Were You Overcharged by TXDot?

Sure, taking Toll 49 around Tyler is convenient, but anyone who has had a run in with TXTag, and I imagine that's most of us, knows it can be grueling trying to get anything taken care of. In 2008, I got a call from them saying that I owed around $1,600 in fines and penalties, after a bit of a run around I wound up paying right around $75.

I had a friend in a similar situation who didn't take the time to call and he wound up paying over $700 in penalties, he wishes he'd have called.

Get our free mobile app

Earlier this year, KXAN in Austin began an investigation into The Texas Department of Transportation and IBM, which has been the state’s contractor since early 2019. Today it was revealed the TxDoT has terminated it's contract of its toll operations vendor because of a botched system upgrade.

This was revealed when several customers complained to KXAN that they were being overcharged for their use of the roads, this after the state told customers they could see multiple charges that were incurred from October 2020 to January 2021.

In May, TxDOT said it had refunded more than $11.7 million in overcharges back to drivers.

“We take the responsibility of providing a quality and trusted customer experience very seriously, and regret the impact and inconvenience these past many months of lackluster IBM service have had on our toll road users,” said TxDOT Executive Director Marc Williams in a statement last week. “We will continue to keep customers apprised on our progress to improve our customers’ interactions with TxTag. Our customers deserve better and we are committed to ensuring that they receive that going forward.”

But, we should note that an IBM spokesperson said the company disagrees with TxDoT’s decision, adding that the state was culpable for problems with the upgrade.

“The success of any information technology project depends on each of the participants fulfilling its obligations. IBM’s performance on this project has been hampered by the inability of TxDOT to do so,” said the spokesperson. “Despite TxDOT’s failure, IBM’s performance and the system IBM has implemented far exceed operational requirements anticipated when the contract was signed to the benefit of Texas motorists.”

Keep an eye on your statements, but TxDOT has said that no additional action by TxTag is required at this time.