The $25 Fee That Turns One Missed Peach Pass Toll Into a Bill Georgians Can’t Ignore

Georgia caps the administrative fee on a single missed toll at $25, under the code section governing Peach Pass violations.

That’s the opening charge.

The state has more than one way to keep adding to it, and each one runs on a clock the driver never sees start.

This is how one missed Peach Pass toll turns into a bill Georgians can’t ignore.

Note: This is general information, not legal or financial advice. Toll violation fees, penalties, and deadlines are subject to change, so confirm the current details with the State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA).

The Camera Behind Missed Tolls

Georgia’s Express Lanes require an active Peach Pass account and a mounted transponder every time a driver enters, whether on I-85, I-75’s Northwest Corridor, or I-75 South Metro.

None of those corridors offer a cash lane or a toll booth at the gantry.

Drivers from other states can swap in a compatible E-ZPass, SunPass, E-Pass, or Quick Pass transponder instead.

A Georgia driver without one of those, and without a Peach Pass account, has no way to pay on the spot.

A camera mounted above the lane takes a time-stamped photo of the license plate the instant a transponder fails to register.

That photo becomes a formal violation once SRTA matches the plate to the vehicle’s registered owner through Georgia’s vehicle records.

It’s not a warning.

The Notice That Adds the $25 Fee

Georgia adds an administrative fee of up to $25 to every toll violation, and that figure comes straight from state law.

The fee applies whether the missed toll itself runs under a dollar or several dollars, since Georgia’s Express Lanes price by the mile and shift with traffic.

Every time.

Georgia’s law also caps that fee at $25, no matter how many notices go out for the same violation.

A slow response doesn’t multiply the administrative charge on its own.

SRTA mails that combined bill, the toll plus the fee, to the address on file with the vehicle’s registration.

Pay it at that point, and the toll plus the fee is the whole bill.

The Follow-Up Demand Letter

Peach Pass doesn’t stop at one notice.

A driver who lets that first bill sit gets a follow-up letter titled Final Demand, and the name fits.

That letter states plainly that Georgia can refer the matter to the state’s Office of State Administrative Hearings (OSAH) if the bill still goes unpaid.

This is the second notice.

Georgia’s law calls this pattern “multiple failures.”

That’s what lets SRTA move the case to OSAH once a driver has ignored notice after notice, including this Final Demand letter.

A driver who pays before that Final Demand deadline never reaches OSAH at all.

If OSAH does take the case, more than the toll ends up on the line.

The Hearing Office's $70 Add-On

OSAH can add a civil penalty of up to $70 to a Peach Pass violation once a case reaches its docket.

That penalty stacks on top of the toll and the $25 administrative fee already sitting on the bill, not instead of them.

Per violation, not per case.

A driver with more than one unpaid toll swept into the same OSAH referral can see that $70 penalty apply to each one.

The 30-Day Registration Suspension

A Peach Pass judgment from OSAH carries a hard deadline under Georgia law, and that deadline is 30 days to pay everything before the state suspends the vehicle's registration automatically.

The suspension takes effect by operation of law, with no extra hearing and no separate notice required.

It's not a license suspension.

It doesn't lift on its own, and Georgia offers no shortcut around it.

The hold stays in place until the toll, the administrative fee, and the civil penalty are all paid to SRTA in full.

A driver can't renew that registration while an unpaid Peach Pass judgment is attached to it.

One Driver's Fast-Growing Bill

Missed toll fees and civil penalties keep stacking on an unpaid bill for as long as it goes unpaid.

A metro Atlanta case from 2024 shows how much that can add up to.

A driver's Peach Pass debt, tied to tolls from months earlier, reportedly grew from more than $1,400 to more than $4,700.

That's according to an investigation by Atlanta television station WSB-TV.

A collections agency took over the account somewhere along the way.

That escalated fast.

SRTA told WSB-TV that a backlog had delayed how quickly tolls were posting to driver accounts, and the agency said it was working to speed up processing.

The deadlines apply whether the delay is the post office's fault or the driver's.

SRTA has since said tolls typically post within 14 to 30 days of a trip, longer than the turnaround the agency used to promise.

The 90-Day Window to Fight Back

Georgia gives every driver who gets a Peach Pass violation a chance to dispute it, not just a bill to pay.

SRTA's dispute process gives drivers 90 days from the date a violation is received to file a challenge, with a written response required within 14 business days.

Not a free pass, though.

The dispute process exists to challenge whether a violation is valid, not to erase a toll a driver simply forgot to pay.