“What measures have you taken to correct issues experienced by our riders in the past,” Vet Board President Bruce Jones asked. “Long wait times, missed pick ups, long travel times.”
UTS will take veterans to medical appointments to the VA Hospital in Cincinnati and Butler County Regional Transit Authority continues to handle local trips and medical visits at the Dayton VA Medical Center.
The vet board split the transportation contract several years ago because of issues they were having when UTS had the whole contract.
“I know we did have some issues in the past, what we’ve done is we’ve been aggressively recruiting drivers to come into our team to ensure that doesn’t happen,” UTS President Mike Cronin said, adding they will attempt to schedule rides outside of “the buckets of time” during morning and evening rush hours. “And then going through and really looking at periods what our driver retention is, we’ve increased our base wages from the time we previously had this contract to now by 42% to attract more drivers.”
UTS Director of Operations Rhett Atkinson said the pay hike has allowed them to “not only attract more talent but better talent” and they have increased communications with their employees which has also improved service.
Jones said unfortunately their clients are at the mercy of the VA so they can’t schedule around rush hour, “they don’t get a choice of when they get to go, it’s you be there or you don’t get your appointment.”
Cronin said they hired Atkinson to be hands-on daily to handle glitches that could impact a veteran’s ride.
“He is hands on day-to-day on what’s happening, monitoring, he works with the driver team, the dispatch team and the scheduling team,” Cronin said. “He’s hands-on, he’s a new position that we’ve put in place since two years ago, and has been really successful working with the entire team to have the operation run more smoothly.”
People usually don’t know how long their medical appointments will last for sure, and the VA is notorious for lengthy waits, Jones said, so automatically scheduling a pick-up time is difficult. Assistant BCVSC Director Matt Jones said one of the issues previously was veterans were having a tough time reaching UTS when they needed a lift home.
Cronin said they are willing to work with the board to figure out the best way to handle that issue and any others.
The BCVSC had to go out for bids for the Hamilton County route after they canceled the contract they had with Community First Solutions’ Fleet program for the Cincinnati runs late last year. Community First had proposed some contract revisions that would impact service to veterans due to the coronavirus.
“It is our intent to provide as many of the trips as possible if you agree to the amendments proposed. Given the COVID vaccine mandate and current national staffing challenges, we must continue to be transparent about our resources,” Amy B. Wylie, vice president of Community Based Services wrote to BCVSC Executive Director Mike Farmer. “No one could predict the pandemic impact, and unfortunately there is no way to know how quickly or easily we can overcome the challenges the pandemic has created.”
They essentially wanted the ability to cancel scheduled appointments with very little notice and BCVSC Commissioner Chuck Weber at the time said that was unacceptable, “Basically what they did was, we’re going to be your carrier but we’re not obligated to be your carrier if certain circumstances arise.”
BCRTA picked up the slack covering the entire transportation program for the four months under an emergency agreement for up to $99,999, while Executive Director Mike Farmer bid the contract. He received two bids but the other company did not provide the required bid bond.
Before the emergency agreement, the vet board’s three-year contract with BCRTA was $798,000 and $1.15 million with Fleet.
Farmer said they will rebid the entire the three-year deal next year. He said they spent $257,269 in 2020 for around eight months of the transportation contracts and $321,503 last year.
News was released this week that there will be a recommendation to possibly close the Chillicothe VA Medical Center. Farmer said the potential VA hospital closings do not impact Butler County vets.
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