Would You Open This Envelope? WSDOT defends plain toll bills

Luke dug through some old piles of mail this weekend to see if the Washington Department of Transportation had sent him any bills for driving on 520. Turns out, he did receive a couple of bills already, he just hadn’t known they were bills because they came in these unmarked envelopes:

“It just couldn’t be more general looking. There’s no stamp on it, it doesn’t say anything about ‘there’s a bill enclosed,’ it doesn’t say “Good to Go,” it doesn’t say ‘please pay your toll’,” Luke complains.

So Ross and Burbank took the issue to the top. Craig Stone, WSDOT tolling director, insisted the plain envelopes were done in the public’s interest.

“Some of the reasons for that is we have personal information inside the bill. We’re here to protect that information that we get at the Department of Licensing as we send these out,” Stone told Ross and Burbank.

Listen to Craig Stone/WSDOT defends plain white envelopes

That information includes an account number, license plate number, and account balance.

Luke wondered why they didn’t at least make the envelope more colorful to make them stand out from all the junk mail.

“When I get my credit cards from Visa or somebody it doesn’t say Visa on it because I want to protect that,” Stone said.

Bills that go unpaid will result in some hefty fines and ultimately sent to collections. And Luke wondered if the plain envelopes were a ploy to get people to overlook the bills and end up paying far more.

“There’s absolutely no truth to that at all. What we really want people to do is just to pay their tolls,” Stone insisted.

“We just really want the customers to just be aware if they’ve driven over the Tacoma Narrows Bridge or 520 just be looking for the pay by mail.”

Dave had a much simpler solution.

“How about a cheery sticker that says your toll bill is here with a big exclamation point?!”

Luke isn’t satisfied with Stone’s explanation and remains convinced it’s unfair to send official mail like this without any identification on the envelope. “It was under like three pizza coupons. It would have been very easy for me to take this and just shred it.”

What do you think? Would you have opened this envelope, or would you have assumed it was junk mail?

-Josh Kerns/My Northwest.com