407 ETR announced today that customer service levels have improved significantly in the past two years and that it is surprised the Ontario Government has appointed a task force to review complaints.

“Customer service is a priority for 407 ETR. We want our customer service to be as fast and convenient as the highway itself,” said Enrique Díaz-Rato, President and Chief Executive Officer of 407 ETR. “Our customers are important to us and we want to serve them well.”

Complaints about 407 ETR must be put into context. For example, the Government has said that it receives 50 complaints per month regarding 407 ETR – which represents only 30-thousandth of one per cent (or 0.00003 per cent) of the 1.5 million bills sent on an average month.

According to its own statistics, 407 ETR receives approximately 0.2 complaints per 1,000 customers – far less than benchmarks for comparable industries. Similarly, the number of abandoned calls to 407 ETR’s call centre is about 1 per cent, compared to benchmarks of between 3 and 4 per cent at other equivalent companies in North America.

In the past two years, 407 ETR has taken a number of steps to improve customer service, including:

• Hiring over 220 customer service staff to manage and resolve customer questions.
• Investing $47 million on a new computer billing system to replace the system that was designed in the 1990s and which the company inherited from the Government of Ontario after the 1999 privatization.
• Establishing a Customer Advocacy Group, following the ISO 10018 Complaint framework, to resolve escalated complaints.
• Maintaining an average waiting time to speak with a 407 ETR agent to less than 30 seconds for over 20 months.

"I firmly believe that we offer customer service levels that are equal to – if not better than – comparable industries, including utilities, government and other private-sector companies," said Mike Miller, Chief Customer Operations Officer for 407 ETR. "In the future, we are committed to working even harder to make more improvements to benefit our customers."

407 International Inc. is the sole shareholder, operator and manager of 407 ETR, which extends 108 kilometres east-west, just north of Toronto. 407 International Inc. is owned by a consortium comprised of Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, Macquarie Infrastructure Group and SNC-Lavalin.

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Media:

Dale A. Albers
Manager, Public Relations
Tel: 905-264-5221