A technical glitch that's causing the tolling system on the Golden Ears Bridge to charge some motorists too much still hasn't been fixed. CTV News has learned the system is over-charging more vehicles than first thought and that's not the only development .
Some motorcyclists have said they were over-charged by nearly $2 every time they crossed the bridge because the system recognized their motorbikes as cars.
One theory behind the glitch was that motorcycles riding in a group could be fooling the system into thinking they were a larger vehicle like a car.
When CTV News tested the theory on Sunday, each rider in a group crossing the bridge together was identified as a car and over-charged on their account.
On the return trip, each motorcyclist rode alone but again, each was charged the higher car rate anyway. In fact, John Waddington's motorbike has been charged as a car five times in just the last two days and never correctly identified as a motorcycle.
"It just results in 80 per cent of the time motorcycles [like mine] and my friends are being charged as cars. They'll give us our money back but we have to go in and ask for it," he said.
CTV News has now learned some other vehicles are also being over-charged
"We also have had situations where trucks which are not huge trucks but can be measured like it is a huge truck. Those vehicle right on the borderline are representing a problem for the automated system to detect," TransLink spokesman Ken Hardie said.
Quick Pass handles TransLink's tolling system. CTV News was permitted inside company's headquarters on Tuesday to see how it works. It became clear the system is only looking for cheaters -- not for errors the company may have made.
Quick Pass looks at pictures of vehicles when a discrepancy is noted that may cost the company money, such as when it appears a car transponder has been put into a large vehicle to avoid a higher toll.
But errors that are in the company's favour and cost drivers money are not flagged for inspection. That means when the system says a motorcycle is a car, it gets charged a higher rate and the error continues to be made because no one's looking for it.
Quick Pass waits for drivers to point out the errors.
Waddington thinks the company should go back over every motorcyclist's account looking for errors.
"They've been taking money off everybody and keeping their money. It would be a massive job but they owe those people money because they charged them incorrectly," Waddington said.
TransLink says it is looking for a solution and hopes to announce something soon.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Chris Olsen
