ORLANDO, Fla. – The Florida Department of Transportation confirms to News 6 that Toll-By-Plate customers will begin receiving their invoices by U.S. mail this week – more than 220 days since the upgrade to the SunPass system was initiated.
FDOT also confirms that it has extended its Flex Pay Program to give customers until the end of March to pay the total bill.
“The Department has been diligently working with its vendor to complete final quality control checks for Toll-By-Plate invoices, and the mailing process has been initiated,” said Mark Dlogokienski, assistant general counsel to the Florida Department of Transportation Turnpike Enterprise. “While Toll-By-Plate customers are expected to begin receiving their invoices over the coming days, the total bill will be due no sooner than March 31, 2019.”
The agency originally had announced Toll-By-Plate invoices would be sent out in October 2018, but in late November confirmed they still had not sent out the invoices because they could not guarantee the accuracy of the tolls.
According to FDOT, between June 1 and Nov. 30, 2018, there were approximately 55.6 million Toll-By-Plate transactions totaling about $82 million. The agency also states late fees and penalties will continue to be waived in order to allow customers time to manage their accounts.
News 6 first exposed problems resulting from the SunPass system upgrade last summer.
Repeated problems caused a massive delay in billing as the vendor and the state had to double-check millions of backlogged tolls for duplicate tolls.
News 6 heard from several SunPass customers complaining about questionable and duplicate tolls and was able to get results in the form of refunds for many of them.
According to the state contract FDOT has with state contractor Conduent, the company hired to manage the SunPass system, there is a 4 month deadline in place to process Toll-By-Plate transactions. If the deadline is not met, the contractor is supposed to pay for those tolls and not bill the customer.
Since November, News 6 has been pressing FDOT for answers as to whether Conduent met the terms stipulated in the contract terms.
On Tuesday, January 8th, FDOT Deputy Communications Director Tom Yu finally responded, stating:
“The contract provision you reference only applies if Conduent fails to initiate processing within the specified timeframes of the contract. Toll-By-Plate processing was initiated,” Yu said. “Customers utilizing toll facilities are responsible for the tolls incurred.”
Customers who have any questions regarding account activity, or who are interested in making payment prior to receiving their Toll-By-Plate invoice, may call the SunPass Customer Service Center at 1-888-TOLL-FLA (1-888-865-5352) or visit a SunPass Walk-in Center.