This Summer’s Traffic Increase Isn’t a Volume Problem…
it’s a Customer Experience Test.
Tolling agencies know what summer means: more cars, more transactions, and more customer service calls. However, summer traffic doesn’t just mean increased volume; your toll facilities may be serving an entirely different customer base.
This summer, the United States will be dominated by the resurgence of the American road trip, with 71% of travelers planning to drive for vacations. Major events like the 250th US Anniversary and the FIFA World Cup will bring customers from around the world onto our highways to visit our amazing landmarks and onto our urban roadways to get to soccer/football/futbol games.
From Memorial Day through Labor Day, your roads may see more:
First-time toll users
Out-of-state and international travelers
Rental car drivers
Motorcyclists and RV drivers
Drivers with bike racks, campers, or trailers
Cash users navigating all-electronic tolling systems
Some of the common frustrations we hear are:
“Where am I supposed to pay my toll?”
“I didn’t know I was on a toll road.”
“Why am I charged differently when I’m hauling my camper?”
“I’m never going to use this road again, so I don’t need to pay.”
These customers don’t just need service, they need education, clarity, and reassurance.
Using Lessons Learned From Summer Travel to Improve the Customer Experience
Vague instructions on the roadway about how an infrequent customer can interact with the operator or a lack of modern or familiar payment options lead to confusion or nonpayment. Summer travelers don’t cause these problems; they merely reveal them.
Avoid getting burned this summer with these best practices that carry over into the rest of the year.
Reinforce clarity over complexity: If a first-time user can’t understand your invoice in a handful of seconds, it might not be clear. Use feedback from this summer’s flood of first-time users to revisit your invoice design and remove the confusing noise.
Provide human-centered solutions: Consider grace periods for first-time violators or incentives to open a prepaid transponder account. By giving customers different options, agencies can demonstrate the foundations of good customer service, such as responsiveness, empathy, and personalization.
Prioritize prevention over reaction: The best customer service interaction is the one that never happens. Update payment instructions with first-time users in mind. Best practices include avoiding jargon, using lists and bullet points, and writing at an eighth-grade reading level or below. Consider offering payment options for license plates before the invoice is even mailed; this can help reduce costs and incoming calls.
Increase public outreach: Proactive communication isn’t optional; it's an operational strategy. Use short, engaging social media videos and participate in community events to educate potential summer customers. Partner with motorcycle associations, rally organizers, and riding clubs. Launch fun summer campaigns and reach out to DMV and tourism channels, hotel concierge networks, rental car companies, travel apps, the media, and state welcome centers. If there’s a big event in your area, work with organizers to ensure toll information is included in their instructions to attendees.
Make sure your branding is clear and consistent: To combat the rise in scams and fraud, maintain strict brand alignment across all your public-facing efforts. Consistent branding helps customers distinguish legitimate communications.
Design self-service mechanisms that actually serve: The average time spent on a website is 54 seconds. If it takes longer than that to find and pay an outstanding toll invoice, you may have already lost or frustrated the customer. Additionally, infrequent customers want to pay quickly and move on, they don’t want to fill out long forms or provide personal information.
Align expectations with rental car companies: We tend to see more rental cars on the road in the summer. Reach out to your rental car account managers to ensure you have a shared experience and set of expectations for this influx of first-time users. Use your communication channels to remind customers to contact their rental car providers to pay their invoices.
Use artificial intelligence purposefully: AI should not be used as a deflection tool but as a way to remove friction and free up human representatives for moments that require personal interactions. Ensure your online chat is available and does not trap customers in frustrating loops.
Borrow best practices from other industries: Customers won’t just compare your experience to another toll road; they’ll compare it to every seamless digital experience they’ve had anywhere. Identify what websites you enjoy visiting and ask yourself how your website feels to new customers.
Why Summer Is the Most Important Season for Toll Road Public Perception
For many drivers, their only interaction with you may be this summer, on their way to the beach or the big game. You don’t want to be the ones who complicate their trip or confuse customers enough that they miss kick-off.
This means your busiest season is also your most important moment in terms of public perception. It’s an excellent opportunity to showcase the benefits of toll roads and increase public trust.
This summer, you are not just managing a surge; you are deciding what kind of experience you want to deliver to new or infrequent customers when it matters most.
Use this time to see where you can make improvements. We’re here to help.
Carrie Mackenzie is a Customer Experience Consultant at Milligan. She has experience developing and implementing standard operating procedures, creating training materials and knowledge guides to support customer service representatives, and overseeing training for back-office operations, including transponder management, commercial accounts, and dispute resolution. Her ability to integrate customer experience, data insights, and operational best practices positions her to effectively manage and support CSC consolidation, self-service optimization, and ongoing performance improvements. She can be reached at carrie@milligan.co.
Source: https://stories.hilton.com/2026-trends/the-us-road-trip-returns