Customer Service Achieves High Marks

The Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency (F/ETCA) and San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency (SJHTCA) Boards of Directors received a quarterly report on customer service feedback and contractor performance for The Toll Roads’ customers. With 1.7 million accountholders, the Agencies continually work to improve customer service by collecting data across several performance indicators. Included in the survey in addition to accountholders are non-accountholders and violators.

In the fourth quarter of 2019, the Agencies received 648,425 phone calls seeking assistance. Of those calls, 46 percent were handled by a customer service representative and 54 percent were handled with interactive voice response technology. Average wait time for callers was 40 seconds -- down from nearly two minutes in the same quarter in 2018. The report also concluded that 56 percent of accountholders manage their accounts online. Enhanced surveying indicated that overall satisfaction of customer interactions was 4.4 out of 5. Going forward the Agencies will work to increase the number of customer surveys collected to assure high customer satisfaction is maintained.

Contracts Approved

At their February 13 meeting, the F/ETCA and SJHTCA Boards of Directors voted to approve:

• A five-year contract with three one-year extension options with Mark Thomas & Company Inc., Moffat & Nichol, TY Lin International and WKE Inc. These firms will serve as contractors that have been prequalified to provide on-call engineering design services. No budget amount was requested as task orders will be authorized according to adopted procurement policies and agency budgets.
• A five-year contract with three one-year extension options with LSA Associates Inc., Michael Baker International Inc. and HDR Engineering Inc. These firms will serve as contractors prequalified to provide on-call environmental planning services. Task orders will be brought back the Boards for authorization.
• The third and final one-year extension to extend a contract with Chase Paymentech to provide payment processing services through June 30, 2021. The Agencies’ budgets for Fiscal Year 2021 will include estimated costs payable for services provided under this contract, based upon anticipated transaction volume. A majority of these costs relate to pass-through fees assessed by the credit card issuers (e.g., Visa and Mastercard). The portion representing Chase Paymentech’s fees for services is expected to be approximately $560,000 ($280,000 per Agency) in FY21.

Fond Farewell for Martha Ochoa

Chief Executive Officer Mike Kraman announced that TCA Clerk of the Board, Martha Ochoa, is leaving TCA effective February 21, 2020. Martha joined TCA after serving as Chief of Staff to then County Supervisor Todd Spitzer and previously serving in Executive Assistant roles to various elected officials. Martha has been with TCA since 2016, during which time she fully established the role of Clerk of the Board and has been instrumental in establishing numerous processes and procedures related to Board and Committee meetings as well as responses to Public Records Act requests. TCA Board members and all her co-workers wish all the best for Martha as she embarks on the next stage of her career as Assistant Clerk of the Board with the Orange County Transportation Authority.