sunpass not working?
permalink | categories: Florida, county, government, law enforcement, state, transportationby tommy @ 12:26 pm
Apparently, there is A Fine Mess Over Tolls For SunPass Users:
Growing numbers of SunPass users and a push by the state to improve its toll-collection rate have resulted in more people facing hefty fines and suspended licenses for seemingly minor violations. Sixty-six percent of all toll road users now have transponders.
Those transponders have batteries. Once they go dead, they become a paperweight. There is a light on the transponder letting you know when you need to replace the battery. But people think they are getting away without paying tolls, so they just let it go. But when it catches up with them, fines and penalties could cost over $3,000.
A judge over in Sanford slammed the expressway authorities over there for not trying hard enough to find the toll runners more quickly. The Sentinel ran a story telling you how to avoid being “victimized” by the toll collectors. The article in the Tribune is written much the same way, beginning with an outrageous anecdote of a $3,000 tab.
But once again, the judge, and these stories don’t put much emphasis on the idiots who could have avoided all the trouble by simply following the rules:
- Let ‘em know if you move.
- Let ‘em know if you change license plates.
- CHANGE THE FREAKIN’ BATTERY.
Seriously, I don’t know how some of these people make it through the day.
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May 20th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
You don’t even need a transponder anymore. I called about a toll violation and the rep told me that as long as the plates and car description are up to date and associated with your account, you’ll be fine.
So my wife carries our transponder. And I haven’t received a violation even after rolling through dozens of times since then.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Tommy, you have good insights and a passion for posting. Please though, give us more then your thoughts on the mornings newspaper. Reach for more man, you got it in you.
May 20th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Reader, I can’t speak for Tommy, but I’d love to see you write a post or two. Why let the guy carry the load by himself?
And to take another turn…
Sorry, Tommy, the Sunpass system is screwed when you can get your license suspended for $1.75 fine.
I have one. I change the battery (They have the number memorized at Radio Shack.) I can’t tell you the number of times I’d roll through…get a “Thank You” and no internal beep…or an internal beep and no “Thank You”…or stop at a small booth…and wait and wait for the beep and the gate…throw in 50 cents…and get a beep as I rolled through.
They have my home address…and my email…what’s wrong with shooting me an email if my transponder didn’t register? They have OCR on the plates…match it with the database and an email takes not a single human to implement. If it is kicked out as unknown? Match the plate to the registration and to the the Sunpass database. Again, most of the time..no human intervention needed to send a “Hey, maybe there was a glitch?” email.
The majority of people who miss a toll do so accidentally. Quit treating imperfect software and hardware as criminal activity.
May 20th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
The problem with email notifications is that if they can match the tag to a current account(and thus a corresponding email address) they just charge the account and no further action is taken, though a reminder email wouldn’t be a bad idea. Even before the pay by tag was going, I went darn near 6 months without a working transponder because I replaced the battery and that wasn’t the problem. My tolls were always paid when they matched the tag, so the batteries in this story were merely a catalyst to activate the chain of events. The real problem here is people are remiss in keeping their info up-to-date. I doubt the state has the capacity(given my experiences with DMV) to automatically match an address change or tag change without some prompting by the user. The fines might be excessive, but the “victims” ultimately brought this on themselves.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:55 am
I had a similar issue and I had not ben keeping my info up to date so they were not able to locate my account by the plate number on the new car. I got a coupleof nice pictures of the butt of my car in the mail and called in. They credited the fines and updated the plate number. What I was told is that their system will run the plate against existing accounts everytime looking for a match. Now my ex failed to call and after paying several fines she missed one or two and got her license suspended. You just have to be a bit proactive after all you are using a toll road.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:47 am
Bottom line: System is screwed up when the state offers a “convenience” that so easily turns into a nightmare.
This is about far more than making sure your batteries are good.
Guess the message is, if you want to make sure you’re not subject to these enormous hassles, then stop using the transponder. How would the state react to a boycott of the transponders?
May 23rd, 2008 at 1:59 pm
I don’t really think the message is “stop using the transponders”, the message is “don’t keep trying to scam the system”.
C’mon, man. How hard is it, REALLY, to change a battery? And how many people are just looking for excuses?
Ansers: Not at all, and whole bunches.
May 25th, 2008 at 1:20 am
The biggest problem with SunPass is that, like so many things in Florida, it’s an eff-ed up system. Consider that in many metro areas:
1) Transponders are free, not 25 bucks at Publix. As a result, most people have one.
2) The transponders don’t need a power source. These transponders are read accurately at speeds up to 110 MPH. This is 20-year-old technology that hasn’t needed to be upgraded because it just works.
3) The “toll booth” reads every license plate of every vehicle. The scanning software recognizes all plates from all 50 states. If the car displaying the plate doesn’t have a transponder, the owner of the vehicle gets a bill in the mail.
August 4th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
I recieved a ticket while going through a sunpass only lane in PBG, FL. I have had the account for over 4 years and have spent thousands of dollars.
The first transponder I had, the batteries died, and I tried to replace them. While doing so, the replacement holder bounced out and was irreplacable. I have no problem with electronics and just kind of laughed, what a piece of junk. Half the time it would not go off no matter what, full battery or not, with the occasional (50% of the the time) green light or the annoying chirp-chirp of the account being replenished. So I said forget it, and spent anouther 25 bucks for a replacement.
My debit card # was used for some online strange use and I immediately cancelled. I forgot to change the number with sunpass, and after two weeks they “terminated” my account. After innocently going through the toll lane, sunpass still chirping, I was pulled over. The officer said I was sent Numberous letters and did not do anything about them.
I did not recive those letters… Has anyone else had this problem? If I would have, I would have rectified. To protect and serve? Not even a fix it type ticket I could understand. To paint me as a ticket runner is totally inaccurate. I know it mostly is about making money, but most of us have honest excuses, I did not even get a chance to state my case.
Thank God for Judge John Galluzzo, who overtuned many of these bogus infractions. I go to work everyday, and would not run a $2 dollar toll at risk of a ticket.
Meanwhile, over the last 4 years my car has been broken into twice, stolen everything in site, including the hood one time. Do you think Florida Law Inforcement should be changing what their looking for? I guess they wont make money that way.
This is not true. I use the pass everyday, and for a $2 dollar