Tolls hiked again! Unthinkable but true. On June 29th, the higher toll structure will take effect and I am sure the new rates will not be offset by lower fuel prices. It’s getting more expensive than ever to maintain New York’s premier superhighway and it is time for the Thruway’s management to think about new ways to save money or increase non-toll revenue. The new toll structure is the minimum required to get through the next few years and higher than expected increases in steel and asphalt could rapidly take up any slack there is in the program.

The NYS Comptroller recently audited the Thruway and made several very good suggestions to help the Thruway reduce operating and capital costs, I will try to not repeat his recommendations in this article. Click here for a copy of the Comptroller’s report, http://osc.state.ny.us/audits/allaudits/093008/08s6.pdf.

Staffing is a big expense. The Thruway reports that since 1995, it has cut 450 positions and promises to eliminate 50 more by 2012. This equates to about 29 positions a year when all is said and done. Unfortunately the staffing reduction is driven more by who is retiring rather than any particular operational improvement or efficiency. A true top to bottom review and revamping of operations would most likely necessitate a few layoffs, something the Thruway has never done, even in times of fiscal crisis. How can an agency become smaller and more efficient if it is not willing to cut unnecessary members of its workforce?

Another area to look at is level of service, for example, is it necessary to catch the snow as it falls rather than plow it later. Personally I like the fact that I-90 is the best plowed highway in the Northeast, but the Thruway is now a Cadillac system with a Chevy income. Even as this article is being written, rapidly increasing fuel prices are eating away at the Thruway’s traffic projections as more people avoid trips to save money. We have to ask ourselves how much money would be saved if the system were run more like highways owned and operated by the NYS Department of Transportation (DOT).

Lastly, the Thruway needs to be more aggressive about implementing programs that would increase annual revenues without raising tolls.

Here are some ideas:

	Eliminate the construction inspector title. Construction inspection is a seasonal activity, but the there are at least 18 or more full time positions associated with construction inspection. Additionally, each of these positions has a vehicle assigned to them. This function can be more efficiently done with consultant inspectors.
	Implement a barrier system for collecting tolls. Half a dozen new toll barriers would eliminate the need to staff every exit. Plus, barriers would allow for greater high speed toll collection for E-ZPass users. The Thruway is studying this idea, but it has yet to be completed.
	Outsource payroll. Rather than reducing administrative personnel by outsourcing payroll, the Thruway recently invested millions of dollars in a new payroll system that requires a full time staff and some consultants to run it. Many large businesses outsource their payroll, why not the Thruway or any other agency.
	Reduce salt usage. The Thruway uses about three times more salt per mile than DOT. Less salt is also better for the environment and the steel bridges.
	Place a $5 dollar surcharge on all traffic tickets issued by the State Police. The Thruway spends more than $30 million per year for State Police services. This is about half of what the Canal System costs. All of the ticket revenue goes to the State and local jurisdictions. A small surcharge directed to the Thruway would help offset this expense.
	Right size the Thruway State Police Troop T. The Thruway is required to maintain a standard police troop, including dogs, boats and snowmobiles. Police services could be reduced by up to 20 percent if Troop T were right sized for road patrols only. Can somebody tell me why Troop T now uses full size SUV’s to write tickets and respond to accidents?
	Rid the Thruway of unnecessary mandates such as having to spend millions to build natural gas, electric and hydrogen fueling stations for the few cars that will actually use these facilities. This is better left to the private service stations that will install these amenities when the market demands them.
	Win union concessions. Contracts for all three of the Authority’s unions are due to expire soon and need to be renegotiated. I am no labor expert, but there must be ways to work with the unions to create operating efficiencies and lower labor, health insurance and pension costs. If the auto manufacturers and workers in Detroit can do it, then the Thruway should be able to also.
	Privatize the Thruway’s fiber optic network. The Thruway has a huge State-wide fiber optic network that was built for agency and commercial use in partnership with Global Crossing. When Global Crossing went belly up several years ago, the Thruway took ownership of all of the fiber. This asset should be sold or auctioned off to an entity that is better suited to commercialize it.
	Aggressively sell surplus lands to generated revenue. The Thruway and Canal Corporation have significant property holdings that are no longer needed for transportation purposes. However, because the Board must approve all transactions, property sales often become mired in politics and indecision. Remove the need for Board approval of real property transactions valued at less than $100,000.
	Charge fees to truck companies that utilize tandem trailer lots. The Thruway provides free parking lots for trucks hauling double 48’ trailers. “Thruway Doubles” are not allowed on local roads so a truck drops one trailer in the tandem lot when it gets off the Thruway to make a delivery. These lots are built, maintained and plowed at Thruway expense, but the truckers save money by hauling doubles. A pretty good deal for the truckers. Using the E-ZPass tag, a fee could be charged for trucks entering the tandem trailer lots.
	Privatize the travel plazas. Incredibly, travel plazas are the property of the Thruway and the Authority is responsible to maintaining the buildings and grounds and plowing the snow. When travel plazas are being plowed, that means there is one less truck working the mainline during a snow storm. When a fuse blows in the middle of the night, a thruway worker has to be called out on overtime to fix it. These facilities are ripe for privatization and could generate significant revenue to the Authority.
	Don’t give E-ZPass tags away for fee, sell them! Other states with toll roads like Massachusetts, charge customers for their tags, in New York the Thruway provides tags at no cost, and they are not cheap.
	Use the Thruway right-of-way to locate wind turbines and sell the electricity. According to the NYS Energy Research and Development Authority, I-90 runs through several high wind counties that can support large wind turbines (Chautauqua, Erie and Madison). Authority lands are exempt from local zoning so it should be relatively easy to locate several turbines in these regions.
	Charge tow truck operators to work on the Thruway. The Authority expends a lot of staff time to administer towing operations, review bills and handle customer complaints. These tow operators are given exclusive territories in which to operate. Shouldn’t these operators pay a fee for this exclusivity?
	Employee accident investigations should be handled by the State Police. When a Thruway employee has an accident, the State Police investigate the accident and issue a report. However, the Thruway also sends out its own investigator, often on overtime, to conduct an independent investigation and file a report. This is a small issue, but it points out that the Thruway is slow to find better ways to do business.
	Reduce level of effort for minor repairs. Many people would be surprised to know that large pot holes are repaired in less than 48 hours and that damaged signs and guard rails are usually fixed within a week or two. This is a very high level of service when compared to other highways around the country, free or tolled. Rather than continuously responding to each property damage incident, some of this work could be moved to a regular monthly cycle and even done by contractors. If the Thruway was controlled by the DOT, this maintenance would be done only three or four times a year.
	Market the sign shop. The Thruway has a large modern sign shop in Albany and they can make any kind of sign you can think of. This facility could be privatized, or better yet, the Authority could market its sign shop services to DOT, municipalities and other agencies. Managed correctly, the sign shop actually could become a profit center.
	Explore the value of E-ZPass information. Whether you use your credit, grocery store or pharmacy card, your card provider is selling a portion of your transaction history to marketing companies. Even the State DMV sells driver and registration information. I would bet some marketing company would pay for the information that is generated by E-Zpass, even if all of the personal information is redacted, there is value in the origin and destination data and the type of vehicle that is used to get there.
	Reduce daily right-of-way patrols to once or twice a week. Currently maintenance workers collect animal carcasses and other objects from the shoulder of the road on a daily basis. This takes activity is performed by about 40 maintenance workers each day and takes several hours to complete. This results in a lot of low productivity work.
	Shared services. In the not too recent past the Thruway, Bridge Authority and DOT were supposed to find ways to reduce costs by sharing services under the flag of the new transportation federation. This could be in the form of equipment and material sharing, maintenance, printing, or even engineering design services. On a small scale sharing services has taken place, but much more could be done.
	Shared procurement. It’s cheaper to buy a product in bulk right? For instance, why does the Thruway buy a bigger and more expensive plow trucks and salt spreaders than DOT? There are some operational reasons, but in the current fiscal climate, they may not be enough to overcome the cost savings that could be had if the Thruway and DOT ordered the same size and color trucks at the same time.
	Billing the billboards and other advertising devices. Billboards within 660’ of the Thruway require a permit and must be inspected for structural soundness. The permits are dirt cheap too. Modern advertising devices can be digital, rotate or flip and can carry two to four times the number of ads than an old single sided board. The Thruway loses money every time it issues a permit. To add insult to injury, hundreds of billboards do not even have a valid permit and are illegal. Billboard owners should be charged a percentage of the gross revenue generated by the advertising device and they should have to pay a licensed engineer to certify to the Authority that the device meeting guidelines.

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