ORLANDO, Fla. – SunPass account holders could start seeing charges from tolls withdrawn after the payment system website was down for more than a month.
The Florida Department of Transportation toll payment system first went down on June 1 for an upgrade, and problems with the SunPass website and mobile update prevented charges from being withdrawn, officials said.
Last week, FDOT officials said the department would be waiving all SunPass late fees and penalties due to lingering problems with the website and mobile app update. The SunPass system has accumulated toll charges for customer accounts since the system maintenance began on June 1.
Officials said more than 4 million transitions posted Tuesday. In a statement to customers, FDOT said charges will begin posting gradually, starting with the oldest transactions. Late fees and penalties will continue to be waived until the system is back to working order.
SunPass Plus parking is also available again at Florida's airports, including Orlando International Airport.
The issue has cost millions of dollars.
FDOT Secretary Mike Dew gave Conduent, the vendor on the project, 10 days to fix the problem or risk losing their $244 million contract. Dew said duplicate transactions are at the heart of the system failures and that more than 90 million transactions are unprocessed.
The Central Florida Expressway authority which runs E-Pass and operates most of the Orlando-area toll roads, is owed around $17 million in tolls because of the SunPass outage.
The authority hasn't been able to collect more than 11 million transactions.
State Rep. Bob Cortes, who is the vice chair on the Florida House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee, said he met with FDOT on Friday and wants the vendor held accountable. For now, Cortes said, the state is withholding all payments to Conduent until all the problems are fixed.