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Electronic Merchant Systems, a Cleveland-based acquirer and independent sales organization, has won a two-year contract to provide payment card processing for the Ohio Turnpike Commission's electronic toll-collection service, Kathy Weiss, commission director of contracts administration, tells CardLine sister publication ISO&Agent Weekly. The commission plans to install the E-ZPass toll system in the fourth quarter. Accountholders will be able to replenish their accounts online for their E-ZPass transponders, which communicate wirelessly with antennas near the roadway to capture tolls. Tollway travelers also will be able to pay tolls by swiping a payment card at a tollbooth, Weiss says. The commission operates 31 toll plazas. The system will accept Visa Inc., MasterCard Worldwide, American Express Co. and Discover Financial Services cards, though it will process debit cards as only signature-debit transactions when used online and at tollbooths, Weiss says. It will not accept PIN-debit transactions. The commission handles about $500,000 in annual credit card transactions currently and collects between $180 million to $200 million in annual tolls, Weiss says. The contract has three two-year renewal periods, she says. The commission is just now adding electronic toll-collection because its route is mostly in rural areas that lack the congestion of urban areas, Weiss says. "Customers would like the convenience of E-ZPass," she says, and the commission's adoption fills a gap in the toll systems that recognize E-ZPass payments in the Northeast and Midwest. Currently, 13 states have electronic-toll collection systems. Electronic Merchant Systems faced three competitors for the contract: Chicago-based MB Financial Bank N.A.; National City Merchant Services, a unit of Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank N.A.; and Huntington Merchant Services, a revenue-sharing alliance between Greenwood Village, Colo.-based First Data Corp. and Huntington Bancshares Inc. of Columbus, Ohio.
