TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – SunPass is under the microscope yet again. This time, it's Florida lawmakers asking the tough questions.
Those questions include if they can drop Conduent, the state contractor in charge of the SunPass customer service and billing system, because of all the problems stemming from last summer's failed SunPass upgrade.
The questions were asked during the Florida Senate Infrastructure and Security committee meeting held Tuesday.
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Florida state Sen. Tom Lee, who is the committee chairman and represents Senate District 20, acknowledged the upgrade went poorly, and that there were a tremendous amount of disruptions including a new system that did not go live on schedule, payment processing problems, overcharges, poor website performance, customer billing discrepancies and a call center with unacceptable wait times.
He also addressed the media and public backlash.
"We don't know exactly what the damages are where we sit today," Lee said. "But the magnitude is significant. Millions of transactions a day."
Gerry O'Reilly, who is the District 4 secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation, gave a presentation and update on the SunPass Centralized Customer Service System to the committee, and did his best to address members' questions.
O'Reilly said when they went live, they had 6.5 million SunPass accounts in the system, and he acknowledged they are just this week finishing mailing invoices to more than 4.4 million people who have Toll-By-Plate.
"In the early months, when things weren't getting processed, that was totally unexpected and shouldn't be how it happened," O'Reilly said to the committee. "Since then, the vast majority of transactions, everything is running smoothly. What hasn't happened is those invoices being mailed out, and that's not acceptable either. But we're definitely climbing in the right direction now."
O'Reilly said since Conduent went live with the new system, the company has processed 1.2 billion transactions, and averaged about 4.8 million transactions a day. He said the delays did cause big impacts on billing.
State Sen. Janet Cruz pulled no punches as she questioned the Florida Department of Transportation representative about Conduent and why the company hasn't been replaced.
"I was astounded and appalled at what I saw unfold," said Cruz, who represents District 18, which covers Tampa and parts of Hillsborough County. "I want to know why this company is still under contract."
O-Reilly said there was comprehensive testing done for months before the SunPass upgrade's live launch. But he said during the time the system was shut down, and then when the system was turned back on, it overwhelmed the system. As a result, Conduent had to add more equipment and servers, and more staff to their call centers. O'Reilly said Conduent also made improvements to the website and to the mobile applications.
O'Reilly also confirmed that Conduent is not currently getting paid as a result of last summer's upgrade meltdown, and could face even more fines. He said as of now, Conduent has not submitted any invoices related to the upgrade, but when it does, the contractor could be hit with a 25 percent deduction, based on how the contractor performed against built-in performance and operational measures in place.
O'Reilly acknowleged Conduent still has more than three years left on its contract with the state.
That had Cruz and other committee members asking what options the state had to replace the contractor with another company.
"For me and the taxpayers, that is just not good enough. I mean, we picked a company that was unqualified to do the work. And I don't understand how they ended up with the contract, but they were wholly unqualified," Cruz said.
Lee asked O'Reilly if there was any information given to FDOT about whether Conduent had any similar problems in other states, but O'Reilly said he was unaware.
News 6 reported in June about how Conduent, which is based in New Jersey, works on nearly half of all U.S. tolls roads, and that the company had been accused of double billing in other states. Both New York and Texas even started an amnesty program to deal with all the toll problems.
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Last August, the state fined Conduent more than $780,000 and stopped paying on the SunPass contract.
But Cruz pointed out that is just a drop in the bucket -- considering Conduent was awarded more than $343 million with the state.
"It's wrong. We made a mistake, we need to fix it, " Cruz said. "In my opinion, they failed us miserably."
No one from Conduent was at the Senate committee meeting.
Now that more than 4 million drivers are getting hit with massive bills for their backlogged tolls, could it create another avalanche of customer service problems for SunPass?
Customers are being given until March 31 to evaluate and pay their invoices before any penalties are assessed.
Last August, Sunpass customers stood in long lines and reported enduring two- to four-hour hold times over the phone.
News 6 has already heard from one Toll-By-Plate customer who reports calling SunPass, and being told they were not taking calls due to the high call volume.
News 6 called SunPass and was put on hold for 30 minutes. A SunPass representative confirmed they have been overwhelmed with calls.