Turnpike Will Now Start Texting Those With Unpaid Tolls

Pennsylvania Turnpike officials say they will soon start sending out text messages to drivers who have unpaid tolls. The Turnpike Commission says this is part of a pilot program to crack down on drivers who aren’t paying their bills and to let them know before they are sent to a collections agency. The issue though, is scams. There has been no shortage of scams involving text messages that appear to come from the turnpike. Officials, though, say they have $240 million in unpaid tolls from 2025 that they want to recoup – so – in June or July, they will be pushing out text messages to drivers with unpaid tolls as part of a six-month pilot program. They say they are still working on the exact wording, but before text messages are sent out, they will clearly show what the text message will say; when the texts will go out and the phone number from which the messages will come.