were removed.
In the case of the West Gate Bridge they never actually paid it off with tolls – the government borrowed money to build it and planned for 40 years of tolls to pay it back. Over the next decade or so drivers kept on avoiding the road, so in 1985 the government caved in and made the road free, with the loans paid off some other way.
With roads like EastLink, the government gets to transfer the complete cost of building the road to private companies, who make their money back by charging drivers tolls. Unfortunately those companies aren’t doing it out of the goodness of their hearts – they want a generous profit margin on top of it all to pay their financial spin doctors!
Can you get a 12 month pass for the roads in Melbourne because I am paying 40 dollars every 3 days just to get to work?
No they don’t – if you don’t have some form of account, then the only option is day passes.
For a few short trips these passes are a ripoff compared to pay-as-you-go tolls, and if you are making heaps of trips each day, the toll operators try to limit you. In the case of CityLink, they will only sell you 12 passes per vehicle per year:
http://www.citylink.com.au/1798.htm
EastLink doesn’t seem to mind if you buy them more often – but their prices seems to align with their daily trip cap:
http://www.eastlink.com.au/page.aspx?cid=109
[…] works differently from the electronic tolling systems used on CityLink and East Link – the e-TAG inside your car is just a ‘dumb’ device that stores no information such as account balance inside it […]
Just wanted to pass on my thanks Marcus; your write up and simple to understand Eastlink piece saved me from my braindead self – ‘I need an e-tag for my car….google ‘citylink et-tag’ and then get 95% through the Citylink payment process and luckily find your piece before clicking FINSH and PAY.
The EastLink
Glad you found it useful. As for the changed minimum balance, it seems that Eastlink jacks it up a bit every year. When I first signed up, it was a nice round number.
Interesting reading all the comments. I have an RTA NSW ETag account, minimum balance $40 with a $60 top-up. Not sure how I managed to have $104 in my account. They have major problems with their accounting system (doubt if they would get away with it if they were non government), query your account at your peril as you can like it or lump it.
So Connect East seams to be the way to go. I have retired to Coffs Harbour and travel through Qld., NSW and Vic once or twice a year on average and handy to have a tag account.
On closing drove for Trans Otway coaches in the late 70’s from Geelong to Melbourne (Whites in Flinders Street) and the company were more than happy to pay the West gate toll to reduce travel time.
All these I did with an E-tag, there is no difference
You pay $40 to set up an account,
The entire $40 gets put onto the account as toll credit,
If you don
The CityLink ‘Everyday Account’ is the best deal from Transurban, but they charge a $27.50 minimum annual payment fee per e-TAG, for the first three years of the tag:
http://www.citylink.com.au/1222.htm
So for someone who uses toll roads each day, that won’t be an issue, but for an irregular user you might fall foul of the minimum charge.
I currently have a Breeze account(thank Marcus) as I only used the toll every few days but i will start using my car every day to travel in Melbourne. Is there a cheaper way or is my Breeze account still the best.
Thanks
Frans
Hi Frans,
Using a prepaid Breeze account should still work out the cheapest, but if you’re running up $10 in toll charges each day, you might need to keep an eye on the direct debits being made to your credit card every few days to keep your account balance up.
Hey mate thanks a lot – going for breeze!
I have been using citylink but they are charging a monthly fee. I want to change as we only use Melbourne roads a few times a year, who would you recommend?
The prepaid Breeze account doesn’t have any fees, but you have to keep a minimum balance in your account (the odd figure of $13.18).
Without sounding completely un-educated, if I purchase the Breeze Tag will that work on all tolls in Victoria, NSW and QLD?
Yes, a tag from any Australian company will work on any toll road from any Australian state:
http://www.its-australia.com.au/2012/06/australia-a-leader-in-linked-tolling-technology/
That is more than you can say about Australia’s railway network. ;-P
We have never done this toll thing so im confused as anything.. My husband is a courier driver is there some sort of discount or special account for people who would use the tolls quite a lot?
There isn’t any kind of ‘frequent user’ discount for any Melbourne toll roads, but Eastlink does offers a 20% off tolls for cars on weekends:
http://www.eastlink.com.au/tolls
CityLink doesn’t offer anything on their roads.
Beyond that, as a business you may be able to claim your toll costs as a tax deduction, and the GST paid as input tax credits. An accountant would be able to give you a definitive answer on that front.
[…] What is the cheapest tollway account for Melbourne? […]
[…] What is the cheapest tollway account for Melbourne? […]
Firstly city link for years never had rear of vechicle pointing cameras so motorcycles were free. It was awesome. Then connect East came along and changed that. City link have since followed suit.
Transurban have never charged me an account keeping fee. Ever.
Connect East class both my cx-9 and hiluxs as light commercial and would charge me more, if I was dumb enough to have an account. Transurban they are classed as car so therefor e-tag is much much cheaper.
I have a very small e-tag wouldn’t notice it. Connect East charge a fee if you don’t carry your tag. Transurban don’t..
I wouldn’t believe a word this bloke says.
Tolling motorbikes on CityLink was first flagged back in 2005, but it took until January 2014 for the free ride to end:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Bikers-revved-up-over-CityLink-toll/2005/05/11/1115585028110.html
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/motorbikes-free-citylink-ride-to-end-20131015-2vk39.html
And the ‘light commercial vs car’ issue is another way toll operators try to rake in extra money – there are loopholes, but both CityLink and ConnectEast say if they find out, you’ll get a bill to pay back the difference:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/toll-driver-crackdown/story-e6frf7kx-1111116663360
As for pricing, you are correct about Transurban not charging account keeping fees – their “Everyday Account” only has a “Minimum Annual Spend” of $27.50 per e-TAG for the first three years (which isn’t much given how much toll roads cost these days):
https://www.citylink.com.au/createaccount.asp#everyday-account
As for missing tags, Transurban mentions a “No Tag in Vehicle Fee” of $0.75 per trip, while ConnectEast charges $0.28 per trip:
https://www.citylink.com.au/business_mostcommonquestions.asp
Up in NSW the “no tag” fee ranges between $0.45 and $0.75, and one Queensland toll road charges a $0.89 fee.
Thanks for all this advice. Emmigrated in June last year to Melbourne. Still trying to get my car on the road which has proven extremely difficult on an imported Merc from UK.
Long story short just signed up for Breeze account based on this piece and links out to forum, top job and thanks for advice.
Good to know there are people out here that know what they are talking about…. my experience of mechanics and officials dealing in the importation of vehicles process is that they don’t have a bloody clue!
HI Marcus
My wife and I are self funded retirees and have upgraded our vehicle from a
station wagon to a twin cab ute. I was dismayed when updating our eastlink
account to be told that our new ute is classed as a commercial vehicle and as
such now attracts commercial toll rates.
Our ute is privately insured and therefore can not be used commercially.
With an identical ute which is used in the line of earning a living, the cost
of the gst can be claimed back via the Bas statements and the toll costs are
claimed as a cost of running a business.
I see this as another way of gouging the easy targets being the retired.
If you look around on the roads you will see many retirees driving small
utes towing their caravans.
This situation is just not fair,How do we go about lobbying the operators
of the toll roads ?..
There is a Tolling Customer Ombudsman who deals with such issues:
http://www.tollingombudsman.com.au/
Their response to a previous complaint:
It look like the only option is to complain to your local state politican to put pressure on the toll road operators.
Moving to Melb with WA plates on my car for at least 3 months… Can I set up an account with them and change it when the rego changes to Vic ones ?
Thanks
I’ve added multiple registration plates against my EastLink account over the years, and haven’t had any trouble.
Just make sure you remove the registration plates details from your account once you stop driving the car, or you might get charged the tolls for the people who gets the plates next:
http://www.tollingombudsman.com.au/Claim%20regarding%20tolls%20incurred%20for%20incorrect%20vehicle%20recorded%20on%20account%20-%20August%202015.pdf
I found that E-toll (https://www.myetoll.transport.nsw.gov.au/) has the best deal, please correct me if I’m wrong, but us has no registration fee, no account fees, no security tag deposit and no charges for credit card payments, just a minimum opening of 40 bucks.
Thanks for that tip – the lack of extra charges is presumably because the E-toll system is operated by the NSW Government, not private toll road operators.
Can Victorians sign up for this and use this instead of EastLink and Linkt?
Based on their FAQs they don’t seem to restrict opening an account to NSW residents or NSW registered vehicles.
https://www.myetoll.transport.nsw.gov.au/help-and-faqs/opening-e-toll-account
Thanks Marcus, I gave them a call as well and they said anyone can sign up. Also a Big thanks to you for contributing so much to this forum. I’m sure everyone appreciates it just like me.