Almost half of all eastern Australia complaints made about toll roads to the Ombudsman were about Transurban in Queensland, a parliamentary inquiry has heard.
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It also looks like motorists will not get any discounts on the current toll fees.
During the first public briefing into an inquiry into operation of toll roads in Queensland, it was revealed the body responsible for dealing with complaints in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland - the Tolling Customer Ombudsman - did not have a physical office and it was a part-time position.
General counsel Nicholas Crowhurst said the TCO had a PO Box mailing address for Brisbane and Melbourne but had so few requests for in-person meetings that it was not economically viable to maintain a physical office.
If someone sends a fax to the TCO, it will be sent to a Victorian post office, based at Hawthorne.
However, Mr Crowhurst said overwhelmingly, complaints arrived via email.
The TCO is funded by the tolling operators - Transurban, ConnectEast and Interlink Roads - but Mr Crowhurst said the funding arrangements were completely separate from the authority to run the dispute process fairly.
"The whole faith in the system gets undermined if we start being biased one way or another, so we have to really preserve our integrity and our independence quite carefully irrespective of it all," he said.
About 48 per cent of complaints to the TCO from August 2015 to February 2018 were about Transurban's operations in Queensland.
However, Transurban Queensland group executive Sue Johnson said complaints going to the TCO had halved in the past four years.
"And last year we actually saw a 33 per cent decline in the number of complaints there as well," she said.
Mr Crowhurst said the TCO was dedicated to providing a free and independent dispute resolution process and its decisions were binding on the tolling operators if accepted by the customer.
The TCO, Michael Arnold, was unable to attend the inquiry as he returned from Europe on Monday.
The inquiry was told if the state government were to ask Transurban to lower tolls - against its prior agreement - Transurban would be entitled to taxpayer-funded compensation.
"Any compensation the state is required to pay would result in less funding being available for road and transport projects and maintenance around the whole state," Transport and Main Roads policy planning and investment deputy director-general Julie Mitchell said.
Ms Johnson said the government sold south-east Queensland's toll roads four years ago for more than $7 billion.
"One of the most significant factors that we considered was the toll price of the day and that had been set and was set by the government," she said.
Asked by LNP leader Deb Frecklington if Transurban would consider discounted tolls during off peak to increase usage, Ms Johnson said the company would always look at options.
"But with the $7 billion investment we've got obligations both to bank lenders and also to our shareholders, so we will look at options but there is nothing at this point other than obviously working with the toll that was set by the government," Ms Johnson said.
Ms Johnson said since 2016, there was a 16 per cent increase in toll use in south-east Queensland.
"We see nearly half a million trips being taken on toll roads in south-east Queensland on any given work day," she said.
The Victorian government in 2002, using figures from Transurban, estimated a justified administration fee for processing a toll charge was between 28 and 93 cents.
But Transurban charges an administration fee of $23.81.
