When traveling, many people do everything in advance and even arrive at the airport early, but some people have been delayed and for something that is not their fault. The card reader does not read the barcode on some Florida driver’s licenses.
Many Floridians have reported problems with their driver’s licenses not being read by the Transportation Security Administration’s TSA scanner when they go on trips.
Such was the case of Ron Friedman from Boca Raton whose trip to New York ended before it even started. His valid driver’s license could not be read.
“I was inserting the license all over the place, cleaning it up, trying to do everything, but the machine wouldn’t read it.”
He had to come back with an airline-printed boarding pass to get through. The same thing happened to him when he returned from New York to Florida.
But it turns out that this man isn’t the only one with this problem, it’s a statewide problem.
Palm Beach County Tax Collector Anne Gannon says it hasn’t been easy to find where the problem started.
“We have no idea. We only know that when it started happening, we called the supplier,” he says.
Turns out the machines that print driver’s licenses are issued by the Florida Department of Transportation and Motor Vehicle Safety. They noted: “Sometimes a person may experience a problem with the barcode printed on the back of their driver’s license; however, it is rare”.
For now, handheld scanners will be delivered to all tax collection offices to test the license barcode before it is issued. And it is that according to Gannon, 52% of the income of this office comes from the issuance of driver’s licenses.
A spokesperson for the Department of Road Safety and Motor Vehicles pointed out that if your driver’s license is not read when scanned, they will reprint a new one free of charge.