Using the Peach Pass lane without a pass triggers an automatic toll violation. Cameras photograph your license plate, and the State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA) mails the vehicle’s registered owner a bill for the unpaid toll plus an administrative fee of up to $25 per trip.1Peach Pass. F.A.Q. – Frequently Asked Questions Pay it promptly and that’s the end of it. Ignore it and the charge grows into civil penalties, collections, and eventually a suspended vehicle registration.
How the Camera Catches You
Georgia’s Express Lanes have no toll booths. Electronic readers scan for a Peach Pass transponder as each vehicle passes, and when nothing is detected, enforcement cameras photograph the plate with a time stamp.1Peach Pass. F.A.Q. – Frequently Asked Questions SRTA then checks that plate against its database of active Peach Pass accounts. No match, no payment, and the trip is logged as a violation.
No officer stops you. No traffic citation is issued. The whole process runs through the mail, and the bill goes to whoever is listed on the vehicle registration — not necessarily the person who was driving.1Peach Pass. F.A.Q. – Frequently Asked Questions If you lent your car to a friend who took the Express Lane, the notice still lands in your mailbox.
What the First Notice Costs
SRTA mails a Uniform Toll Violation notice to the address on your vehicle registration. It shows the date, time, and location of the trip, includes a photo of your plate, and separates the amount owed into the toll itself and an administrative fee of up to $25.2Justia Law. Georgia Code 32-10-64 – General Toll Powers
The toll portion varies. Peach Pass uses dynamic pricing: off-peak trips can be as low as $0.50, while heavy rush-hour tolls on the busiest corridors can hit $8.00 or more. So a single notice usually totals somewhere between about $25.50 and $33. Each trip through the lane generates its own violation number and its own $25 fee, so a week of commuting without a pass stacks up fast.
The notice lists a payment deadline. Meet it and nothing else happens.
How to Pay
SRTA accepts payment through three channels:
- Online at peachpass.com, using the violation number and your license plate to pull up the balance.
- By phone, using the number printed on the notice.
- By mail, with a check or money order sent to the address on the notice. Write the violation number on the payment so SRTA can match it.
If you have more than one violation, confirm you’re paying each violation number individually. They don’t bundle automatically.
What Happens If You Don’t Pay
The penalties don’t level off. They climb through several stages, and each stage is harder to escape than the one before.
Final Demand Letter and Collections
Miss the deadline on the initial notice and SRTA sends a Final Demand letter covering all outstanding violations. It’s your last chance to pay the full balance before SRTA refers the matter further, which can include handing the debt to a collections agency.3Peach Pass. Pay Toll Violations
Once a collector takes over, your credit is exposed. Federal rules require debt collectors to contact you and provide a validation notice before reporting to credit bureaus, but the violation notices SRTA already mailed may satisfy that step, so a collector can report fairly quickly after taking the account.4Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. When Can a Debt Collector Report My Debt to a Credit Reporting Company?
Administrative Hearing and $70 Civil Penalty
If the Final Demand goes unanswered, SRTA can refer the case to the Office of State Administrative Hearings (OSAH). OSAH decides whether the registered owner repeatedly failed to pay tolls and administrative fees. A ruling against you results in a judgment covering all outstanding tolls, all $25 administrative fees, and additional civil penalties of up to $70 per violation.3Peach Pass. Pay Toll Violations
That $70 is on top of the toll and the $25 fee. A single trip that started as a $26 bill can turn into nearly $100. Ten unpaid trips — a week of two-a-day commuting — approach $1,000 at the maximum.
Vehicle Registration Suspension
After OSAH enters its judgment, you have 30 days to pay everything owed. Miss that window and your vehicle’s registration is suspended by operation of law.3Peach Pass. Pay Toll Violations
Driving on a suspended registration is a separate criminal offense in Georgia. A traffic stop at that point can mean citations, impoundment, and more fines. To reinstate, you have to clear every outstanding toll, fee, and penalty with SRTA, then pay any reinstatement fees charged by the Georgia Department of Revenue and complete the DOR’s reinstatement process separately.
How to Dispute a Violation You Don’t Think You Owe
Not every notice is accurate. Cameras occasionally misread plates, transponders fail, and valid Peach Pass accounts sometimes aren’t credited at the gantry. SRTA accepts disputes, and the filing window is reportedly 90 days from the violation’s issue date.
Common grounds that tend to succeed:
- You had a funded Peach Pass but the reader didn’t detect your transponder. Your account history, showing the toll was never deducted, backs this up.
- The plate in the photo isn’t yours, or your plate had been cloned or stolen.
- You sold the vehicle before the trip. A bill of sale or plate surrender receipt shifts liability to the new owner.
You can open a dispute online, by phone, or by mail. Gather your evidence first: the violation notice, Peach Pass account records if any, and supporting documents such as a bill of sale or a police report for a stolen plate. Disputes based on an active Peach Pass account at the time of the trip are usually the easiest to resolve, because SRTA can confirm the toll should have been charged to the account rather than issued as a violation.
Rental Cars
Visitors often discover Peach Pass violations as a surprise line item on a rental bill weeks later. Georgia’s Express Lanes are pass-only, with no cash option, so a rental car entering the lane without a transponder triggers the same camera-based process as any other vehicle.1Peach Pass. F.A.Q. – Frequently Asked Questions
Because the rental company is the registered owner, SRTA bills them. The rental company pays and passes the toll along to you, with its own administrative fee on top. Those fees commonly run about $5 to $16 per toll day, sometimes capped per rental period. One accidental trip through the Express Lanes can easily reach $40 to $50 on the final bill.
You have two realistic ways to avoid it: stay out of the Express Lanes, or bring your own compatible transponder from home and add the rental car’s plate to your account before you drive.
Setting Up a Peach Pass
Given what a violation can cost, opening an account is the obvious move. The transponder itself is free. You fund the account with a minimum prepaid balance of $20, which goes toward your tolls. A Pay n GO! starter kit is also sold at retail locations for the prepaid amount plus a one-time $2.50 retailer fee.5Atlanta-Region Transit Link Authority. Frequently Asked Questions: Peach Pass
Mount the transponder sticker on your windshield, keep the balance funded, and turn on auto-replenish. A depleted balance triggers the same violation cameras as having no transponder at all.
You don’t necessarily need a Peach Pass specifically. Georgia’s Express Lanes also accept several interoperable transponders through the E-ZPass network, including E-ZPass, SunPass, E-Pass, and NC Quick Pass, with the toll deducted from the linked account.6Peach Pass. About Peach Pass
One boundary worth knowing: even toll-exempt vehicles such as certified motorcycles still need a registered Peach Pass account and a mounted transponder to use the Express Lanes. Being exempt from the toll does not exempt you from the transponder requirement, and riding without one still triggers a violation.7Peach Pass. Alternative Fuel Vehicle (AFV) and Motorcycle Certification
If you’ve already piled up unpaid violations, watch for SRTA amnesty periods. They aren’t regular or guaranteed, but when offered they can waive the $25 administrative fees for drivers who pay the underlying tolls within the window.