As the original Operator for TOD’s TxTag Program, Shimmick provided startup and ongoing operational services for 9 ½ years—exercising the base contract and all options—in support of a $3.6 billion 90-mile toll road. A key project element was the state’s rollout of its TxTag electronic tolling program. With 330 staff during peak operations, agents handled 6.2 million calls and managed over 928,000 accounts.
The project implementation phase included the development of all policies, plans, and training materials needed to operate the program and manage staff that eventually grew to over 330 people. Shimmick also supported the completion of the new 23,000 square-foot CSC and administration office building.
Shimmick provided oversight of the build-out, offering interior design recommendations, and procuring all office furnishings and equipment. Shimmick delivered high levels of customer service while maintaining the flexibility necessary to support rapid growth. This included scaling the size of our workforce on several occasions to meet ever-changing demands—sometimes quite significantly and with little notice. For example, to comply with bond covenants, TOD needed to open SH-121 (a high-volume roadway in the Dallas area) and begin toll collection prior to the installation of the ETC readers in the functional lanes. To accomplish this, Shimmick worked in partnership with TOD to develop a 100% video-billing solution—one of the first to be implemented in the U.S. Shimmick then rapidly increased the size of the image review staff by 60 personnel and operated three, 8-hour shifts every day to support image review and billing operations.
In addition, Shimmick also worked diligently with TOD on an extensive pre-launch TxTag marketing and distribution campaign that was so successful we enjoyed a 75% TxTag penetration rate within a month of operations another industry first! Shimmick also developed an innovative in-lane tag distribution program. The program experienced tremendous success, with toll attendants distributing an average of 4,000 tags each month, which equated to 20% of all tag sales. In total, over 180,000 tags were distributed in cash collection lanes.
