A week after the blunder that saw 45,000 Transport for NSW E-toll customers double-slugged for tolls, trucking boss Jason Clenton says he’s still owed $57,000 by Service NSW.
The managing director of family-run container business Clenton’s Transport, which runs 40 pieces of equipment to and from Port Botany, is fuming at the treatment he’s received since the error was discovered.
He told Big Rigs that he did get an apology from NSW Roads Minister Natalie Ward prior to their appearance on the 2GB radio show this morning and was told that someone would be in contact this morning.
But by mid-morning, the only official contact Clenton had was an email from E-Toll only admitting liability for 10 transactions, which translates to $10,000.
“But the issue is 57 transactions at $1000 per transaction, and 17 of those occurred after I deactivated my account,” said Clenton.
“This is an absolute joke by Transport for NSW and as a business owner I’m absolutely disgusted.”
Clenton only discovered the double-charging error after a TV news bulletin last Thursday prompted him to check his business bank account.
To his horror he discovered 40 separate instances of over-charging at $1000 a pop. The next morning he visited his local NSW Service centre and decactivated his account.
“They assured me that no other transactions would take place but on Monday this week I woke up, checked the bank account and found another 17 transactions had been stolen.
“They want to give us credits, but I told them there is no point, I’ve closed my account.
“It’s just disgraceful what has occured and Service NSW and E-Toll need to come out today and reimburse the money that has been stolen.”
Aside from the “unsustainable” hit to his cash flow, Clenton said the “unwanted stress” is the last thing his Smeaton Grange-based business needs with so many other industry pressures to deal with.
“They’ve told me it could take a minimum of two weeks to fix this, but I can’t wait two weeks.
“It’s been stolen in four days; I need it back today.”
Meanwhile, Clenton is running his fleet as best he can on non-toll roads until he can align the business with a “more suitable provider”.
“It’s unrealistic to think we can operate a business without using toll roads, but I won’t be continuing with E-Toll based on the level of misuse.”
Ward told 2GB host Ben Fordham that this should never have happened and “unequivocally” apologised to all those affected.
“This is entirely unnaccetable and I want that money back into those accounts immediately.”