Oklahoma Turnpike Authority
Award Category
Toll Operations, Maintenance & Engineering
Award Year
2013
On September 26, 2011, the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority's (OTA) 15,000 square-foot PIKEPASS Customer Service Center (CSC) in Oklahoma City, OK caught fire and was completely destroyed. By midafternoon the following day (or six work-hours later) customer service calls had been re-routed to a short-term, alternate site and 12 CSC agents were answering customer calls. By the end of the following day, all CSC agents had been relocated to the site and were providing customer support.
Two days after the PIKEPASS fire, on September 28, 2011, a temporary store was setup and operational. The temporary PIKEPASS store remained in-service until the original location had been demolished, rebuilt, furnished and equipped. Eight months after the fire, PIKEPASS personnel fully occupied the completely new PIKEPASS Customer Service Center. The move back to the original site was completed over a three and a half day period and was transparent to PIKEPASS customers.
It is important to note that during the actual fire as well as the days and months following, due to the efforts of all departments of the agency, all PIKEPASS revenue was continuing to be posted to customer accounts and that there was no lost revenue.
Immediately after the fire, despite OTA’s PIKEPASS personnel not having a place to work or the tools and resources necessary to do their jobs, customer service was only interrupted for six hours. They maintained all obligations to contractors and vendors. Furthermore, violation processing continued uninterrupted and no employee lost his or her job. These combined actions are a testament to the foresight, hard work and cooperation displayed by the entire OTA team.
Award Category Term