LOUISVILLE — RiverLink cut down on call times and saw an increase in crossings on tolled bridges from April to June of this year, according to a news release — all good news for the tolling system’s second quarter. The number of vehicles crossing the bridge with transponders, however, has remained flat.
From January to March, the average time it took for RiverLink customer service to answer a call was 40.5 minutes. That time shrunk dramatically to 7.9 minutes during the second quarter, even as calls increased by more than a third in May. In June, the last month of the second quarter, the average time it took to answer a call was less than a minute — RiverLink’s goal for all calls. The tolling system also aims to answer 65 percent of its calls in under 30 seconds.
The improvements were primarily the result of RiverLink hiring more customer service representatives, said Mindy Peterson, a spokesperson for RiverLink. Currently, 75 representatives answer calls to RiverLink customer service. Only 15 were employed when tolling first began at the end of December 2016.That was “not nearly enough,” said Peterson.
“Hindsight is 20/20,” she said. “We based our staffing at the start on kind of the launch of other tolling systems and advice that we were getting from consultants.”
In May, RiverLink also added an automatic payment option so that customers can pay their invoices over the phone without having to speak with a customer service representative.
“…We are much closer and much happier with where we are now with customer service,” Peterson said.
The number of abandoned calls have also dropped, according to a news release.
Crossings increase
Another sign of growth for RiverLink has been the number of vehicles crossing its tolled Abraham Lincoln, Kennedy, and Lewis and Clark bridges. Nearly one million more drivers — nearly 8 million total — chose to pay the tolls from April to June.
During the first quarter, 84,057 vehicles crossed the tolled bridges on the average weekday. That increased by about 10 percent to 92,572 for the second quarter. Crossings increased the most on the Lewis and Clark Bridge.
The tolling system still has a bit to go before it reaches its projection of 110,000 daily crossings by the end of 2018. That number, Peterson warns, isn’t adjusted, meaning it doesn’t consider some factors, such as the “leakage rate,” or how many vehicles aren’t captured by RiverLink's electronic tolling system.
RiverLink is right where it expects to be with regards to vehicle crossings, Peterson said. For the Lewis and Clark bridge, it will take about four years for traffic to totally stabilize. For the Lincoln and Kennedy bridges, it will take about two years.
Daily weekend crossings averaged 70,712 for the second quarter, up 18 percent from 59,869 the first quarter.
Revenue in line with projections
While revenue numbers are preliminary for the second quarter, nearly $35 million has been collected by RiverLink, all of which is split evenly between Indiana and Kentucky. An additional $3.3 million will be received from E-ZPass systems in other states. More money is also being collected from vehicle owners who received invoices.
Revenue collected to date is in line with expectations, according to RiverLink, and both Indiana and Kentucky are meeting their financial obligations for the Bridges Project. Toll revenue is solely used to meet the financial obligations of the Ohio River Bridges Project and maintenance of the project area.
The project cost $2.3 billion.
More accounts opened, but not enough, RiverLink says
More and more RiverLink accounts are opening, but the tolling system is still disappointed by the number of drivers crossing the tolled bridges without transponders.
RiverLink saw an increase of 17 percent in the number of accounts opened during the second quarter. Almost 126,000 RiverLink accounts have been opened as of June 30.
The number of transponders ordered increased by 18 percent. A total of almost 276,000 RiverLink local transponders and RiverLink E-ZPass transponders have been requested so far.
“Both of those numbers are strong numbers and we saw growth in both of those numbers, but one area where we did not see a lot of growth, which is important, is transponder penetration,” Peterson said.
That’s the number of drivers going over the bridge with transponders.
Fifty-nine percent of vehicles that cross the tolled bridges during the weekday had transponders during the second quarter, while 45 percent of weekend drivers had transponders. Those numbers were up only a few percentage points from the first quarter.
“We can’t make it any clearer to customers,” Peterson said. “If you have a prepaid account and transponder, no matter how often you cross the bridge, it’s going to save you money.”
It costs $4 for passenger vehicles without a transponder to cross the bridge and $2 for those with one.
Frequent users increase only slightly
The number of drivers qualifying for RiverLink’s frequent user discount hasn’t changed much since the first quarter.
A frequent-user discount is available for drivers who make 40 trips or more across the tolled bridges during a calendar month.
The number of vehicles qualifying for a frequent-user discount only increased 2 percent during the second quarter, from 7,194 per month to 7,365.
That is in line with the tolling system’s expectations.
“…You’re reaching out to the same people every month, and we expected a pretty smaller number going in, and that’s exactly what we’ve seen,” she said.