SunRail rider Danny Delay said he has experienced a problem with the magnetic strip on the back of his SunRail card. Delay's problem is like that a number of other riders have reported the machines, which are the responsibility of Xerox.
"Before, I just had problems sliding, sliding, sliding, sliding," Delay said.
Months after 9 Investigates discovered nearly 600 logged complaints about the ticket machines and promises by Xerox to get the system fixed by early 2015, state officials said the company has yet to deliver on the promise.
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Raw: State Rep. David Santiago on toll collection issues
Channel 9's Racquel Asa has learned that Xerox is negotiating a new contract with the Florida Turnpike Enterprise. The contract is valued at $600 million.
"If they have problems here, then they could have problems there," Delay said.
The Turnpike group wants Xerox to consolidate all state toll collections, rather than have them be processed by each area's toll authority, meaning tolls on State Road 408 and some other central Florida toll roads would be processed by Xerox rather than the local expressway office.
The problems with Xerox go beyond SunRail and central Florida.
The Texas Department of Transportation has problems with its toll collections run by Xerox.
Texas officials reported 3.5 million toll transactions that were not processed on time and fined Xerox nearly $180,000.
Florida State Rep. David Santiago said he was not aware of Xerox's issues in Texas until Channel 9 brought them to his attention. He said he knew the state was interested in privatizing toll collections, but he is not involved in the negotiations.
"We already have a problem with this company in the state. Why magnify that a hundred times and deploy that around the state?" Santiago said.
When Asa asked Turnpike Enterprise representatives whether they took into account the problems SunRail has experienced and if they were aware of toll collection problems in other parts of the country: the response was short.
"The department looks at company history," they said.
WFTV
