Summer 2009 - Paratransit Services

Paratransit
Services
In this issue...
• 23 years in Clallam County
• CalACT Outstanding Rural
Program award
• Safety training always pays
off!
• Our Washington State ride
providers benefit from
Google Maps
• We recognize three
employees for 20 years of
service
PRSRT STD
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
Silverdale WA
Permit No 111
4810 Auto Center Way
Suite Z
Bremerton, WA 98312
Rep rter
Paratransit
Services
D
MEET OUR GLENN COUNTY GENERAL MANAGER!
loria Ponciano has been our
General Manager in Willows,
California, since August 2006. She
manages Glenn Transit Service, providing public transportation to communities throughout Glenn County, as
well as connections to Chico in neighboring Butte County.
Prior to joining Paratransit
S
Paratransit Services
Corporate Headquarters
Paratransit Services
4810 Auto Center Way
Suite Z
Bremerton, WA 98312
Business Development
JT Wingett
1-800-933-3468 ext. 399
jtw@paratransit.net
Website: www.paratransit.net
have stayed with it for so long. The
difference we are making is very
real, and it is rewarding.”
David was our Driver of the
Year in 1995, and he received a 16year safe driving award (16 years
without an accident) in 2007.
David recalls with a little
amusement the evolution of accessible transit vehicles. “20 years ago
we were driving 9-passenger Ford
vans with wheelchair lifts fitted on
the rear doorways of the vehicles.
We had to crawl around the seats to
get the passengers safely loaded,
and we had to think about the order
of people getting out at their
destinations when they got on.
It was a pretty tight fit when
the vehicle was full!
avid Fudally migrated from the
Los Angeles area to Clallam
County on the northwestern tip of
Washington State in the 1980’s
because of his appreciation for for
the Olympic National Park. This
is understandable to anyone who
has visited the park—its over
922,000 acres include
Today we operate
glacially-carved Lake
much larger lift buses,
Crescent, the Hoh Rain
with typical capacities
Driver David Fudally
Forest, and most of the
of 14 ambulatory passengers plus
majestic Olympic Mountain range,
room for 3 wheelchairs. It’s a lot
including Mount Olympus.
When he started as a driver with easier on the passengers—and the
drivers!”
Paratransit Services’ Clallam
Paratransit operation in 1988, the
enneth Milliser started driving
accessible transportation service
for Paratransit Services in
service was in its infancy. However, 1989. He remembers the early days
David was struck buy the positive
when the trip from Clallam Bay
impact the program was having on
along Highway 112 to Neah Bay on
the lives of his passengers. “We
the Mikah Indian Reservation could
were enabling people who had been be quite an adventure. It’s a sceinstitutionalized due to physical or
nic coastal route along along the
developmental disability to move
northernmost edge of the
into private residences or group
Olympic Peninsula, but somehomes, “ he says, “That’s why I
K
Continues on next page
Meeting Special Needs Since 1980
Summer 2009
Lake Transit wins
Outstanding Rural
Program Award
U
sually working “behind
the
scenes” as
a
contractor operating public
transit systems, we find it
gratifying when one of our
operations is recognized by
our
peers
for
excellent service.
providing
Such was the case at the
annual Cal ACT Spring Conference
and Expo Awards Program in San
Diego this past March when Lake
Transit
was
Outstanding
honored
Award.
Rural
with
the
Program
Paratransit Services has oper-
ated Lake Transit, under contract
with Lake Transit Authority (LTA)
since July 2007.
In receiving the award, LTA
Transit Manager Mark praised the
attention
given
by
Paratransit
Services to ensure the success of
Lake Transit. “I always see their
executive team on-site providing
support to the local staff,” he
noted, “they are a very ‘hands-on’
company.”
1
4
G
Gloria Ponciano is our GM in
Willows, California
Services, Gloria had been the
County’s Administrative Services
Officer for over 16 years. During her
tenure as our GM, she has seen ridership increase in both the fixed route
(“Glenn Ride”) service as well as the
accessible ADA Dial-A-Ride program.
Gloria enjoys participating in the
annual Christmas Light Parade in
downtown Willows, where staff and
family members volunteer their time
to outline one of our buses in
Christmas lights and walk the parade
to pass out candy canes to the young
and old spectators.
he will tell you that every day in
transit is a challenge, but that her
passion for providing good service,
safe transportation for her clients, and
serving the communities’ mobility
needs and is her reward.
Contact us...
Vol. 6, #1
TWO DRIVERS MARK 20 YEARS IN
CLALLAM COUNTY, WASHINGTON
Paratransit Services has been the
operator of Clallam Paratransit in northwestern Washington State since 1986.
From our facility in Port Angeles we provide accessible transportation for Clallam
Transit System, a Public Transportation
Benefit Area transit agency serving
Clallam County.
As two of our current Clallam
Paratransit drivers mark their 20-year
anniversaries of service with us, they share
some of their recollections of the “early
days.”
• Meet our Glenn County,
California, General
Manager
Paratransit Services is a private, nonprofit company headquartered in Bremerton, Washington.
We have been providing high quality, accessible
public transportation services since 1980.
Drivers recall early days
mon sense, and is well trained to
respond professionally to
times he would have to take off his
these types of unpredictable
shoes and socks, get out of the vehievents. He was our Driver
cle, and wade into the water coverof
the Year in 1996, and has
ing the road to be sure there was
received our Safe
solid pavement underneath!
Driving Award for his
Then there was the time
Driver Kenneth Milliser
excellent driving
that the axle of his van broke
off, sending one of the wheels crash- record—he is currently in his 17th
year without an accident!
ing down the embankment into the
Continued from Page 1
Strait of Juan de Fuca. Ken is in
agreement with David that there has
been “tremendous improvement” in
the quality and design of accessible
transit vehicle since those days!
Ken has an abundance of com-
WHY
O
B
oth David and Kenneth were
honored for their 20 years of
service by Paratransit Services
President/CEO David Baker at a ceremony in our Port Angeles facility
last February.
WE EMPHASIZE DRIVER TRAINING
intense, and time was of the essence.
Fortunately, the passenger was partially
ambulatory, and was helped off of the
vehicle without his wheelchair. As Joann
and her passengers waited a safe distance from the smoking vehicle, the
front end caught fire.
The California Highway Patrol
responded quickly, along with two CAL
fire engines who put out the blaze. None
of the passengers were injured, and the
wheelchair that was left behind was
undamaged, and returned to its owner. A
second Lake Transit bus arrived within
20 minutes of the incident, and all passengers were able to continue on the
route.
P
2
aratransit Services is proud of the
professional manner in which Joann
responded to this emergency. It is a testament not only to her good common
sense, but the training she has received
to become a paratransit Services driver.
For her quick thinking and decisive
action, she was honored with the SureLok Above and Beyond award at the
CalACT conference this spring. She did
everything “by the book,” and the result
was a happy ending for all involved.
Paratransit Services
Bringing Google™ Maps
into Our NEMT
Brokerage
F
Google provides time-saving
directions to our ride providers
or
several
y e a r s , Paratransit S e r v i c e s h a s o f f e r e d
our Non-Emergency Medical
Transportation (NEMT) ride
providers a convenient online process for accepting
trip assignments for clients
who schedule trips through
our
brokerage.
Our
“ TripBroke r” web portal allows our
ride providers to manage the trips
we broker to them and submit
their
trip
invoices
on
line.
route. Additionally these pages
can be printed and delivered with
the driver’s daily manifest.
This new TripBroker function
also serves to enable our planners
and managers to more efficiently
assemble routes by facilitating the
approximation
of
time
and
distance to complete the trip. This
also makes it easier on the billing
and accounting departments to
verify trip distances during the
billing audit process, and it
provides documentation that we
are in compliance with “shortest
distance” requirements
of
our
contract with the state.
The response from our ride
providers has been enthusiastically positive. Here is a sampling
of comments:
Paratransit Services: Street Routing
“We need direction
on daily basis; when
we
accept
trips,
route and dispatch
trips or just giving
drivers
directions
when they need it.
So
this
upgrade
saves me about 2
hours a day approximately.”
Our newest addition to the
TripBroker site is on the cutting
edge of graphical mapping. Using
Google Maps Application Program
Interface (API) as our core platform, our ride providers have
access to graphical street routing
as well as textual turn by turn
directions from the pickup to dropoff point.
The new interface is extremely
intuitive, and help is just a click
away should a driver need directions from the dispatcher while en
“I love this program
it is a wonderful and
useful tool to me
since I have never driven the
pierce county area it makes it a lot
easier to do my scheduling...
thank thanks thanks”
“It literally saves me 2-3 hours
per day of manually mapping each
trip. I have been able to accept
future and same day trips much
faster because of it. I was going to
ask if you could add "zoom" to it
but I just found it this morning. It’s
really handy and easy to use and
overall it was the one big thing
the site was missing.”
SHORT ENTRIES
How large is our NEMT brokerage area?
We’re glad you asked! At 14,703 sq.
miles, our ten-county Non-emergency
Medical Transportation (NEMT) brokerage service area in western Washington
State is larger than ten separate states.
In descending order of size, it is
larger than:
• Maryland
• Hawaii
• Massachusetts
• Vermont
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• Rhode Island
ture,and other state policy makers on
issues important to people who have disabilities. Many boards and commissions
were eliminated in January to help
address the state’s budget shortfall, but
thankfully the GCDE was allowed to
continue its important work.
David McCoy, our Clallam
Paratransit General Manager, has served
on the Governor’s Committee since
2007, and currently sits on two sub-committees: Community Outreach and
Emergency Preparedness. He is serving a
3-year term, and will be given an opportunity to sign on for an additional three
years when his current term expires in
2010.
More information on the GCDE can
be found on the Internet:
http://www.esd.wa.gov/newsandinformat
ion/legresources/gcde/
Safety and Training Manager recognized for 20 years of service
Patricia Binns began her 20 years
with Paratransit Services as a driver with
our transit program in Tacoma,
Washington. Today she is part of our
Paratransit Services wins concorporate team as Safety and Training
tract renewal in Bend, Oregon
Manager, where today she leads a fullFollowing a highly competitive pro- featured program that prepares our drivcurement process that began last in the
ers to operate vehicles safely, and to
summer of 2008, July, the City of Bend, learn the special skills required to transOregon, has elected to retain Paratransit port passengers who have disabilities.
Services as operator of Bend Area
She has been recognized by the tranTransit. The selection was formally
sit industry as as one of the top trainers
announced at the December 3 regular
in her field, and she has received numermeeting of the Bend City Council.
ous honors from her own Paratransit
In their announcement, the City
Services, including Driver of the Year,
Council noted that “Paratransit Services the President’s Merit Award, and twice
provided a better presentation, scored
receiving our Bill Dane award for cushighest on the questions, offered the low- tomer service.
est price over the life of the contract, and Marking her
…offered a strong and consistent man20th year,
agement team that was responsive to
Ms. Binns
City concerns and requests.”
was honGCDE survives first round of
ored by
state budget cuts
her
coworkers
The Washington State Governor’s
and President David Baker at a luncheon
Committee on Disability Issues and
Employment (GCDE) advises Governor held at corporate headquarters in
Bremerton.
Christine Gregoire, the state legislaMeeting Special Needs Since 1980
3
ur Lake Transit buses operate
approximately 40,000 service hours
annually, and nearly all of those hours
are uneventful. This is how we all prefer
it—buses that run on time and deliver
their passengers comfortably and safely.
However, we all know that our drivers
must be well trained to manage unforeseen circumstances, those unplanned
events when the driver must quickly take
extraordinary steps to ensure the safety
of his or her passengers. Such an event
occurred last September as Joann
Scribner was driving 10 passengers on
her route up the Glasgow Grade on
Highway 29.
As Joann was proceeding up the
grade she noticed smoke coming from
underneath the bus, and she immediately
pulled over and stopped the vehicle. As
smoke began filling the interior of the
bus, Joann quickly, and without hesitation, evacuated all passengers. One passenger was in a wheelchair, but Joann
wisely decided against using the
hydraulic electrically-powered lift since
the source of the smoke was unknown.
Joann also quickly ruled-out the use of
the manual override for the lift because
the smoke was rapidly becoming more
GETTING TECHNICAL