Pittsburgh, PA – Port Authority Chief Executive Officer Steve Bland said the Authority’s existing or modified policies and practices related to service provision address most findings of a customer satisfaction survey recently released by the Allegheny County Controller’s Office.
The Controller’s report, based on surveys completed by 2,878 of Port Authority’s 230,000 average weekday riders over a 16-day period last June, made recommendations on scheduling, vehicle maintenance, monitoring of customer feedback, reassessment of fares and park and ride development, among others.
The report is available on Port Authority’s Web site, www.portauthority.org. It was conducted in the midst of a 15 percent reduction in Port Authority service, which went into effect on June 17. “We thank the Controller for his time and effort in providing an independent check on our customers’ perception of Port Authority’s performance,” Mr. Bland said. “These efforts complement the Port Authority’s own efforts to aggressively reach out to customers.
“After reviewing customer comments and the recommendations based upon those comments, we believe the policies and practices we have in place – and those recommendations we are incorporating into our Transit Development Plan – put the Authority in position to respond to customers’ needs.”
Port Authority’s Customer Service representatives receive approximately 5,000 calls every weekday. This gives the Authority a clear picture of customer satisfaction and any outstanding issues regarding service, and this line of communication enables Port Authority to address the Controller’s recommendation regarding the monitoring of punctuality complaints.
Over the first four months of Fiscal Year 2008, complaints received by the Authority have fallen by 9.3 percent compared to the same period in 2007.
During the course of an extensive public input process conducted in early 2007, the Authority held nine public hearings and received more than 18,000 comments from more than 10,000 individuals relative to specific service and fare proposals, as well as more general comments regarding transit service.
Additionally, 500 Port Authority bus and rail operators over the last year have completed Customer Service Refresher Training, and discourtesy complaints related to those operators declined by 62 percent over the ensuing six months. This re-training program, which will continue until it has been completed by all operators next year, addresses the Controller’s recommendation to cultivate higher standards of courtesy.
“We believe the ultimate measure of customer satisfaction is ridership, and we have been pleased to note that in the wake of our 15 percent service reduction in June, ridership has declined only about 3 percent, which is less than our original projection,” said Mr. Bland. “Average weekday ridership in October, the last month for which we have complete data, was off only 2 percent despite the fact customers were also facing the reality of a fare increase in January.” Among the Controller’s other recommendations were:
- Ensure that buses arrive on schedule. While Port Authority buses are subject to changing traffic and road conditions that are beyond the Authority’s control, Road Operations personnel and other support personnel in the Operations Division constantly monitor on-time performance throughout the system. Specific complaints received by Customer Service representatives are relayed immediately to the director of service delivery at the appropriate division, who then works with operators and scheduling personnel to ensure timely service.
- Improve vehicle maintenance to reduce breakdowns. In Fiscal Year 2007, Port Authority’s miles between road failures, a standard industry reporting measure, was 8,268 – well beyond the goal of 5,200 miles.
- Enhance scheduling decisions by developing a database that records frequency of use and time of use by customers. Port Authority’s Connect ’09 program, announced nine months ago, includes the purchase of a smart card fare collection system that will provide this information.
- Schedule additional buses and light rail vehicles in bad weather conditions. Based on the size of its fleet and operator pool, Port Authority already provides very high levels of service in morning and afternoon peak periods. Since additional service based on weather conditions could not be built into the regular schedule, what little additional service that could be provided would result in unsustainable overtime costs. Additionally, our experience shows that customer delays in periods of bad weather are due primarily to poor road conditions or traffic congestion.
- Conduct a periodic reassessment to ensure that fares are reasonable. This was also a recommendation of the Pennsylvania Transportation Funding and Reform Commission 13 months ago, and Port Authority has adopted that recommendation by raising its base fare for the first time in five years, effective January 1, 2008, and committing to a fare review every two years.
- Determine the need for park and ride lots and negotiate with churches and other agencies for the use of additional park and ride spaces. This is an ongoing focus of the Authority, which has tripled the number of available spaces over the past 10 years to more than 14,700 and has opened new park and ride facilities in McDonald and Tarentum over the past six months. In addition, Port Authority is currently in negotiations or discussions with a number of parties regarding additional park and ride spaces throughout Allegheny County.
“The Controller’s survey underscores the fact our customers have very strong opinions about Port Authority’s service,” said Mr. Bland. “We will continue to monitor their comments, the nature of which in this survey suggest that we are already prepared to respond to their transit needs.”