ADA Paratransit Service Models (2018) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 99-134
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From page 99... ...
99 Service Model Types In Chapter 3, ADA paratransit service models were described as having three components: • A management structure, • How work is divided among multiple dedicated carriers (zoned, unzoned, other) , and • Whether non-dedicated service providers (in most cases, taxis, and in one case, livery operators)
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From page 100... ...
100 ADA Paratransit Service Models Model Number Locations Reservations Scheduling Dispatching Handling Customers' ETA Calls Operations (# of Dedicated Service Contractors) Service Area Zones?
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From page 101... ...
Survey Analysis Summary 101 Direct Transit Agency Involvement Different Levels of Involvement As shown in Figure 8, among the identified transit agencies, 12 of the 29 transit agencies that responded to the survey directly perform all or some of the primary functions in-house. Direct involvement included: • Directly performing all four primary call center functions (reservations, scheduling, dispatching, and handling customer ETA calls)
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From page 102... ...
102 aDa paratransit Service Models Directly Performing All Four Primary Call Center Functions and Service Delivery Of the survey respondents, the MTA in Nashville is the only transit agency that performs all call center functions and operates 100% of the dedicated service provided in-house. MARTA in Atlanta formerly fell into this category, but recently privatized all primary functions except reservations; MARTA was in the midst of responding to union grievances related to this outsourcing, and may have changed its model further depending on the outcome.
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From page 103... ...
Survey analysis Summary 103 two service providers that serve different areas (in different states) , 99% of the trips are served by one of the contractors.
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From page 104... ...
104 aDa paratransit Service Models dispatching by anyone other than the vehicle operations contractor. In Houston, as mentioned, the service providers supply employees in the central dispatch area to provide radio assistance to their drivers as needed.
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From page 105... ...
Survey analysis Summary 105 senior, human service agency, and general-public trips making up the balance. The Port Authority of Allegheny County holds the primary contract with the current broker, Transdev, and funds not only the ADA but the majority of senior trips as well.
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From page 106... ...
106 aDa paratransit Service Models numerous NDSPs, the transit agency instead has one contract with an NDSP broker, and that broker is then responsible for ensuring that all NDSP drivers are trained and monitored, and that NDSP vehicles are insured up to NYCT-required insurance levels. From the survey, there is only one example of this, in New York City.
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From page 107... ...
Survey analysis Summary 107 together, this could be seen as equivalent to a single turnkey contractor. That said, TriMet stresses some advantages to this -- having to work with only one company, for example -- but keeping the structure open in case procurements in the future result in retaining multiple contractors for different elements of the service.
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From page 108... ...
108 aDa paratransit Service Models centralized approach is the ability to shift work among contractors mid-contract and based on performance, especially where the service providers are not assigned to exclusive zones and where the transit agency provides some or all of the vehicles. Brokerage models were much more popular among larger systems in the infancy of the paratransit industry because transit agencies did not have the knowledge base necessary to manage the system and contract with and monitor service providers.
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From page 109... ...
Survey analysis Summary 109 • With mid-contract reallocation in part based on service performance, the service provider contractors would have a more compelling reason to focus on the quality of service delivery. • Disruption insurance would be enhanced; i.e., in the event that one of the service provider contractors defaulted, customers would still be calling the same central source (the call and control center manager)
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From page 110... ...
110 aDa paratransit Service Models the vehicles, the split of work serves as an initial split only, noting that the transit agency can (if contractually allowed) reallocate work based on service performance.
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From page 111... ...
Survey analysis Summary 111 besides enabling competition and allowing for an enhanced chance of succeeding with a more manageable package of work, is to funnel customer calls to a certain contractor based on where the customer lives. • For years, The RIDE in Boston employed a four-zone system with one service provider (performing call center and service delivery functions)
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From page 112... ...
112 aDa paratransit Service Models • ACCESS in Pittsburgh has also employed zones since its inception. The original concept was to take advantage of local carriers as much as possible.
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From page 113... ...
Survey analysis Summary 113 • SEPTA in Philadelphia has in effect five zones: one for Philadelphia and four in the surrounding counties. Within Philadelphia, SEPTA has retained four service provider contractors to provide service anywhere within the city, while in the suburban counties, SEPTA has retained one service provider contractor for each county.
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114 aDa paratransit Service Models company)
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From page 115... ...
Survey analysis Summary 115 service areas and particular geography. In the case of Milwaukee, a convenient north and south split was employed.
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From page 116... ...
116 aDa paratransit Service Models • In Ann Arbor, which has a combined ADA/senior paratransit service and where same-day trip requests are permitted for both sets of customers, AAATA retains one contractor to perform all trips. While AAATA intakes reservations and scheduling for all advance-reservation trips, the service provider contractor intakes same-day reservations and performs dispatching and service delivery for all trips.
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From page 117... ...
Survey analysis Summary 117 • Putting "all your eggs in one basket" can be daunting for some agencies. Without a fallback position, the agency has little leverage, other than punitive damages, if service quality does not meet standards, or if the level of service required exceeds the negotiating window.
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From page 118... ...
118 aDa paratransit Service Models certification program in which any taxi driver on a voluntary basis could opt to participate in a certification program where they would receive the same level of training provided to contractor employee drivers, agree to participate in drug and alcohol testing, and undergo similar background checks. Successful graduates became certified to serve ADA paratransit trips.
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From page 119... ...
Survey analysis Summary 119 service can reduce productivity and actually have a negative impact on overall cost per trip. The lowest-ranking use of NDSPs, to handle re-emerging no-show customers, was surprising.
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From page 120... ...
120 aDa paratransit Service Models Transit Agency Provision of Assets Types of Assets Provided From the survey, the transit agencies that provide assets for their brokers, call center managers, and/or service provider contractors are identified in Figure 20. Based on the response, 22 transit agencies supply the paratransit software system, while 21 provide some or all of the vehicles.
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From page 121... ...
Survey analysis Summary 121 For a transit agency to determine whether or not savings have been achieved, it is essential that some tracking take place to better understand the level of diverted trips versus the level of new trips for each customer participating in the subsidy program. In many such programs, transit agencies look at the "before-and-after" level of ADA paratransit ridership to estimate those levels.
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From page 122... ...
122 aDa paratransit Service Models number. Once the claim has been processed, NYCT sends a check for that amount less a base fare to the customer.
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From page 123... ...
Survey analysis Summary 123 in the infusion of low-cost carriers that, in turn, resulted in low-quality service. This is one reason why brokerage models have fallen out of favor among many large systems in favor of call and control center manager service models -- the basic difference being that the transit agency controls who the service provider contractors are, not the call and control center manager.
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From page 124... ...
124 aDa paratransit Service Models The seven locations that use a call (and control) contractor are in Broward County, Chicago, Denver, Kansas City, New York City, Seattle, and Washington, DC.
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From page 125... ...
Survey analysis Summary 125 Transit agencies from the survey that do use the second split rate have suggested that they receive more proposals with less risk cost built in. They also note that they use a procurement document, and sometimes a spreadsheet supplied to the proposers, that rolls up line item costs into either the fixed monthly rate or the variable rate in order to make an apples-to-apples comparison of proposers' costs and rates that cover fixed costs and variable costs, respectively.
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From page 126... ...
126 aDa paratransit Service Models concerned about productivity, but they are concerned about service quality metrics such as OTP, the degree of lateness among late trips, and missed trips. When paying contractors on a per-trip basis, the MBTA found that its contractors (if left unchecked)
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From page 127... ...
Survey analysis Summary 127 While agencies use a variety of performance metrics, on-time performance is the most common metric, followed by missed trip rate and complaint-frequency ratio. The most common performance metrics that are used to trigger incentives and liquidated damages are shown in Figure 23.
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From page 128... ...
128 aDa paratransit Service Models indicated that they have direct contracts with NDSPs. The transit agencies that directly contract with NDSPs are located in Houston, Kansas City, Nashville, Phoenix, and Washington.
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From page 129... ...
Survey analysis Summary 129 Service provided beyond the ADA minimum requirements. As shown in Figure 27, almost a third of service providers extend trips beyond the three-quarter-mile distance around fixed routes, and 18% work to accommodate as many same-day trips as possible.
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From page 130... ...
130 aDa paratransit Service Models N = 20. Figure 27.
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From page 131... ...
Survey analysis Summary 131 Key Performance Indicators High Low Average No. of Agencies On-Time Performance 95% 82% 89% 24 No Show Rate 10% 0.16% 4% 19 Missed Trip Rate 3% 0% 1% 20 Percent of Excessively Long Trips 5% 0% 2% 16 Trip Productivity 2.11 0.79 1.52 20 Figure 29.
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From page 132... ...
132 aDa paratransit Service Models Takeaways from Figure 30 include the following: • Among the agencies that perform some or all of the primary functions, the two most cited benefits are the ability to exert control over service quality and cost, respectively. Interestingly, for this group cost efficiency through economies of scale is seen as much less a benefit.
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From page 133... ...
Survey analysis Summary 133 N = 11. Figure 32.
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From page 134... ...
134 aDa paratransit Service Models Figure 33. (Continued)
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