July 27, 2018 UPDATE -- SunPass says it has now processed more than 137 million out of 170 million backlogged transactions.
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Frustrated drivers are earning support among some politicians who say Governor Rick Scott should waive all toll charges, until a state vendor can get a toll billing system fully operational.
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Florida Department of Transportation says the vendor, a contracted company called Conduent is "working diligently to clear the backlog of toll transactions."
Problems began more than a month ago when system upgrades created a backlog of transactions not being posted to customer accounts.
FDOT acknowledged the backlog in July, about a month after SunPass suspended toll processing ahead of the planned system rebuild. While toll transactions were recorded, the system was never brought back online, and the transactions were never posted to user accounts.
FDOT says the original backlog is now greater than 170 million transactions not being posted, although as of the morning of July 26, 128 million transactions have been posted.
FDOT suspended fees and penalties while the vendor works to get the backlogged transactions posted to accounts.
Customer frustrations, worries grow
"It’s frustrating because it's a mystery to know how much we owe in our tolls," said Mike DiMauro.
DiMauro is a delivery driver who relies on SunPass transactions to be reimbursed by his employer.
"My concern is, once transactions have been posted, SunPass is going to take money out of my bank and I’m not going to have any money in the bank," DiMaruo said.
DiMaruo launched an online petition, with nearly 3,400 signatures as of July 26. He says his aim is to get state leaders to dismiss past charges and waive all tolls, until the system is up and running.
Some Democratic state lawmakers have since come out supporting the effort.
A spokesman for Gov. Rick Scott and FDOT say the law limits his authority to do that, citing Florida Statute 338.155.
The statute says: The secretary or the secretary’s designee may suspend the payment of tolls on a toll facility when necessary to assist in emergency evacuation.
The statute does not provide for any other instance where tolls may be suspended.
"Customers are not being charged late fees or penalties as a result of the backlog of transactions, and will receive transaction bills in increments, starting with the oldest transactions first," said Ed Seifert, interim director of communications for FDOT.
"Governor Scott firmly believes that every vendor that does business with the State of Florida first and foremost serves and is accountable to the families and taxpayers of our state," said McKinley Lewis, spokesman for Gov. Scott. "SunPass is no exception. While the issues with the SunPass system do not interrupt traffic on Florida's toll roads or affect the cost of tolls in any way, they remain unacceptable and total restoration of this service must be achieved quickly. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has committed that this vendor will be held fully accountable and that FDOT will continue to aggressively work until this is fixed."
Conduent's deal with Florida
FDOT records show Conduent was given a seven-year $287 million contract in 2015, beating out two other companies for the bid.
Conduent was contracted, according to FDOT, to "…provide all support functions, including customer service support, customer account management, billing, invoicing, and violation enforcement."
The contract is "performance-based," and Seifert says the state is holding Conduent "…fully accountable for the delays it has caused and will be enforcing all penalty clauses of the contract to the maximum extent possible."
Conduent touted in 2015 of it's ability to "reduce costs" and "drive operational efficiencies" when it won the contract. They predicted then they would be processing more than one billion transactions per year, and managing more than five million accounts.
It is estimated Conduent provides billing and transaction support operations for nearly half of the toll systems in the United States. Past investigations show Conduent has had similar troubles across the U.S., including Texas, California and New York.
Critics say Florida should have seen the red flags before signing the contract in 2015.
FDOT Secretary Mike Dew wrote to Conduent in a June 28, 2018 letter outlining the "significant deficiencies in the operations." Dew told the company that it "has not been able to properly perform the core task of accurately processing transactions."
Conduent President David Amoriell replied in a July 10, 2018 letter, acknowledging the failures and attempting to reassure state leaders they were addressing them. Amoriell does not provide detail into what caused the problems in the first place.
Conduent says it is catching up, now processing more backlogged transactions per day than there are actual new transactions.
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