GREATER
HARTFORD TRANSIT DISTRICT
ADA PARTICIPATION GROUP FORUM
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Attendees: Bill Saloman, Yvonne Loteczka, Michael Carrier, Pat Williams-GHTD, DJ Gonzalez-GHTD, Valerie Ellis-GHTD, Manny Gonzalez-FT, Vicki Shotland-GHTD, Linda DeLallo-FT, Karyn Bennett-FT,
The forum began at 5:06 pm.
Noted below are the statistics for July and August:
Operations:
Total passenger trips for the month of July were 21,006, No Shows 579 (3%), cancellations 5,638 (27%). August passengers trips were 20,362, No shows 553 (3%), cancellations 4,893 (24%).
Assessments:
In July 134 ADA applications were received; 80 were new, 54 recertified (this number is slightly higher than normal due to a significant number of five year recertification applications mailed in the month of July) and 128 ADA eligibilities were completed. Out of the 128 completed ADA eligibilities, 106 received a specific approval condition, 6 denied, and 16 were withdrawn. In August 111 ADA applications were received; 92 were new, 19 recertified and 134 ADA eligibilities were completed. Out of the 134 completed ADA eligibilities, 99 received a specific approval condition, 9 denied, and 26 were withdrawn.
Customers Service:
In July 69 comments were received from passengers; 23% were compliments, 67% were driver dispatch, reservationists and/or scheduling complaints, 9% was mechanical and/or related to safety.
Mr. Gonzalez introduced the new First Transit Assistant General Manager, Karyn Bennett. He stated that Ms. Bennett’s twelve years of transportation experience has included; ADA paratransit, school bus, and fixed route.
Ms. Williams noted that First Transit hosted a barbeque for their employees on Friday, September 5th. On Saturday, September 27th at the Hartford Expo Center there will be a disability convention. She stated that any eligible ADA riders that would like to attend can call the reservation office to reserve a trip. There will be one dedicated reservationist to handle these trips. Ms. Williams passed out a copy of the current GHTD Paratransit newsletter to the attendees who had not received a copy.
DJ Gonzalez shared with the forum group a few updates regarding the service. The Customer Service department hours have been temporarily increased from 6:15am to 4:30pm in order to assist in addressing some of the issues with rider’s trips running late. The construction of the new offices at the Wawarme location continues to make progress. When the renovations are complete, First Transit will conduct an open house for anyone interested in viewing the facility. He also mentioned that improving on-time performance is a priority, and that First Transit will be looking at issues including the analysis and resolution to scheduling multiple trips for individual passengers that do not allow enough time between trips. Mr. Gonzalez mentioned that driver turnover and hiring new drivers for paratransit is difficult currently because other transportation companies are offering higher salaries as a recruiting tactic. He stated that First Transit is working hard to seek new drivers, but there is a shortage and recruiting the right individuals for ADA Paratransit is critical. Ms. Bennett has begun working on an incentive program for drivers who come to work every day. He also noted that First Transit does a lot of work behind the scenes like (working on establishing subscription trips to riders and large centers/group homes) in order to operate a more efficient service.
Ms. Williams specifically addressed Mr. Carrier’s concern for Thursday, August 28th. She advised Mr. Carrier that the service picked him up one minute outside of the window time (window time 10:45am-11:15am; actual pick up time 11:16). Mr. Carrier disputed this and said the service picked him up after 12pm. Mr. Carrier claims that the driver must have written down the wrong time.
Also, Ms. Williams was not aware of another issue regarding the length of time Mr. Carrier was on the telephone. Ms. Williams will have First Transit pull the telephone records to investigate this issue. Yvonne Loteczka also agreed with Mr. Carrier that she also experienced a long wait time when calling the service after 4pm. Mr. Carrier also noted a long wait time occurred when calling the service on Wednesday, 9/17 at 3:30pm.
In addition, Mr. Carrier had a concern regarding being transported to his place of employment at 2 Holcomb Street in Hartford. Ms. Williams explained that on this occasion the driver was not refusing to drop off Mr. Carrier. She said the driver thought that it would be more efficient to drop another rider off before him. This explanation was previously e-mailed to Mr. Carrier.
Mr. Carrier noted another incident on August 20th. The driver refused to drop him off at 2 Holcomb Street because the driver did not know where he was going. Manny Gonzalez informed the group that he and Michael had a conversation before the forum regarding this matter. Manny will have specific directions placed on Michael’s file for this particular address.
Note that Mr. Carrier’s issues took place in August, and as of September 1st to the present; Mr. Carrier has not had any problems at this location.
Attendee: Michael Carrier
Comment: On Wednesday, September 17th Mr. Carrier commented that the driver had the thermostat on extremely high in the vehicle. He was sweating and tried to open a window. Mr. Carrier asked the driver to turn it off and Mr. Carrier claims that the driver refused.
Mr. Carrier also noted that if he is scheduled for a pickup between 3:00pm-3:30pm why does the driver around 3:50pm.
In addition, he is upset with not being able to get through to dispatch.
Mr. Carrier thanked the service for allowing him to make advance reservations before he went on vacation.
Response: Manny Gonzalez will investigate this matter.
Manny Gonzalez explained to Mr. Carrier that the driver’s schedules are changing constantly and traffic at that time of the day is hectic and can cause a delay. .First Transit will review Mr. Carrier’s ride trip history and will report back to him.
In addition, they will also check the telephone system on calls coming through around 3:30pm – 4pm.
DJ Gonzalez noted the increase in the Customer Service hours to assist in calling riders when the service is running late is an improvement that riders will benefit from. Next year the GPS and AVL system in all of the vehicles will also play a contributing factor to enhancing the service once the system is procured, installed, and goes live.
Attendee: Bill Saloman
Comment: Mr. Saloman explained how pleased he was with the service. He received a call from the service advising him the van will be late. He waited the extra time and was able to meet the van at the new time with no problems. Mr. Saloman praised the drivers for doing such a fine job. He stated that he would like to see a salary increase for the drivers.
Response: First Transit thanked Mr. Saloman for his kind words.
Attendee: Yvonne Loteczka
Comment: Ms. Loteczka has experienced telephone problems around 4pm when calling (860) 724-5340. She is not able to connect to the auto attendant.
Ms. Loteczka would like to know how soon the Customer Service department will call the riders to let them know the service is running late.
Due to construction at Ms. Loteczka’s apartment, the drivers have been arriving at the wrong door. Ms. Loteczka has advised the reservationists about the different entrance, but the drivers are not receiving the information.
Ms. Loteczka would like to know what is considered a reasonable amount of time a rider should be on the vehicle.
Response: First Transit will investigate the problem.
Manny Gonzalez responded that riders will be called up to thirty minutes before a scheduled trip if possible. Mr. Carrier commented that he will not be able to receive a telephone call and could the service should send him a text message. First Transit will try to text message Mr. Carrier his changes.
First Transit commented that Ms. Loteczka’s changes to where she can be picked up should be made at the time she schedules her reservation. First Transit will check to see that the reservationists are making the proper changes to Ms. Loteczka’s trip.
DJ Gonzalez advised the group that the Reservationists have begun to update rider’s files with current contact information.
The District tries to use the goal set by the Easter Seals Project Action as it relates to travel time. The objective is to provide all trips in a reasonable amount of time when compared to fixed-route service. A trip will be considered to be excessively long if it takes more than 40 minutes longer than a fixed-route trip from the same origin to the same destination at the same time of day. GHTD’s goal is to perform all trips in a reasonable and comparable time. The on time performance goal is to try and provide 98 percent of all trips within this standard, with no patterns of excessively long rides due to operating practices within the control of the system. All efforts will be made to schedule trips so they can be performed within this time standard. Also the ADA Paratransit contractor will monitor backup services so that they are maintained to ensure that there is no regular pattern of extra trips being added to already full runs, causing other trips to be excessively long.
The next ADA forum is scheduled for Wednesday, November 12th at 5:00 pm at Union Station. You must make a reservation for transportation to and from the meeting by calling 724-5340 and select #1. All riders are required to pay the standard ADA Paratransit rate of $2.50 each way.
As time is limited; all attendees are required to sign up to discuss issues at the forum with Pat Williams, and provide the topic for discussion at least 48-hours in advance with the last opportunity to register fifteen (15) minutes prior to the start of the forum. Please remember that in order for everyone to have a chance to participate you need to keep your initial questions and discussions to five (5) minutes a piece so that we can accommodate all other participants. Follow-up comments should also be kept to five (5) minutes.
