HandyDART review report issues 19 recommendations

NEW WESTMINSTER (NEWS 1130) – TransLink‘s HandyDART service needs to reduce wait times, improve customer service, and mandate training for taxi drivers, according to a new report on the specialized transit service.

The report makes 19 recommendations, including mandatory training of taxi drivers, extending the reservation deadline, reducing trip times, and helping customers find and understand alternate modes of public transit to reduce pressure on HandyDART buses.

TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond is reassuring the public the report isn’t just lip service.

“I want to ensure people and reassure people that I will be watching this. This is a high priority initiative of mine.”

The report received a cool reception from advocacy groups.

“I would like to think they are actually listening to understand, however it’s more listening to reply,” HandyDART Riders Alliance co-chair Beth McKellar says. “Our group is so grateful that they are listening… it looks so great on paper but we have yet to see anything really truly happen.”

Desmond says the service must balance speed of trips with availability of buses.

TransLink launched a review of its services following complaints including long pick-up windows, poor customer service and an over reliance on untrained taxi drivers.

Approximately eight per cent of HandyDART calls are handled by taxis, but McKellar says cab drivers are woefully undertrained.

Manager of access transit planning Tessa Forrest says TransLink believes most customers aren’t opposed to using regular transit for a portion of their trip, but they don’t always know how to use the service.

TransLink management want to introduce a family of services approach that matches a HandyDART customer with the appropriate transit services and trains them to on how to use it.

The recommendations still need the approval of the board of directors.

A summary of public consultations released in January shows respondents wanted TransLink to take back the HandyDART service from the private contactor MVT Canadian Bus. Instead, the report suggests extending the company’s contract by six months, to June 2018, while the other recommendations are put in place.

Desmond says bringing the service back in-house might not improve service.

“It’s more efficient. It will save us some money and that is money we keep in the service delivery,” he says.

“I’d like to see more involvement with the demographic in making decisions and I’d like to have the front lines workers to have a lot more say than what they do,” McKellar says.

Desmond says complaints about the service will be handled by the transit authority once again so it can resolve issues faster.

“We’ve got to have a much more direct relationship with the customer,” he says.

In 2016, TransLink promised to increase HandyDART service by 15 per cent over three years, with a goal of boosting that to 30 per cent by 2026.

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