Driver shortage cited as HandyDart complaints on rise
A shortage of drivers and dispatchers has led to a surge in the number of complaints over the past year from users of HandyDart, the door-to-door shared ride service for people with disabilities.
“The last year it has been like hell,” said Beth McKellar, a regular user of the service and co-chair of the HandyDart Riders’ Alliance.
Statistics published on TransLink’s website show that during each month of 2018 for which information is available, the number of complaints per 100,000 boardings was higher than in 2017 or 2016.
This includes complaints from registered customers, as well as the attendants or escorts who accompany them.
TransLink, Metro Vancouver’s transit authority, delivered 1.25 million HandyDart trips to registered customers last year, an average of just over 100,000 per month.
The worst month for complaints was September 2018, when there were 237.2 complaints per 100,000 boardings, compared to 88.5 the previous year. Second worst was June, which saw 192.1 complaints in 2018, versus 78.3 in 2017.
According to information obtained through a freedom of information request, most of the complaints lodged during the first nine months of 2018 were related to scheduling (331), late rides or no-shows (407) and operator behaviour (331).
“The scheduling is atrocious. There’s no rhyme or reason to it,” said McKellar, who has also heard from fellow riders who have been picked up well outside the time window they were given.
Kathy Pereira, Coast Mountain Bus Company’s director of access transit service delivery, said they are aware of the increase and they’re trying to fix the issues driving the complaints.
“I understand people’s frustration and it looks like it’s getting worse, but it will turn around and it’ll be fairly shortly. We’ve got a lot of eyes on this,” Pereira said.
In July, the contractor delivering HandyDart service changed from MVT Canadian Bus Inc. to First Canada. Leading up to the switch, Pereira said there were issues within MVT because they were losing the contract, and many drivers were using up their vacation and sick time because they were afraid they were going to lose it.
Since the changeover, there has been an operator and dispatcher shortage.
“It’s been a challenge. Basically every industry is facing it,” said Pereira. “It’s a market out there which is pretty difficult.”
Pereira said they ’re working with First Canada on driver recruitment, and in the meantime will look at filling the service gap with more taxi rides.
On top of the shortage, in September, October and November there was more demand for trips than TransLink had anticipated — a delayed reaction, they believe, to two years of service increases — which caused scheduling issues.
“I think you’re getting this interesting confluence of a surge in demand while we’re supposed to be adding service, but having a shortage of operators,” said TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond, “and that’s causing in the field, for some of our customers, a less-than-quality experience.”
When it comes to complaints about driver behaviour, Pereira said HandyDart drivers take their jobs seriously and are committed to their customers.
She said they’re feeling the effects of poor on-time performance and service issues.
“It has a direct impact on them. They want to do a good job and they ’re frustrated by that,” Pereira said.
However, Pereira said that it’s TransLink’s responsibility to makes sure drivers are providing a good customer experience, and will offer training sessions early next year.
She said operators will be includ- ed in the discussion about how to improve service.
“We want to hear what they have to say and we want to take it into consideration as we develop plans. We look forward to having them as part of the solution,” she said.
Taxi driver behaviour was also the subject of complaints (181) in the first nine months of 2018, and Pereira said TransLink is in discussions with the Vancouver and B.C. taxi associations about customer experience. Training for taxi drivers will be reviewed.
Another measure to improve service was the creation of a task force or joint committee between Coast Mountain and First Canada to find out what was driving the complaints and what can be done.
It has come up with 15 initiatives that will be implemented next year.
In order to make further improvements, Pereira said TransLink will engage customers, holding a workshop with members of the HandyDart Riders’ Alliance, drivers and dispatchers, plus a customer information session and open house.
They will solicit feedback, as well as educate customers about how to make the system run smoother.
Pereira said she knows HandyDart customers rely on the service and she doesn’t want to let them down.
“There’s a really strong commitment from everyone involved to turn this around in as short a time as possible,” said Pereira.