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Highway 407 in Canada was one of the first toll roads in the world to do without toll booths entirely. The highway makes use entirely of electronic devices to levy a toll. A bill is subsequently sent in the mail to the owner of the vehicle. Anyone who cheats and doesn’t pay will not be able to renew his license.

For regular users Highway 407 issues a transponder, which is mounted on the windshield of each vehicle. As the car enters the highway, it passes under two overhead gantries that determine the exact size of the car, and whether it is a commercial or private vehicle. At the same time, an antenna device electronically reads the registration number on the transponder. When the car leaves the highway, an electronic device again is alerted and determines the exact number of miles the car has traveled. The information is relayed to a central computer, which computes a monthly figure and sends out a bill.

Cars without transponders are charged via a series of state of the art license plate number detectors. When the highway electronically senses that an oncoming car does not have a transponder, four video cameras photograph the license plate form different angles. The number is determined, and compared to the same number, when it is photographed exiting the toll road, the toll is calculated and a bill sent to the owner of the license plate at the end of the month.

The cost for vehicles having a transponder is less expensive than the cost for vehicles charged by the license recognition system. Furthermore, heavier vehicles are charged considerably less per kilometer than lighter vehicle. This has an interesting bearing on limousine versus taxi transportation costs.

Whereas all limousines have transponders, very few taxi cabs do. As a result, it is more expensive for taxis than limousines to travel on 407. So when taxis versus limousines are making pickups along highways adjacent to 407, they are more likely to take the local road. In fact, over 90% of taxis taking fares to Toronto International Airport use the regular route. While using the regular route saves toll charges, the longer ride raises the price on the taxi meter which charges by travel time as well as distance. So the taxi ride to the airport takes longer and the cost of a taxi ride to the airport frequently exceeds the limousine cost.

As an example, both Markham and Burlington border 407. The airport limo fare to Toronto Airport from these cities is: $55-$65 and $65-$85 respectively. A Markham airport taxi,ride can run more than $75 and a Burlington airport taxi ride can run more than $85 dollars. The rather startling conclusion, customers can frequently get a nicer and less expensive ride to the airport by using a limousine.

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