Text-Only Version Prepared by: TranSystems Corp. Medford, ma and: Planners Collaborative Boston, ma august 24, 2007 contents

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  Maintaining a qualified, experienced, well-trained, and productive workforce;
  
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  Fully utilizing the technologies and tools available to enhance operations; and
  
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  Thorough vehicle maintenance.
  

This area of service monitoring was identified as being particularly important since numerous public comments were received that expressed concern with new, inexperienced drivers. Riders also indicated that new drivers often did not seem to know the service area as well as more experienced drivers, which seemed to impact on-time performance. Comments were also received about the poor English language proficiency of some drivers.

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  A contract performance goal of no more than 25% annual turnover of drivers or other employees. Employee turnover should be tracked and reported. If turnover exceeds 25%, service providers should be asked to indicate actions that will be taken to lower the turnover rate.
  

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  Requirements related to the maximum length of driver shifts. Some companies have extended driver shifts to increase afternoon capacity. Standard shifts at these companies now appear to be 12 hours long. And drivers also may be asked by dispatchers to extend their 12 hour shifts. While this does not appear to exceed federal or state standards that apply to commercial drivers, the job of driving for THE RIDE is much more demanding than driving a taxi or driving for a freight delivery service. Taxi drivers can schedule and take breaks as needed and desired, and truck drivers do not have the same level of stress. The MBTA should consider a maximum shift time that is appropriate for THE RIDE service.
  

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  Increased driver training requirements for map reading training and on-the-road instruction. Drivers should have a working knowledge of the major roads, origins and destinations of any area they are assigned to serve.
  

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  A penalty for each incident where preventative maintenance is not performed as required. Given that this is a safety issue, a significant penalty is recommended. This might be a $500 penalty for each service interval that is missed by more than 1,000 miles.
  

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  A penalty be implemented if vehicle inspection forms are found to be missing for performed driver shifts. A penalty of $100 for each shift where a form is not found as a result of on-site visits is recommended.
  

The addition of new standards would obviously need to be negotiated with the service providers. In some cases, standards may be able to be added as issues related to general service quality and required for ADA compliance. New standards also may be possible for general service performance tracking and monitoring purposes. The addition of incentives and penalties, though, would probably need to be agreed upon by the service providers. In any case, these new standards should be considered in future contracts.

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  A review of employee records. At each visit, five drivers, two reservationists, and two dispatchers should be randomly selected from the most current employee list. The personnel files of these employees should be checked for documentation of pre-qualification checks and training.
  

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  A review of payroll records. The payroll records for the most recent week should be examined to determine actual hours worked by drivers. Excessively long shifts should be noted. If the MBTA adopts a maximum shift standard (to supplement general state and federal work rules), the actual hours from these payroll records should then be used to ensure compliance with this requirement.
  

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  A review of vehicle maintenance files. Ten vehicles should be randomly selected from the full fleet roster at each visit. The file for that vehicle should then be examined and compared to information in the automated maintenance system. Actual preventative maintenance intervals should be compared to the required intervals.
  

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  A review of vehicle inspection forms. A day of service should be randomly selected. The pull-out sheets showing all of the shifts for the day should be obtained. Copies of vehicle inspection sheets should then be examined to make sure there is a completed form for each shift.
  

Contract Administrators should conduct full on-site inspections at least once every quarter. It also is recommended that a minimum of ten on-street inspections be performed each month by each Contract Administrator. Half of these on-street inspections should be random and half should be “targeted.” Complaint information and prior observation information should be used to select particular drivers for these targeted observations.

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   To make riders feel comfortable raising issues through the complaint/comment process;
   
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   To make sure all comments and complaints are captured and logged;
   
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   To ensure a thorough and meaningful investigation of comments and complaints is performed;
   
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   To keep riders informed about the status of their complaints and the outcome/actions to be taken;
   
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   To use results from the complaint process to strengthen the service monitoring process; and
   
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   To use results of the complaint process to strengthen the employee training process.
   

The Monitoring Plan suggests that the following procedures be incorporated into the MBTA’s THE RIDE rider complaint handling process in order to ensure that the above goals are achieved.

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  If the complaint alleges issues with reservationist or dispatcher professionalism or actions, the person at OTA (or the third-party ombudsman agency) should listen to the phone tapes and the conversation between the complainant and the reservationist/dispatcher.
  

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  If the complaint has to do with a vehicle no-show, the investigator should go to the AVL files and see where the vehicle was at during the time the pick-up was to be made.
  

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  Or, if the complaint has to do with the driver, the investigator should look at the manifest, see if there were any other riders on-board at the time of the alleged incident and contact them to get a second opinion on what happened.
  

If the complainants do not mind having their names released, the complaints should be forwarded to the service provider to handle (if appropriate). Again, though, the investigator at the MBTA or ombudsman agency may still want to undertake some initial investigatory activities using some of the readily available information made possible by the advanced technologies in use.

(Editor’s note: Data in the table is presented in the following order: Recommended Additional Monitoring Activity; Estimated Hours per Service Contractor per Month; Total Staff Hours per Month for All Four Contracts

Random review of telephone recordings; 8; 32

Monitoring of Trip Scheduling; 4; 16

Detailed documentation of Vehicle Location Audit Reports; 4; 16

Monitoring of trip cancellations and rebookings; 4; 16

General review of runs and scheduling practices; 4; 16

Monitoring of no-shows and late cancels; 16; 64

Monitoring of travel times; 8; 32

Additional on-site visits (one per month); 8; 32

Additional on-street monitoring (three days per month); 24; 96

More detailed complaint investigation; 80; 320