Sharing the Costs of Human Services Transportation (2011)

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Program Management Improves Local program managers need detailed and accurate data to be better managers. High-quality data allows managers to more completely understand their own program’s operations and to provide more cost-effective services with limited resources. Detailed cost and service information can do the following: • Serve as a diagnostic tool that identifies specific areas of problems with performance, thus aid- ing in day-to-day management decision-making. • Assist in long-term planning and decision-making, such as requests for future funding from state legislatures or local governments. • Provide information to document transportation expenditures and meet other regulatory requirements of funding agencies and other supervisory bodies. In short, detailed information helps managers do a better job. There is a strong need to work smarter in human service programs, especially in light of current serious financial constraints in many states and communities. Techniques such as Management by Objectives, Continuous Quality Improvement, Total Quality Management, and others are tools that rely on intensive data collection efforts to assess and improve program performance. Accurate cost reporting leads to better management of scarce resources. Thus, fundamental reasons for collecting, analyzing, and reporting program data are to • Assess your current performance (and to find ways to improve). • Demonstrate to others that you’re doing a good job (e.g., to assure funding sources that their funds have been spent appropriately). Accountability is a prime function of many data collection systems. However, to be truly use- ful to staff members collecting the information, data collection for transportation services needs to be focused on measurements of performance that provide information for operational deci- sions by program managers. Performance measures provide a means by which management may periodically assess performance, measure progress toward the achievement of goals and objectives, and consider actions that may change the course of future events. Such actions may result in the modification of policies, procedures, and processes. Other actions might lead to operational changes including service enhancement or service cessation. Performance measures are the key to answering the question, “What do I do now?”—particularly when it appears that a problem is at hand. Indicators of performance can suggest corrective actions such as increases or decreases in services, revenues, and staff, or modifications in procedures or other activities (e.g., marketing or public relations). 3 C H A P T E R 2 The Benefits of Better Transportation Cost and Service Data

The uses of performance measures include the following: • Assess performance. • Measure progress toward the achievement of goals and objectives. • Consider actions which may change the course of future events. • Modify policies, procedures, and processes. • Make operational changes, including those leading to – Service expansion, reduction, or cessation; – Increases or decreases in services, revenues, and staff; and – Changes or modifications to transportation modes, service delivery procedures, or other activities (such as marketing or public relations). Community-Wide Cost Effectiveness Improves We live in a time of increasing service needs and increasingly restricted funding. In many cases, human service programs have been developed individually and have operated separately from each other for many years. Although some communities have highly successful, highly cost-effective coordinated transportation systems, many communities still have instances of duplication and overlapping services, service gaps, and a lack of cost effectiveness in the ways that many of these programs are being delivered. This is a costly situation at a time when resources are scarce for individuals and at all levels of government. Coordination among a variety of agencies offers an opportunity to achieve more and better outcomes for the same levels of investment. A community-wide perspective would address questions such as the following: • Are all resources being fully employed at all times? • Is it necessary to have transportation directors for a large number of agencies? • Do multiple agencies need dispatchers, computers, maintenance facilities, training programs, accounting programs and staff, or even vehicles? • Is it possible to achieve the same or even greater levels of efficiency and effectiveness if some agencies that have been providing their own transportation services purchase those services from others instead? Through coordination, it is typically possible to realize cost savings on operating, administra- tive, and capital costs, particularly when all these costs are analyzed at a community-wide level. A key challenge for coordination programs is creating explicit agreements that detail tasks and responsibilities, including that of paying for services. Accurate cost reporting provides the foun- dation necessary to ensure an equitable and accurate distribution of costs among all partici- pating agencies. Having and using the right kinds of data can assure all stakeholders that the question “Will everyone be paying their fair share?” is being closely examined. Funding Requests Are Viewed More Favorably A key technique for obtaining additional funding is to demonstrate that the funds previously received were well spent. Accurate cost and service reporting is a fundamental component of such demonstrated competence. Good reporting can conclusively show how much service was delivered to whom and at what cost. Data can be analyzed to demonstrate that the services were provided in a cost-effective manner; if real improvements have been made, the figures should indicate that as well. Performance measures also can enable comparisons of safety and quality of service when indicators such as on-time performance, accidents, and incidents are considered. Eligibility for funding often is the main benefit of documenting coordination efforts. For exam- 4 Sharing the Costs of Human Services Transportation

ple, in Lane County, Oregon, the fact that the program is coordinated and can document what various components of service cost helps them obtain grant funds (see Chapter 6 in Volume 2, “Research Report” for more information). Summary Cost accounting is a powerful tool. One of its key functions is to illuminate possibilities for more cost-effective program operations; this can be achieved by examining the costs of alterna- tive methods of producing services (or the costs of alternative providers of those services, appli- cable in communities that actually have choices of service providers). Programs that are providing or funding transportation services to clients or customers clearly need to understand service alternatives and their detailed cost implications. This Toolkit provides a framework for uniform service and cost reports regarding trans- portation services. All human service organizations, but especially those funded by the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, and Labor—along with the recipi- ents of U.S. Department of Transportation funding—constitute the primary audiences for this uniform transportation service cost reporting framework. Why should agencies make changes in the way they approach data collection and reporting? Why go to the cost and expense of doing things differently in the future? • To improve internal program management. • To increase the cost effectiveness of services throughout the community. • To support requests for future funding. The Benefits of Better Transportation Cost and Service Data 5