Who needs a Buck?

Yesterday, I had to renew my license plate for my cars. Now this is a funny procedure where you go stand in a line for about thirty minutes to pay a person an annual fee for the right to drive your car in the state of Florida for another year.

Now as I waited in line for the appointed period of time, then my number was called, and I went to the counter to pay my fee. I was told that I was unable to renew my plates because the Orange County Expressway Authority had put a hold on it. Now this was disconcerting to me, largely because I spent $25 several years ago so that I could drive through the toll plazas without stopping. And these devices have remained in my cars ever since.

After I asked what I could do to remedy this situation, they told me I needed to call the Authority. They didn't allow me to pay it there. They couldn't even give me an amount I owed, but they told me I could use their phone and have the Authority fax the removal of this restriction to their dedicated fax machine.

So, I call the Orange County Expressway Authority and wait on hold for about twenty three minutes. At which time I am told that I owe five dollars for tolls. However, since they can see that I do have a pass, they waive all fees and only charge me for my one dollar toll. Apparently, they also sent me two notices by mail that for some reason I never received.

Now the thing that makes this strange to me is that they took my one dollar fee over the phone by credit card. Therefore they pocketed less than the full dollar (to pay the credit card company). They had to pay the guy for the five minutes we spent on the phone together, than probably another five minutes to write the letter on their stationary and fax it. Now if he gets paid minimum wage, he made more than the dollar I paid in his hourly salary. Further, if you count the cost of the stationary, sending the fax, not to mention the two letters they sent me (that I didn't receive), they spent over a dollar on supplies. Not to mention the cost to the Driver's License center in having a dedicated fax and phone line, paper for the machine and the extra time where I had to return to the number cue.

So, to merely go in and renew my license plates took me over an hour and a half. As crazy as that time was, I guess I wonder why the Orange County Expressway Authority would go to the extreme of filing a block with the Seminole County License Plate Authority, which had to cost them time, energy, effort, and paperwork to collect a fee that didn't even cover the cost of collecting it? Wouldn't it have been smarter to just go back and charge my device that it was supposed to charge in the first place?

I guess the really needed a buck!