{"id":13874,"date":"2012-09-26T13:21:34","date_gmt":"2012-09-26T17:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=13874"},"modified":"2012-09-26T13:21:34","modified_gmt":"2012-09-26T17:21:34","slug":"transit-program-could-see-more-training-new-call-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/transit\/2012\/09\/26\/transit-program-could-see-more-training-new-call-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Transit Program Could See More Training, New Call Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of a Raleigh City Council committee agreed Tuesday to make some changes to the Accessible Raleigh Transportation<\/a> (ART) program as it continues its transition to a shared-rider system.<\/p>\n

The ART program uses a combination of private taxi companies and contracted multi-rider vans to provide curb-to-curb service to sick and people with disabilities.<\/p>\n

Last year, City Councilors approved a $1.7 million contract<\/span><\/span><\/a> with MV Transportation to provide group rides to clients who are going to or coming from similar locations. About 25 percent of ART rides are provided by MV Transportation.<\/p>\n

The rest of the rides are provided by private taxi companies, which are not under contract with the city because many can’t comply with American with Disabilities Act guidelines.<\/p>\n

Raleigh transit staff and representatives from MV Transportation recently met with members of the Raleigh Mayor’s Committee for Persons with Disabilities <\/a>to hash out some lingering issues and problems.<\/p>\n

While MV Transportation does 40 hours of disability awareness training for new employees and quarterly training for all employees, staff recommended that MV Transportation reach out to a local agency that would supplement the already-required training.<\/p>\n

Transit Administrator David Eatman said this connection with a local group will help build a relationship between MV drivers and the community that uses the program. In some cases, existing clients would help with training. The change was not prompted by any particular incident.<\/p>\n

Transit and MV staff will also continue to meet with stakeholders to provide information about the program and program requirements as well as receive direct input from clients.<\/p>\n

Members of the Budget and Economic Development<\/span> agreed to move forward on the training and meetings with stakeholders. The items head next to City Council for review.<\/p>\n

However, a proposal to centralize the program’s communications system will require more research.<\/p>\n

Today, ART dispatchers at the city can be reached between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Clients have complained about their inability to reach city staff after hours or an MV employee with questions about a scheduled trip. Clients who use taxi services contact the company directly.<\/p>\n

A centralized phone number and dispatch office would handle all calls and scheduling for 40 ART vendors.<\/p>\n

The call center would also be able to provide more specific pickup times for clients. Today, the shared-ride system gives clients a 30-minute window for pickup. Without a centralized system, it’s impossible to give clients an exact pickup time. But, for a centralized system to work, all vendors would have to be contracted with the city and install the proper system in all vehicles.<\/p>\n

Transit staff would have more oversight and direct management over the vendors in the program.<\/p>\n

Eatman said that a centralized call center would fundamentally change how the program works. It would require a 24-hour staff and additional funding to make it happen.<\/p>\n

The program already costs about $8 million and is part of the city’s transportation budget.<\/p>\n

But, a centralized system would allow for more accurate ride tracking and reporting and could save the program money in the long run.<\/p>\n

Councilors decided to have transit staff conduct more research on a new system and present facts and figures in six months. The program could be a topic of discussion for next year’s budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Councilors agreed Tuesday to provide more training for vendors in the Accessible Raleigh Transit program, but plans for a possible new 24-hour call center require more research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24029,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,14],"tags":[959,211,960,958],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13874"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24029"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13874\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}