As an additional service offering, HTA is also the leading provider of toll violations processing services to the North American rental car industry. Toll violations processing is a time-consuming and costly diversion within the rental industry, due inadvertently to the overwhelming popularity of electronic toll collection. HTA's program encompasses all issues associated with toll violations, including billing, dispute resolution, and customer service. The HTA toll violations program can be utilized by any rental company whose customers travel on toll roads, including those without electronic toll payment systems.

"HTA has maintained a clear vision and steadfast commitment in introducing innovation to the rental community," said Neil Abrams, president of Abrams Consulting Group, the leading provider of consulting services to the car rental industry. "This program is one of the more compelling developments we've seen in our industry in a while, and most importantly rental customers love the HTA program where offered."

Budget Rent-A-Car of Newark Liberty International Airport, HTA's primary customer during the testing period, recently surpassed its 25,000th transponder rental within 18 months of launch. Budget of Newark is located within the popular E-ZPass electronic toll collection system. Customers are charged a small daily fee plus the value of any tolls incurred. All charges are billed by HTA directly to the customer's charge card.

"Customer response has been overwhelmingly positive, with the availability of the E-ZPass transponder a primary consideration among many frequent travelers to the area," said Rick Beal, general manager of Budget Rent-A-Car of Newark. "Both our business and leisure customers have placed great value on the convenience and time savings provided by the HTA service. Our association with HTA has become a true differentiator between Budget and our competition at Newark International Airport."

Electronic toll payment has become a popular and growing alternative to paying cash for tolls with more than 20 million transponders in use in the United States and Canada. Of the 20 largest markets in the U.S., 15 utilize electronic toll payment on their roadways. HTA estimates approximately 350,000 rental vehicles in the United States and Canada reside within electronic toll collection systems.

Generally speaking, individuals who pay tolls electronically avoid the burden of fumbling for coins, waiting in cash lines at the toll plaza, and saving receipts. Rental cars have long been problematic for transponder installation because each toll incurred must be assigned to the driver of the vehicle; the average rental vehicle is driven by a different driver every 3-4 days.

HTA provides a complete turnkey program to the agency operator, including proprietary software interfaces, transponder inventory management, direct billing, and customer service, while a portion of revenue collected is returned to the rental agency. The rental agency's daily responsibilities are confined to offering the use of the transponder to the customer, and to inform HTA to which vehicles the transponders have been affixed.