 the offical newsletter of DALLAS AREA RAPID TRANSIT - Spring 2009 |
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Shoulder-to-shoulder, DART employees are pulling out all the stops to propel the agency to ever-greater levels of service and efficiency.
Each year is unique, and in 2008 DART saw ridership reach record levels as the price of gasoline did the same. The surge of new riders crowded rush-hour trains and sometimes overtaxed DART’s resources, but employees went the extra mile to make sure service, comfort and safety kept pace with new demands.
It speaks volumes that in an annual Customer Satisfaction Survey taken during the surge, an impressive 94% of customers said they were satisfied with DART and 96% would recommend it to others.
"Those kinds of numbers don't just happen by accident. Our employees have worked hard to earn that level of customer satisfaction," says DART President/Executive Director Gary Thomas.
Among those satisfied riders is Dr. Jean Paulsel, Head Start program coordinator at Region 10 Education Service Center in Richardson. "I really enjoy DART. It's a nice ride," she says. "People are friendly and helpful on the trains, and so are the passengers."
Reaching Higher
DART's success in FY08 was spurred by employees who were challenged to raise the bar, and in several cases, leap over it. Through a program dubbed "Reaching Performance Milestones" (RPM), salaried employees earned financial rewards for meeting shared goals in ridership development, security, service quality, project management, customer service, and minority contracting.
The RPM program is the latest step toward shaping a culture of employee engagement and achievement at DART. Other pieces include a competitive Division Level Measurement program for hourly workers, and an agencywide Employee Communication Committee.
Benchmarks for Success
| 88% | of customers say they have a "sense of security" riding DART |
| 3.6% | increase in fixed route ridership to 67.4 million |
| 96.6% | on-time performance for rail |
| 92% | on-time performance for bus |
| 34% | contract participation by minority/women business enterprises |
The Heart of DART
DART employees give back to the community in a big way. They contributed $89,000 to the 2008 United Way campaign – $22,000 more than the previous year. Together, they collected 31,260 pounds of food - more than 15 tons - and $1,115 in cash for Union Gospel Mission. And the Annual Santa Cops drives collected 772 toys for needy children and provided food to 280 needy families.
DART employees give back to the community in a big way. They contributed $89,000 to the 2008 United Way campaign – $22,000 more than the previous year. Together, they collected 31,260 pounds of food - more than 15 tons - and $1,115 in cash for Union Gospel Mission. And the Annual Santa Cops drives collected 772 toys for needy children and provided food to 280 needy families.
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