FY18 Sustainability Report Transurban 10
Customer and community
Customer hardship
Helping customers who are experiencing payment difficulties Customers are at the heart of our business and we continually strive to improve the way we serve and support them. We recognise that sometimes customers need additional support with payment difficulties. Transurban’s hardship policy is designed to help customers in financial difficulty due to special circumstances like homelessness, sudden or prolonged illness, chronic unemployment, caring responsibilities or family violence. Our policy is to help customers in financial difficulty, including offering flexible options to help them manage their payment obligations. We encourage customers experiencing payment difficulties to ask for help as soon as possible. Working with community practitioners In FY18, we worked to enhance the way we detect and respond to financial vulnerability in the community, starting with hosting workshops with community- based organisations that are already helping people in hardship. We met with services, financial counselling, emergency relief, and local and state government. Following these workshops, we tested a range of options for reducing tolling debt, including: • employee training to enhance detection and response to customers in likely distress • a dedicated community practitioner line 50 community organisations across Australia including community legal
Image (right): Workshop discussions to improve support for customers experiencing hardship
• a streamlined eligibility process where we can receive advice from community organisations about their clients experiencing hardship • new information materials, designed to aid with understanding the support and payment options we offer to people experiencing financial hardship. In FY19 we will continue with this work and start implementing recommendations. Thriving Communities Partnership In June 2018, we joined the Thriving Communities Partnership (TCP) as a founding partner. This partnership comprises utilities, financial services, telecommunications and transport organisations who are working together to build more resilient communities and stronger businesses. Tolling debt is often just one of multiple debt obligations that burden vulnerable people, and the TCP encourages a holistic approach to helping customers in hardship circumstances.
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