Vancouver 311 never sleeps: Despite holidays, call centre still busy with requests, complaints

Despite taking the fewest calls compared to other days during the year, the City of Vancouver's 311 line is stillbusy during the holidays with missing pet requests, broken street lightsand noise complaints.

In 2019, the city's call centre line will celebrate its 10th year after opening its lines in June2009. Citizens can call the number from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day of the year to get information, requestservices or simply complain.

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Staff say the first year, there were probably 200,000 calls total to the number. Now on peak days during the summer, call takers can takeup to 4,000 calls.

Richard Traer has been the centre's managersince the start.

"It's been an interesting 10 years," he said about all the varied calls from picking up dead animalsto abandoned garbage or neighbours complaining about neighbours or noise.

"City noise can sometimes be a little too much [such as]late night parties," he said. "You know, we do have our noise control bylaw that tries to aim to balance that noise and how we respond to them."

Still, despite the potential for noise on New Year's Eve, the year-endholidays are the call centre's least busy time of year. Over the past three Christmas Days ,there has been an average of around 500 calls a day.

Fewer call-takers, which are known as CSRs(citizen service representatives), staff the lines typically around 30 as opposed to 45 to 50 agents in the summer.

The type of requests are just as varied,but fewer.

Merry Christmas, where's my cat?

On Christmas Day 2017, there was at least one lost pet case the city worked on. It also responded to two on New Year's day 2016 along with two dead animal pick-ups.

Often an influx in calls over the holidays are tied to weather events.

For example, from New Year's Eve in 2016 well into the new year, there were hundreds of calls about icy streets, broken watermains and snow removal due to severe winter weather.

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On Jan.1, 2017, call takers opened up 26 different citizen feedback files, which encompass residents sounding off about anything and having it sent to the appropriate department. That day, Traersays, it was most likely residents complaining about a lack of snow removal.

He says, no matter what, call takers are ready to help.

Is the pool open Christmas Day?

"You know folks during Christmas-time, they're still concerned about ... when the garbage is going to be picked up or they might report a street light out," he said, adding that calls are usually tied to what's going on in the city.

"Can I get to my local community centre?is the pool open?What kind of events are there for my kids to take part in between Christmas and New Year's?Those are the typical kind of ones."

Ultimately, phone calls to the centre are expected to diminishas more people use the city's VanConnect app.

Launched in May 2015, itallows residents to submit service request, get updates, emergency information and community information on their smartphones.