Penny Pinching At Dollar Thrifty

One of Tulsa's biggest employers is laying off hundreds. Dollar Thrifty officials announced Wednesday they are outsourcing more than half of their Tulsa call center and sending some of those jobs

Wednesday, February 7th 2007, 10:56 am

By: News On 6

One of Tulsa's biggest employers is laying off hundreds. Dollar Thrifty officials announced Wednesday they are outsourcing more than half of their Tulsa call center and sending some of those jobs overseas.

News On 6 business reporter Steve Berg reports the move affects about 200 workers in Tulsa. Some of those jobs will be going to southern Oklahoma and some will be going to the Philippines.

Dollar Thrifty officials say they've been contemplating the move for more than a year. â€œIt certainly isn't something we went into lightly," says Dollar Thrifty vice president Bob DuPont. He says about 200 of the 375 call center jobs in Tulsa will be outsourced to a company called PRC. Some of those will go to Durant in southern Oklahoma and some will go to the Phillipines.

Outsourcing, especially overseas, has become a hot-button issue over the last several years. "And it was a tough decision to make, but again I go back to the fact that we compete in a global marketplace. And for us to continue to provide quality to our employees who remain here and for us to have a viable company, we felt like we had to make this decision."

There is certainly no arguing with the cost-savings for Dollar Thrifty, which is significant. Bob DuPont says, "our savings over the next 5 years will be 20-million."

The move begins in April, so that gives workers some time to look for other work. DuPont says some could find jobs within Dollar Thrifty. "We've got a number of opportunities right now that some of our people will qualify for. We expect more opportunities to come up over the course of the next 3-and-a-half to 4 months."

This is the 2nd large outsourcing for Dollar Thrifty in the past 6 months. Last August, they outsourced possibly as many as 300 people from their IT department to EDS.

Dollar Thrifty officials add, they are not outsourcing any jobs from their Tahlequah call center. In fact, it says it may add about 40 jobs there. Currently, the Tahlequah call center employees 375 workers.