Sharing the Costs of Human Services Transportation (2011)

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It is critical that data on the transportation services provided and the costs of those services is collected in order to be able to • Assess performance. • Measure progress toward the achievement of goals and objectives. • Consider actions that may change the course of future events. • Modify policies, procedures, and processes. • Evaluate program outcomes. • Make decisions regarding the potential expansion, reduction, or cessation of services. • Share the costs of services among the beneficiaries of those services. Data on transportation services often are available in common and somewhat similar (although perhaps not identical) formats; comprehensive cost data are not as readily available and often are not available in consistent formats. Performance Assessments Need Specific Data It is important that data (i.e., statistics) are presented as meaningful performance measures to facilitate key functions like measuring progress toward achieving goals and objectives; modify- ing policies, procedures, and processes; and making changes to current operations. To construct useful performance measures, the following kinds of program data and statistics should be col- lected and reported: • Resource inputs: Resources expended in providing service, including labor, capital, materials, services, and other measurable items. • Service outputs: Nonfinancial operating results of resource expenditures. They may be expressed as service quantity outputs such as numbers of trips provided or hours of service provided, or as qualitative service statistics, such as user satisfaction or numbers of complaints. • Services consumed: The actual results of services purchased. Such information can be expressed in either financial or nonfinancial terms. For example, the number of passenger trips consumed is nonfinancial data; passenger revenue (through donations or fares) is financial. Basic Measures Can Express What’s Needed With such data in hand, it is possible to express three basic kinds of performance measures: • Resource efficiency measures, in which resource inputs are expressed in relation to service outputs (e.g., labor cost per service hour). 9 C H A P T E R 4 Data Needed for Measures of Transportation System Performance

• Service effectiveness measures, in which public consumption statistics are expressed in rela- tion to service outputs (e.g., trips per hour). • Cost-effectiveness measures, in which resource inputs are expressed in relation to public con- sumption statistics (e.g., costs per trip taken). Detailed Performance Assessments Are Possible Using these measures, program operators can monitor their performance. They can do this by measuring changes in their own performance over time or by comparing their statistics to those of other operators or to national statistics. Measuring changes in their own performance over time often is preferable because comparisons with other systems may be difficult unless one can be assured that the same kinds of data collection procedures are being used—and this comparability of measurement from community to community is precisely the objective of this project. By using detailed measures of performance, it is possible to obtain more detailed insights into a program’s operations, both its strengths and weaknesses. Program managers who have a detailed understanding of their programs’ strengths and weaknesses will be able to recognize significant opportunities for improvements. For a transportation service, some of these more detailed per- formance assessments would include the following: • Changes over time: Over several years, time, total passengers, hours, costs, and revenues should be measured by specific days, months, and years, and the percent changes from the previous time periods should be highlighted. • Performance within components: For example, if a transportation service has fixed routes, the most and least cost-effective routes should be examined, using the kinds of statistics men- tioned previously and comparing changes over time. If there are different categories of fares, each fare category should be tracked (and perhaps broken down by route, time of year, and other factors). • Performance within activities or functional cost centers: For example, maintenance costs per hour and per mile should be examined to determine if there are problems with the level of maintenance being performed (or perhaps there is a problem with the ways in which certain operators are driving). • Performance for specific components: Some operations track certain kinds of information for each particular vehicle in use, including the miles per gallon for each vehicle, total operat- ing costs for each vehicle, repair and maintenance costs, and the current depreciated value of each vehicle. Simple Data Provide Rich Measures Table 4-1 identifies some simple measures for these data. Currently observed issues and prob- lems with the collection and reporting of these simple measures are listed in this table. If the information shown in Table 4-1 were available, high-quality cost reporting procedures could be used: first to better manage community transportation programs and second to identify the appropriate amounts that all partners in a coordinated community transportation system should pay for their shares of the services. The information needed includes total dollar costs (i.e., all funds expended in all categories of expenses) to provide the services described in the follow- ing four variables: • Vehicle Miles—the miles a vehicle is scheduled to or actually travels from its point of depar- ture to go into service to when it pulls in from service. 10 Sharing the Costs of Human Services Transportation

• Vehicle Hours—the hours a vehicle is scheduled to or actually travels from its point of depar- ture to go into service to when it pulls in from service. • Passenger Trips (Unlinked)—the number of passengers who board a transportation vehicle or other conveyance used to provide client transportation. “Unlinked” means that passengers are counted each time they board vehicles no matter how many vehicles they use to travel from their origin to their destination. • Unduplicated Persons Served—the number of individuals who receive transportation services. Note that while reasonable cost sharing procedures might be developed without information on hours of service, service hour information is indeed necessary to ensure the most accurate and most equitable distribution of costs. Standardizing terminology and calculations is critical to providing comparable data for man- agement and accountability. See the Glossary for standardized transportation service and cost terminology. More Detailed Data Answer More Questions The simple list of required data items in Table 4-1 should form the basis for all transportation services recording and reporting. The expanded list of data items in Table 4-2 can be used, par- ticularly at the local level, to develop more powerful performance measures that can directly improve transportation services. Table 4-2 identifies more detailed data elements that can enhance the understanding of the three key types of data: costs, services provided, and services consumed. These additional data can help address these kinds of questions: • Which agency partners could best perform which functions in a coordinated transporta- tion program? Split costs into operating, administrative, or capital categories and then con- duct comparative analyses to determine which agencies offer the most cost-effective functions Data Needed for Measures of Transportation System Performance 11 Table 4-1. Common human services transportation data issues. Types of Data Common Measures Data Collection Issues Reporting Issues Cost of Services Total dollar costs Many transportation providers are not accounting for all costs required to provide transportation. Reports typically focus on the price of services rather than on their costs. Service Outputs Total vehicle miles Total vehicle hours Total vehicle miles of service are available more often than total vehicle hours of service; other measures of service outputs seldom are recorded or reported. Vehicle mile and hour data are typically available from transit but not human service agencies. Services Consumed Total number of trips Total unduplicated number of persons receiving services The basic measure of services consumed is one- way trips; this information is not as commonly available as would be expected. Another key measure is the total unduplicated number of persons receiving services, which is more commonly recorded for human service programs than for transportation programs. Trip data are generally available from transit but not human service agencies; numbers of persons served are generally available from demand- responsive but not fixed-route operations.

for these various tasks. Knowing which agencies could offer the greatest values in donated services or materials could help in the selection process. • Why do some trips cost more than others? Some trips require more time or may cover greater distances. Adding information about types of passengers (e.g., for ambulatory or non- ambulatory riders) could help explain differences in actual or anticipated trip costs. Some trips have greater administrative burdens such as special billing requirements, prior authorizations, and client eligibility. • Are we providing high-quality services? Adding service output measures such as trip denials and complaints would provide an assessment of service quality that would ensure that com- parisons were being made among like services. Customer satisfaction surveys can illuminate problems such as excessive waiting times to book trips or similar problems. • Are services being provided to those persons who need them the most? Adding information about types of riders (by age, disability status, or other characteristics) helps programs under- stand if they are targeting their services to their intended target groups, who generally include persons with the greatest travel needs. • Are the riders charged appropriate fares for their rides? Information on revenues from riders is useful for budgeting purposes and for calculating subsidies if subsidies are needed, but many human services transportation programs do not collect fares from their riders. Some transportation systems serving the general public also do not collect fares from the riders; instead, they use other taxes or local fees to support the system to avoid administrative costs of handling cash. Current Efforts Often Are Incomplete Table 4-3 shows current data collection procedures for some of the major federal programs serving the general public and persons with special travel needs. Specific data availability, assessed at the state or federal level, is expressed in the following range: • Highly detailed. • Available. • Often available. • Sometimes available. • Seldom available. • Not available. 12 Sharing the Costs of Human Services Transportation Table 4-2. Additional transportation program data. Types of Data Common Measures More Detailed Measures Additional Measures Cost of Services Total dollar costs Operating costs Administrative costs Capital costs Value of in-kind or donated services or property Service Outputs Total vehicle miles Total vehicle hours Services provided by paid staff versus volunteers, in large versus small vehicles, in group trips versus individual trips Trip denials Delays or complaints Road calls Accidents Services Consumed Total number of trips Total unduplicated number of persons receiving services Trips by type, such as ambulatory or non- ambulatory Passengers by type, such as seniors or persons with disabilities Passenger revenues Passenger miles

Note that, since many of these programs are state-administered, significant variations may occur in the information generally available from state to state. It also is important to note that, while limitations may exist in the availability of some of the data in Table 4-3 at the state and federal levels, much of this information often is available at the local level. At the present time, it appears that only members of the aging network regularly collect all of the types of data needed, and even they may need more detailed data collection in some areas. A number of human service agencies collect only a small fraction of the information needed to ensure the cost effectiveness of their own programs and to assure stakeholders in coordinated transportation compacts that costs are being shared equitably. There is a best practice argument for adopting the best reporting procedures commonly in use. Even if service providers are not currently required to account for costs in a certain way, they would be more consistent with best practices in the field if they did so. Summary As seen previously, some improvements in data recording and reporting could be made by nearly all recipients of federal funds used to provide human services transportation. U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)-funded agencies could record and report more informa- tion on passengers while other agencies could record and report more information on service outputs and services consumed. The good news is that nearly all of the currently available para- transit software programs collect all these data, so community transportation systems that use software for scheduling, dispatching, and billing purposes will have readily available, automated data that could be converted to the more standardized formats recommended by this project. These data then would be ready to generate the information needed for management and report- ing purposes. Additional data collection procedures will be required for fixed-route transit sys- tems where few data on the numbers and types of persons traveling are available. Note that the current paratransit software programs typically contain personal data at a much greater level of detail than is needed for cost accounting purposes. Aggregate summary data are sufficient; detailed personal information is not required. Therefore, concerns about personal privacy could be easily addressed in the proposed reporting procedures. Data Needed for Measures of Transportation System Performance 13 Table 4-3. Typical current transportation data availability. Data Agency Type Transportation Aging Medicaid Employment Costs Highly detailed Aggregatetotals Aggregate totals Aggregate totals Vehicle Miles Available Sometimes available Seldom available Seldom available Vehicle Hours Often available Not often available Not available Not available Number of Trips Available Available Seldom available Sometimes available Number of Persons Served Sometimes available Often available Often available Often available Numbers of Persons by Type Sometimes available Often highly detailed Seldom available Seldom available