Illinois, Maryland tollers get bum rap - LOUSY REPORTING

Toll people got a good belly laugh at the Chicago Tribune recently with their headline that referred to TransCore as a "troubled" company. "Tollway sticks with troubled customer-service firm" ran the headline Dec 17. Every company has its troubles of course but calling TransCore a "troubled firm" is akin to calling Apple a troubled computer company or Honda a troubled car company. The troubles they have are troubles others would love to have.

It's the market leader in north America, and the firm to beat in toll systems and services almost everywhere it competes in the US.

Almost everything else was wrong in the Chicago Tribune report too.

It painted a picture of a split in the board of the  Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (known locally as Illinois Tollway) - of two members wanting to fire TransCore and recompete the customer service contract implying the others wanted to give TransCore uncompeted extensions.

Fact is the board and leading staff of the Tollway want to recompete the customer service contract and have decided to do that.

But under procurement procedures in Illinois they need the best part of a year to do a competed procurement and this is late December. TransCore's present contract expires Dec 31.

So many leading officials including governors have been retired to a penitentiary for so many cases of corruption for so long, a procurement in Illinois has become a long drawn out process of getting clearances and OKs.

After the procurement is completed within the Tollway it is handed over to several other outside review boards in succession to be checked out and OK'd. Each take their own good time since they are reviewing procurements of lots of other state agencies as well.

The Tribune report concedes that there was a unanimous vote to do a one-year extension, an option provided for in the TransCore contract three years back.

Illinois Tollway officials say that TransCore has done a decent job of helping overcome a massive backlog of violations problems that accumulated following the introduction of open road tolling in 2005-6.

TransCore took over the call center from a local firm MAI and from Tollway staff.

There was a big mess for a couple of years following introduction of open road tolling. The front end designed and implemented by ETC operated well.

But back office systems were overwhelmed. Call centers couldn't handle the calls. Violation processing got seriously behind. Violation notices at one point were being sent out a year after the alleged violations occurred.

Bigtime angst among motorists!

A Tollway official says ETC was criticized regarding the hand-off of the violation system (VES) component. TransCore operated the first VES as part of its own system under a separate contract. VES was incorporated into the Toll Revenue Management and Maintenance Program (TRMMP)  contract awarded to ETC.  As ETC built out the new VES system TransCore continued to operate the old system.

In summer 2006 the TransCore VES system was turned off - new ETC cameras continued to collect violation data, but processing of images and sending of violation notices was placed on hold until the new ETC system could be turned on.

It was not turned on by ETC until August 2007 - much longer than the Tollway had anticipated, producing a much larger than expected backlog that was the cause of difficulty and complaints. Once the new system of VES cameras was operating, TransCore customer service center could begin image review and noticing of the backlogged images.

There was never an issue with the operations in the lane where cameras were working all along. The delay was in the back-end VES operations. (ADDED 2009-12-29 17:40)

TransCore took over the customer service/back-office job in January 2007. The contract was for three years to Dec 31 2009 with two optional one-year extensions.

(REVISION: we previously wrote that TransCore took over from ETC which a Tollway official says was incorrect. 2009-12-29 10:15)

A Tollway official says that TransCore took time to get a handle on the mess they inherited but that by the end of 2008 the backlog problem had been overcome. Since then the volume of violation images and customer calls has declined. Costs are declining.

The Chicago Tribune, they say, was rehashing an old story of a partially botched move to open road tolling and major customer service problems 2006-2008.

On the upside the move to open road tolling has seen use of electronic tolling rise to 81% from the high 50s percent, so toll collection costs have been reduced and traffic greatly speeded through toll points - a legitimate good news story that deserves some space.

The present regime in charge of the Tollway only came in in August but they are shooting for an open competition for customer service in 2010, a Tollway official says.

see ISTHA presentation on customer service: http://www.tollroadsnews.com/sites/default/files/ISTHAcsc.pdf

see http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-tollway-contract_hilkevitchdec18,0,2083867.story

Maryland ICC toll rates "too high"

A familiar journalistic trope is that toll rates are too high. But too high for what?   Both the Washington Post and the Washington Examiner newspapers are off on the ICC-Tolls-Are-Too-High theme - a fatuous reporters' effort to curry populist favor and hustle up a story.

Of course the ICC cost too much to build. But Montgomery County is Limousine Liberal country and it is very expensive to build there - expensive land, expensive environmental mitigation, expensive contracting because of all-union construction.

How exactly do reporter critics propose to finance a $2.5b-expensive tollroad if not with high toll rates? They never say.

And tolls too high compared to what?

The Washington Post compares the ICC's tolls to those of JFK Highway MD/I-95, a 50 year old mostly rural tollroad. And they derive 10c/mile by dividing the toll near the Delaware border ($5) by 50 miles even though the highest volumes of traffic are well south of the toll point and pay no toll at all and others who drive much shorter distances but go out of state can pay $1 a mile.

They include the New Jersey Turnpike a conglomerate of intra urban, interurban, commuter and interstate, but also financed during an era of much lower costs. The Dulles Toll Road is another rather old tollroad at least is a comparable commuter road and 9c/mile but its toll rates are due to soar with ownership by the local airports authority.

Better comparisons in age and function would have been the new tollroads of southern California, Florida, Texas, Ontario and Dulles Greenway VA. They turn out to have tolls pretty comparable with those of the ICC.

Tendentious too was the Washington Examiner which ran a piece saying that ICC tolls would be $18 for the round trip. This sum is gotten by taking the highest rate of the highest range of toll rates for the longest trip and assuming the motorist pays $3/trip video toll charges. Simply by getting a transponder the motorist could drop the toll by a third, something the Examiner neglects to mention.

Leading critic cited was a county councillor Phil Andrews who opposed construction of the road and who claimed few people will be able to afford to drive the road - this in one of the highest income counties in the US.

If the ICC provides the time savings estimated they won't be able to afford NOT to use it.

It is likely 40 minutes will be saved in peak hours for many, so someone who says they won't pay a $9 toll is saying their time is worth less than 60/40x $9 or below $13.50/hour. By getting a transponder they can get the trip for about $6 implying only those who value their time saved at less than $9/hour won't take the tollroad.

This tollroad is being built in an area stuffed with tradesmen and professionals who charge $40, $50, $100, $200 an hour for their time.

These people don't give a damn what other tollroads charge - the reporters' sole measure.

Real people will make a judgment on whether these tolls make sense for them, given the time and the hassle this pike saves them.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Critics-want-O_Malley-to-speak-out-on-ICC-tolls-8669672-79728442.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/18/AR2009121803360.html

TOLLROADSnews 2009-12-21