Polk Tax Collector Blames DMV System for 3-Hour Waits

Polk County Tax Collector Joe G. Tedder called on the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to fix the Orion computer system after it caused repeated outages that left customers waiting three hours or more.

Since the FLHSMV rolled out Orion in January, the system has crashed or delayed on 12 of 18 business days in May alone. Tedder's office cannot process driver licenses and other DMV services without it.

"Customers are burdened with increased wait-times because of the computer system issues we face, some exceeding three hours as opposed to 20 minutes or less, and this is unacceptable," Tedder said Wednesday.

Tedder asked residents to contact the FLHSMV at (850) 617-2000 or submit complaints at https://flhsmv.service-now.com/csp. He urged customers to be patient with his staff, who he said are "working to the best of their abilities to serve the people of Polk County."