InComm expanded its prepaid tolling and transit program with RiverLink Starter Kits for commuters crossing the Ohio River between Louisville, Kentucky and southern Indiana. The company announced the addition on September 26, 2017.

Each kit contains a transponder and a reload card. A commuter can purchase the kit, establish funds in a RiverLink account and return to a participating retailer with the reload card when more value is needed. The retail payment options described by InComm included cash.

Retail access to a tolling account

The arrangement gives drivers a physical retail channel for obtaining a transponder and funding their toll account. InComm vice president of business development Michael Herold identified cash-preferred commuters among the intended users.

Kapsch TrafficCom initiated the partnership with RiverLink. The announcement identifies Kapsch as the supplier operating the toll collection system for three bridges within the Louisville–Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges project, with responsibilities also covering back-office and customer service operations.

InComm’s contribution was the prepaid retail funding channel. Its existing point-of-sale connections were used to make account loading available through participating stores, alongside the transponder and toll infrastructure operated by the project’s providers.

Part of a six-state program

At the time of the announcement, InComm said its tolling and transit program operated in six states. Other examples included public transportation cards for Utah Transit Authority in Salt Lake City and prepaid toll products for Georgia’s Peach Pass.

Herold described a longer-term ambition to extend prepaid toll and transit access nationally. InComm’s broader retail payments portfolio already covered prepaid activation, account funding and gift-related products, supplying the retail connectivity used by the tolling program.