The MTA isn’t prepared to deal with the flood of tolling complaints expected from congestion pricing, the authority’s inspector general proposed Monday.
Transportation Authority officials have done barely anything to concentrate on the basic reasons for large number of cost grievances and are playing get up to speed to create a ““modern information system” by the start of Central Business District Tolling in 2023.
MTA Bridges and Tunnels “doesn’t have a solid method for identifying fundamental issues,” IG Carolyn Pokorny said. “This shortcoming puts the agency in danger of being not well ready to deal with future CBD tolling complaints efficiently.”
IG staff members observed a few complaints started with failure to precisely record tags by the MTA’s worker for contractor Conduent. However MTA the executives’ rundown reports of protests totally missed the commonness of human error, the report said.
The MTA marked a new $246 million contract with Conduent recently — yet picked to stay with the out of its client service operations.
Instead, customer service for MTA bridge and tunnel tolls will be handled through a $122 million contract with Faneuil. The MTA has also purchased software that will allow it to track and analyze all of the complaints it receives, according to its official response embedded in the IG report.
“MTA Bridges and Tunnels’ present information system tracks client objections and requires broad and tedious manual exertion,” MTA representative David Steckel said in an assertion. “Accountability and transparency are pivotal parts of public trust and MTA Bridges and Tunnels is creatively working on existing cycles to more readily screen monetary data that straightforwardly impacts customers.”
MTA officials have battled to deal with past spikes in ringing protests. The presentation of credit only ringing across New York state prodded shock when a few drivers piled up a huge number of dollars in fines — at some point unreasonably — for failing to pay violations in time.
The MTA and tolling agencies the nation over have confronted claims over the fines, which are shipped off collections after just a few months of delinquency.
Central Business District Tolling is presently going through a broad natural survey, and is relied upon to send off no earlier than 2023.
Under the tolling program passed by the state legislature in 2019, drivers will be charged changing rates relying upon season of day and vehicle type.
Officials have said costs could go from $9 to $24 for passenger vehicles.