Guide

vers do provide assistance to riders’ front doors. The majority of trips (63%) are less than
15 km one-way, although 4% of trips exceed 36 km. The average trip length is 17 km.
Riders are required to book their trips up to seven days in advance, although the majority
of riders have standing orders. For those who do need to call for trips, there is reportedly
a problem with getting through to the operators because of the limited number of phone
lines. Drivers’ schedules (manifests) are generally prepared one to two days in advance.
Service begins at approximately 5am, and ends at approximately 7:30pm, reflecting the
fact that the service is not intended for social or recreational purposes, but rather for work.
This is also reflected in the hourly fluctuations throughout the day. There appear to be
three peak hours of travel on the DAR service, between 6am and 6:30am; between noon
and 1:30pm; and between 4pm and 5pm.
Service Quality Evaluation and Monitoring
The DAR operation has been provided by three different contractors over the past thirteen
years, and there have been challenges with all three providers. One of the key issues
faced by the DAR program has been related to service quality, particularly operator noshows,
which averaged over 400 per month in the first half of 2011. This apparently was
partially due to the lack of monitoring on the part of the jurisdictions. As a result of the
implementation of a service monitoring program in 2011, and the assignment of this
responsibility to a City staff person, the operator was subject to significant performance
related fines. Besides monitoring operator no-shows, the staff person conducts on-route
monitoring of vehicle road worthiness and cleanliness as well as driver conduct. Within a
few months of the implementation of the monitoring program, service reportedly started
improving with a reduction in operator no-shows. The level of fines imposed upon the
operator then declined substantially. The city also monitors the quality of the call centre
function, including the time taken to answer calls, vehicle scheduling, and schedule
adherence. The involvement of an active advisory committee has also helped improve the
monitoring of the operator’s performance. In addition, the City’s Transport Information
Centre has a complaint system in place, which can lead to sanctions against drivers for
poor performance. Apparently complaints have declined since the increased monitoring by
City staff was implemented.
Vehicles reportedly now maintain a 96% level of on-time performance. The window for “ontime”
pick-ups and drop-offs is 15 minutes, which is relatively narrow for a paratransit
program serving residents in areas with poor road conditions and congestion.
Fleet and Maintenance
DAR services have increased in stages from an initial fleet of four to a current fleet of thirty
vehicles, including three spares. Although no vehicle replacements were necessary during
2011, the fleet is quite old and 95% of the vehicles have over 300,000km on their
odometer. The fleet currently consists of Iveco vehicles and, to a lesser extent, Quantums.
Registration Process
Selection of program beneficiaries can be a politically charged element of any paratransit
program, as it results in the distribution of a valuable resource to a limited number of
people. In the early stages of the DAR, program participants were selected from APD’s
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