The award will be presented during IBTTA's annual meeting Sept. 17-21 in Cleveland. Last month, the Delaware E-ZPass Service Center was also presented with a Best of ITS 2005 Award from the Intelligent Transportation Society of America for this project. The center's superior service has created positive public sentiment and is credited with expanding Delaware's E-ZPass customer base by 52 percent.
IBTTA is a worldwide alliance of toll operators and associated industries that provide a forum for sharing knowledge and ideas to promote and enhance toll-financed transportation services. IBTTA presents annual Toll Innovation and Excellence Awards in several categories, including customer service, administration, operations, social responsibility and technology. As a winner in one of the five categories, Delaware E-ZPass is now competing against other category winners for the coveted President's Award for Excellence given annually to IBTTA's best of the best.
The Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) and TransCore worked closely to create the new E-ZPass Service Center, with the aim of creating a customer service program that would set a new industry standard characterized by accessibility, responsiveness and efficiency. The key to the center's distinctiveness is the provision of live operator response to E-ZPass customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The calls are answered in three rings or less by a customer service representative trained and empowered to resolve the customer's issue in one call. In addition to phone service, customers may also walk in or use the Web 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
To support the introduction, DelDOT launched a wide-ranging advertising campaign educating motorists on the benefits of the changes. Mobile exhibits and a mobile customer service center were also launched. All told, since opening the new service center, Delaware E-ZPass has added 98,000 new accounts and distributed 180,000 transponders.
Delaware's key toll operations are DelDOT's Delaware Turnpike and State Route-1 (SR-1). The Delaware Turnpike is a 24-mile section of U.S. I-95 running through the state linking to Maryland and Pennsylvania. The SR-1 limited access toll highway runs for 51 miles through the state, connecting the greater Wilmington area with the Dover Air Force Base and coastal Delaware beaches.
