Meeting Special Needs Since 1980

Paratransit Services is a private, nonprofit company head-quartered in Bremerton, Washington.We have been providing high quality, accessiblepublic transportation services since 1980.

Vol. 6, #1 Summer 2009

Lake Transit winsOutstanding RuralProgram Award

Usua l l y w o r k i n g “ b e h i n d

t h e s c e n e s ” a s a

c o n t r a c t o r o p e r a t i n g p u b l i c

t r a n s i t s y s t em s , w e f i n d i t

g r a t i f y i n g wh e n o n e o f o u r

o p e r a t i o n s i s r e c o g n i z e d b y

o u r p e e r s f o r p r o v i d i n g

e x c e l l e n t s e r v i c e .

Such was the case at the

annual CalACT Spring Conference

and Expo Awards Program in San

Diego this past March when Lake

Transit was honored with the

Outstanding Rural Program

Award.

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.”

TWO DRIVERS MARK 20 YEARS INCLALLAM COUNTY, WASHINGTON

Paratransit Services has been theoperator of Clallam Paratransit in north-western Washington State since 1986.From our facility in Port Angeles we pro-vide accessible transportation for ClallamTransit System, a Public TransportationBenefit Area transit agency servingClallam County.

As two of our current ClallamParatransit drivers mark their 20-yearanniversaries of service with us, they sharesome of their recollections of the “earlydays.”

David Fudally migrated from theLos Angeles area to Clallam

County on the northwestern tip ofWashington State in the 1980’sbecause of his appreciation for forthe Olympic National Park. Thisis understandable to anyone whohas visited the park—its over922,000 acres includeglacially-carved LakeCrescent, the Hoh RainForest, and most of themajestic Olympic Mountain range,including Mount Olympus.

When he started as a driver withParatransit Services’ ClallamParatransit operation in 1988, theaccessible transportation serviceservice was in its infancy. However,David was struck buy the positiveimpact the program was having onthe lives of his passengers. “Wewere enabling people who had beeninstitutionalized due to physical ordevelopmental disability to moveinto private residences or grouphomes, “ he says, “That’s why I

Paratransit Services

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PRSRT STDU.S. POSTAGE

PAIDSilverdale WAPermit No 111

• 23 years in Clallam County• CalACT Outstanding RuralProgram award

• Safety training always paysoff!

• Our Washington State rideproviders benefit fromGoogle Maps

• We recognize threeemployees for 20 years ofservice

• Meet our Glenn County,California, GeneralManager

In this issue...

MEET OUR GLENN COUNTY GENERAL MANAGER!

Gloria Ponciano is our GM inWillows, California

Gloria Ponciano has been ourGeneral Manager in Willows,

California, since August 2006. Shemanages Glenn Transit Service, pro-viding public transportation to com-munities throughout Glenn County, aswell as connections to Chico in neigh-boring Butte County.

Prior to joining Paratransit

Services, Gloria had been theCounty’s Administrative ServicesOfficer for over 16 years. During hertenure as our GM, she has seen rider-ship increase in both the fixed route(“Glenn Ride”) service as well as theaccessible ADADial-A-Ride pro-gram.

Gloria enjoys participating in theannual Christmas Light Parade indowntown Willows, where staff andfamily members volunteer their timeto outline one of our buses inChristmas lights and walk the paradeto pass out candy canes to the youngand old spectators.

She will tell you that every day intransit is a challenge, but that her

passion for providing good service,safe transportation for her clients, andserving the communities’ mobilityneeds and is her reward.

CCoorrppoorraattee HHeeaaddqquuaarrtteerrssParatransit Services4810 Auto Center WaySuite ZBremerton, WA 98312

BBuussiinneessss DDeevveellooppmmeennttJT Wingett1-800-933-3468 ext. 399jtw@paratransit.net

Website: www.paratransit.net

Contact us...

Rep rterParatransitServices

4810 Auto Center WaySuite Z

Bremerton, WA 98312

ParatransitServices

Continues on next page 1

have stayed with it for so long. Thedifference we are making is veryreal, and it is rewarding.”

David was our Driver of theYear in 1995, and he received a 16-year safe driving award (16 yearswithout an accident) in 2007.

David recalls with a littleamusement the evolution of acces-sible transit vehicles. “20 years agowe were driving 9-passenger Fordvans with wheelchair lifts fitted onthe rear doorways of the vehicles.We had to crawl around the seats toget the passengers safely loaded,and we had to think about the order

of people getting out at theirdestinations when they got on.It was a pretty tight fit whenthe vehicle was full!

Today we operatemuch larger lift buses,with typical capacities

of 14 ambulatory passengers plusroom for 3 wheelchairs. It’s a loteasier on the passengers—and thedrivers!”

Kenneth Milliser started drivingfor Paratransit Services in

1989. He remembers the early dayswhen the trip from Clallam Bayalong Highway 112 to Neah Bay onthe Mikah Indian Reservation couldbe quite an adventure. It’s a sce-nic coastal route along along thenorthernmost edge of theOlympic Peninsula, but some-

Driver David Fudally

Meeting Special Needs Since 1980Paratransit Services

32GETTINGTECHNICAL SHORT ENTRIES

How large is our NEMT broker-age area?

We’re glad you asked! At 14,703 sq.miles, our ten-county Non-emergencyMedical Transportation (NEMT) broker-age service area in western WashingtonState is larger than ten separate states.

In descending order of size, it islarger than:

• Maryland• Hawaii• Massachusetts• Vermont• New Hampshire• New Jersey• Connecticut• Delaware• Rhode Island

Paratransit Services wins con-tract renewal in Bend, Oregon

Following a highly competitive pro-curement process that began last in thesummer of 2008, July, the City of Bend,Oregon, has elected to retain ParatransitServices as operator of Bend AreaTransit. The selection was formallyannounced at the December 3 regularmeeting of the Bend City Council.

In their announcement, the CityCouncil noted that “Paratransit Servicesprovided a better presentation, scoredhighest on the questions, offered the low-est price over the life of the contract, and…offered a strong and consistent man-agement team that was responsive toCity concerns and requests.”GCDE survives first round ofstate budget cuts

The Washington State Governor’sCommittee on Disability Issues andEmployment (GCDE) advises GovernorChristine Gregoire, the state legisla-

ture,and other state policy makers onissues important to people who have dis-abilities. Many boards and commissionswere eliminated in January to helpaddress the state’s budget shortfall, butthankfully the GCDE was allowed tocontinue its important work.

David McCoy, our ClallamParatransit General Manager, has servedon the Governor’s Committee since2007, and currently sits on two sub-com-mittees: Community Outreach andEmergency Preparedness. He is serving a3-year term, and will be given an oppor-tunity to sign on for an additional threeyears when his current term expires in2010.

More information on the GCDE canbe found on the Internet:http://www.esd.wa.gov/newsandinformation/legresources/gcde/

Safety and Training Manager rec-ognized for 20 years of service

Patricia Binns began her 20 yearswith Paratransit Services as a driver withour transit program in Tacoma,Washington. Today she is part of ourcorporate team as Safety and TrainingManager, where today she leads a full-featured program that prepares our driv-ers to operate vehicles safely, and tolearn the special skills required to trans-port passengers who have disabilities.

She has been recognized by the tran-sit industry as as one of the top trainersin her field, and she has received numer-ous honors from her own ParatransitServices, including Driver of the Year,the President’s Merit Award, and twicereceiving our Bill Dane award for cus-tomer service.Marking her20th year,Ms. Binnswas hon-ored byhercoworkersand President David Baker at a luncheonheld at corporate headquarters inBremerton.

For s e v e r a l y e a r s , Para-transit S e r v i c e s h a s o f f e r e d

ou r Non - Eme r g en c y Med i c a lT r a n s po r t a t i o n (NEMT ) r i d ep r o v i d e r s a c on v en i e n t o n -l i n e p r o c e s s f o r a c c e p t i n gt r i p a s s i g nmen t s f o r c l i e n t swho s c h edu l e t r i p s t h r o ughou r b r o k e r a g e . Ou r“ TripBroker” web portal allows ourride providers to manage the tripswe broker to them and submittheir trip invoices on line.

Our newest addition to theTripBroker site is on the cuttingedge of graphical mapping. UsingGoogle Maps Application ProgramInterface (API) as our core plat-form, our ride providers haveaccess to graphical street routingas well as textual turn by turndirections from the pickup to drop-off point.

The new interface is extremelyintuitive, and help is just a clickaway should a driver need direc-tions from the dispatcher while en

route. Additionally these pagescan be printed and delivered withthe driver’s daily manifest.

This new TripBroker functionalso serves to enable our plannersand managers to more efficientlyassemble routes by facilitating theapproximation of time anddistance to complete the trip. Thisalso makes it easier on the billingand accounting departments toverify trip distances during thebilling audit process, and itprovides documentation that weare in compliance with “shortestdistance” requirements of ourcontract with the state.

The response from our rideproviders has been enthusiasti-cally positive. Here is a sampling

of comments:

“We need directionon daily basis; whenwe accept trips,route and dispatchtrips or just givingdrivers directionswhen they need it.So this upgradesaves me about 2hours a day approxi-mately.”

“I love this programit is a wonderful anduseful tool to me

since I have never driven thepierce county area it makes it a loteasier to do my scheduling...thank thanks thanks”

“It literally saves me 2-3 hoursper day of manually mapping eachtrip. I have been able to acceptfuture and same day trips muchfaster because of it. I was going toask if you could add "zoom" to itbut I just found it this morning. It’sreally handy and easy to use andoverall it was the one big thingthe site was missing.”

Bringing Google™ Mapsinto Our NEMTBrokerage

Google provides time-savingdirections to our ride providers

Drivers recall early daysContinued from Page 1

Our Lake Transit buses operateapproximately 40,000 service hours

annually, and nearly all of those hoursare uneventful. This is how we all preferit—buses that run on time and delivertheir passengers comfortably and safely.However, we all know that our driversmust be well trained to manage unfore-seen circumstances, those unplannedevents when the driver must quickly takeextraordinary steps to ensure the safetyof his or her passengers. Such an eventoccurred last September as JoannScribner was driving 10 passengers onher route up the Glasgow Grade onHighway 29.

As Joann was proceeding up thegrade she noticed smoke coming fromunderneath the bus, and she immediatelypulled over and stopped the vehicle. Assmoke began filling the interior of thebus, Joann quickly, and without hesita-tion, evacuated all passengers. One pas-senger was in a wheelchair, but Joannwisely decided against using thehydraulic electrically-powered lift sincethe source of the smoke was unknown.Joann also quickly ruled-out the use ofthe manual override for the lift becausethe smoke was rapidly becoming more

intense, and time was of the essence.Fortunately, the passenger was partiallyambulatory, and was helped off of thevehicle without his wheelchair. As Joannand her passengers waited a safe dis-tance from the smoking vehicle, thefront end caught fire.

The California Highway Patrolresponded quickly, along with two CALfire engines who put out the blaze. Noneof the passengers were injured, and thewheelchair that was left behind wasundamaged, and returned to its owner. Asecond Lake Transit bus arrived within20 minutes of the incident, and all pas-sengers were able to continue on theroute.

Paratransit Services is proud of theprofessional manner in which Joann

responded to this emergency. It is a tes-tament not only to her good commonsense, but the training she has receivedto become a paratransit Services driver.

For her quick thinking and decisiveaction, she was honored with the Sure-Lok Above and Beyond award at theCalACT conference this spring. She dideverything “by the book,” and the resultwas a happy ending for all involved.

WHY WE EMPHASIZE DRIVER TRAINING

times he would have to take off hisshoes and socks, get out of the vehi-cle, and wade into the water cover-ing the road to be sure there wassolid pavement underneath!

Then there was the timethat the axle of his van brokeoff, sending one of the wheels crash-ing down the embankment into theStrait of Juan de Fuca. Ken is inagreement with David that there hasbeen “tremendous improvement” inthe quality and design of accessibletransit vehicle since those days!

Ken has an abundance of com-

mon sense, and is well trained torespond professionally tothese types of unpredictableevents. He was our Driverof the Year in 1996, and has

received our SafeDriving Award for hisexcellent driving

record—he is currently in his 17thyear without an accident!

Both David and Kenneth werehonored for their 20 years of

service by Paratransit ServicesPresident/CEO David Baker at a cer-emony in our Port Angeles facilitylast February.

Driver Kenneth Milliser

Paratransit Services: Street Routing