DeLand, FL – Those who want to go to Volusia County’s beaches now have a way to get their vehicles on the sand without going to the beach first.
A new website created by Faneuil Incorporated allows people to buy up to 5 different types of annual passes starting right now. (Click here to go to that website.)
That website – www.volusiabeachpass.com – sells passes for vehicle access the beachside as well as the inlet parks at Smyrna Dunes in New Smyrna Beach and Lighthouse Point in Ponce Inlet.
There are 2 types of passes for county residents and another 2 for visitors. There’s also a pass for access to the inlet parks and a free pass for the disabled to park on beachside or the inlet parks.
Daily passes are not available through the website but will be available at any of the county’s beach toll booth locations as well as a walk-in center in Daytona Beach Shores that’s expected to open next month.
Pass prices are expected to remain the same across the board after the county raised the prices this year for the first time in nearly 20 years.
The Volusia County Council approved Faneuil – a Virginia-based company – to run the beach toll collection system in October as well as the toll collection at Smyrna Dunes and Lighthouse Point.
Faneuil replaced Republic Parking Systems, the company Volusia’s used to run its beach toll booths since 1997.
County officials think Faneuil – the same company that runs toll booths on the Florida Turnpike – would provide better customer service at the toll booth as well as give beachgoers more ways to buy beach passes, especially online and through smartphones.
Under the new contract, all toll booths are expected to have credit card readers in place by January 2016. More walk-in centers should be created on beachside so beachgoers can drive there to get the passes if they don’t want to go through the toll booths or online.
The contract calls for Volusia to pay around $1.56 million a year to Faneuil to run the toll booths instead of paying them a percentage of tolls collected, as was the case with Republic.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.