Toolkit for Rural Community Coordinated Transportation Services (2004) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 8-38
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From page 8... ...
It addresses the fundamental issue of "Why coordinate? " This section begins with basic coordination concepts, including definitions, an historical perspective about coordinated transportation services, an overview of the agencies often involved in coordinated transportation systems, and an examination of the kinds of problems that coordination addresses.
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Chapter 1 Basic Coordination Concepts 11 BASIC COORDINATION CONCEPTS SOME DEFINITIONS Coordination is a strategy for managing resources. It is applied within community political environments.
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The earliest study to focus on coordination of transportation services defined it in three phases: (1) cooperation, (2)
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The results can be quite beneficial, as described below. THE EVOLUTION OF EFFORTS TO COORDINATE SPECIALIZED TRANSPORTATION SERVICES Understanding the history of coordination helps to understand some of the issues people now face when they attempt to implement coordinated transportation services.
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Many agencies had similar client travel needs, but they fiercely guarded the rights and interests of their own clients against "competing" interests and the prerogatives of their own "turf" from "outsiders." Many rural communities have evidenced real leadership in combining the travel resources of human service agencies and also opening such services to members of the general public. Despite these successes, transportation services in some of these same rural communities have been unable to cross township, county, or state boundaries to coordinate transportation services with neighboring communities.
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; ✦ Departments of human and social services, which arrange Medicaid transportation as well as transportation for low-income persons; ✦ Departments of health and mental health, which provide medical trips; ✦ Area agencies on aging, which transport clients to senior centers and other service destinations; Chapter 1 Basic Coordination Concepts 15 Riders and their representatives need to be included in any transportation planning process, as do the agencies serving them
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Operating separately, such services often demonstrate the economic and service problems noted below. Operating in a coordinated fashion, these agencies can often achieve greater levels of transportation services for their own clients and others as well.
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In order to determine if coordination can improve the transportation services in a particular locality, transportation planners must first gather data about the potential population to receive transportation services and the current transportation providers. The next step is to analyze the effectiveness and efficiency of current services in meeting the service population's needs.
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Rural communities must carefully assess their own circumstances with respect to these conditions; only then will the most appropriate strategy become apparent. GOALS FOR COORDINATED TRANSPORTATION SERVICES A number of efforts to coordinate transportation services have not shown success because they failed to specify what they were trying to achieve by coordinating.
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Coordination achieves these goals through better resource management. The first set of resource management objectives, targeted on greater efficiencies, focuses on reducing duplication and fragmentation in operating, administering, planning, and funding transportation services.
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Additional information on how coordination works is found in the next chapter in the section on coordination's benefits. SUMMARY This introduction to fundamental coordination concepts has focused on these areas: ✦ Coordination is a technique for managing limited resources and focuses on shared power arrangements among partners, ✦ Coordinated transportation services evolved as a means of meeting the transportation needs of special needs populations more effectively and efficiently than is possible with singleclient transportation services, ✦ A very broad range of transportation operators, consumers, and policymakers needs to be involved in coordinated transportation efforts within a locality, ✦ Coordination addresses problems created by inefficient services that operate without overall direction, ✦ Key goals for coordinated transportation services include more productive and more cost-effective services, and ✦ Coordinated transportation works by reducing the costs of providing transportation and expanding services.
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Valid expectations are particularly critical in the areas of coordination's benefits and costs, as well as the often misunderstood concept of "barriers to coordination." THE OVERALL BENEFITS AND COSTS OF COORDINATION Coordination is one of a number of management strategies for improving the performance of various individual transportation services, as well as the overall mobility within a community. It wrings inefficiencies out of the disparate operations and service patterns that often result from a multiplicity of providers.
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✦ Coordinated services can offer more visible transportation services for consumers and less confusion about how to access services. Some of the most important specific benefits can include ✦ Filling service gaps in a community by offering transportation to additional individuals and geographic areas within existing budgets; ✦ Providing trips to consumers at lower costs; ✦ Providing more trips for community members, thus enhancing their quality of life and providing economic benefits to their communities; ✦ Reducing total vehicle travel within a community, thus enhancing air quality and making other positive environmental contributions; and ✦ Generating cost savings to some participating agencies in special forms of coordinated transportation service.
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These also result in more trips for community members, thus enhancing their quality of life and generating economic benefits for the entire community, and generating cost savings to some participating agencies in some forms of coordinated transportation services. Chapter 2 Coordination Details: Benefits, Costs, and Barriers 23
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Within rural communities, the most significant results of coordination are probably the following factors: ✦ Provider/program cost savings: There are two kinds of reduced costs per trip: those associated with decreased resource inputs (costs) and those associated with increasing service outputs (trips)
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Coordinated transportation services should result in greater accessibility throughout the community, providing greater mobility and independence for residents, and leading to decreased isolation. Tables 2 through 5 can be used in the initial stages of planning coordinated transportation services.
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26 Basic Coordination Concepts SECTION I Factor Desired or Expected Change System Characteristics (Inputs) Number of transportation providers Lower Number of agencies purchasing transportation Higher Number of vehicles Lower Number of drivers Lower Part-time/full-time driver ratio Lower Average hourly driver wage Higher Total driver wages Lower Level and quality of driver training Higher Hours when service is provided each day Expanded Days when service is provided each week Expanded Vehicle hours of service May be lower Vehicle miles of service May be lower Total service area Expanded Number of persons who can get services Expanded Joint purchasing More frequent Joint dispatching of agency-owned vehicles More frequent Centralized oversight and management More frequent Level of route duplication Lower Number of funding sources Higher Total transportation funding Higher One central community information source More frequent Segregated client types Less frequent Limited trip purposes Less frequent Community-wide transportation perspective More frequent Time spent in meetings Higher Level of planning processes Higher Table 2: POTENTIAL COORDINATED TRANSPORTATION BENEFITS: SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS (INPUTS)
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Chapter 2 Coordination Details: Benefits, Costs, and Barriers 27 Table 3: POTENTIAL COORDINATED TRANSPORTATION BENEFITS: PERFORMANCE MEASURES Desired or Expected Change Factor Performance Measures Number of passenger trips Higher Number of passenger trips per service area population Higher Passenger trips per vehicle mile Higher Passenger trips per vehicle hour Higher Number of driver hours per passenger trip Lower Number of admin staff hours per passenger trip Lower Cost per vehicle hour Lower Cost per vehicle mile Lower Cost per passenger trip Lower Community benefits: Economic activity Higher Economic growth Higher Nursing home admissions per 1,000 population Lower Table 4: POTENTIAL COORDINATED TRANSPORTATION BENEFITS: SERVICE ATTRIBUTE ASSESSMENTS Desired or Expected Change Service Attribute Assessments Factor Acceptability Greater Accessibility Greater Adaptability Greater Affordability Greater Availability Greater
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28 Basic Coordination Concepts SECTION I If some of these efficiency-related impacts cannot be achieved, coordination may not be worth the effort it requires. Table 5: POTENTIAL COORDINATED TRANSPORTATION BENEFITS: USERS' OVERALL SERVICE ASSESSMENTS Desired or Expected Change Factor Users' Overall Service Assessments Alternative travel options Greater Ratings of transportation services More Positive Outcomes Independence Increased Security Increased Mobility Increased Isolation Decreased
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Chapter 2 Coordination Details: Benefits, Costs, and Barriers 29 Table 6: HOW TO GENERATE PROVIDER/PROGRAM COST SAVINGS Cost Category of Total System Cost Probable Effect of Coordination Possible Change in this Category's Percent Cost Drivers' salaries 35 Reduces total number of drivers Drivers drive more hours, are more skilled, and earn higher wages Less input from volunteer drivers -20 +10 to 25 +10 to 20 Administrative salaries 15 Frees agency heads from transportation hours Requires hiring a professional transportation director -10 +20? Dispatcher and bookkeeper salaries 6 Reduces total number of dispatchers and bookkeepers needed -25 Gasoline, oil, and tires 16 Joint purchasing reduces prices; coordinated system may receive special tax advantages -15 Capital expenses 12 Reduces total need for vehicles, radios, and computers -25 Insurance 4.5 Standardizes rates for service but changes rate class to a higher risk level +25 Maintenance 8 Eliminates duplication and underutilization of space, tools, and personnel -25 Other costs 3.5 Saves on rent and office equipment -25 Typical Percent
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Typical service improvements that result from coordination include the following: ✦ Lowered trip costs for travelers and for human services agencies; ✦ Extended service hours; ✦ Services to new areas or new communities and to more people; ✦ More trips made by persons needing transportation; ✦ Services more responsive to schedules, points of origin, and destinations of customers; ✦ Greater emphasis on safety and customer service; ✦ More door-to-door service; and ✦ More flexible payment and service options. We need to recognize that some service limitations may still exist, even with coordination.
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, demonstrating that personal transportation services are a good investment for rural communities. The kinds of benefits that rural transit systems generate for their communities include the following: ✦ With access to jobs, workers get better jobs and there is reduced unemployment; ✦ Riders become (and stay)
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Coordination depends on mutual trust, respect, and goodwill among all parties involved, so long-standing coordination arrangements can be jeopardized if antagonistic or selfserving individuals become involved in transportation activities. 32 Basic Coordination Concepts SECTION I The transportation service in most communities serves only a fraction of the total travel needed.
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Much work has been devoted to investigating the issue of barriers to coordinated transportation. Because some persons have succeeded in implementing coordinated systems, it is now clear that many coordination efforts have been slowed or halted by perceived rather than actual barriers.
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Problems in coordinating transportation services for multiple client groups often stem from the incompatibilities or perceived incompatibilities in program purposes or services for the members of these different client groups. After some substantial efforts in investigating this issue of barriers, it is clear that many operators are responding to perceived rather than actual barriers.
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. Chapter 2 Coordination Details: Benefits, Costs, and Barriers 35 Having to work with a variety of rules and regulations from different funding sources certainly adds a level of complexity to coordination tasks.
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Current Head Start regulations (45 CFR 1310.12) state that "Effective January 18, 2006, each agency providing transportation services must ensure that children enrolled in its programs are transported in school buses or allowable alternative vehicles.
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. So unless rural transit and human service agencies switch their fleets to school buses, their Head Start contracts could expire in January 2006.
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PROBLEMS WITH ACCOUNTABILITY, COST ALLOCATION, PAPERWORK, AND REPORTING Rural transportation providers need detailed information to overcome the following kinds of potential coordination obstacles: ✦ Program-by-program variations in eligibility for services; ✦ Billing, accounting, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements; ✦ Funding issues, including differing matching ratios and funding cycles; and ✦ Service regulations (such as prohibitions on crossing local or state boundaries)
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Most of the commonly identified obstacles or barriers to coordination have specific strategies to overcome them. For example, problems of billing and accounting, which used to consume vast amounts of administrative staff resources for large coordinated transportation services (like OATS in Missouri)
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Other persons may not be used to cooperation as an operating procedure. Serious coordination efforts constitute a new way of doing business, outside of the traditional programmatic boundaries of service delivery.
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