Key Takeaway: High-quality paratransit service depends on effective staff recruitment, retention, and management. We are working to improve these areas by ensuring competitive wages and career advancement, while also addressing increased workload and call volume by potentially adding staff to enhance outreach and appointment scheduling.
High-quality paratransit service relies heavily on the customer-facing and administrative staff supporting the program. The SFMTA works with our paratransit contractor to recruit and retain staff by ensuring that paratransit employee wages are competitive and that opportunities for career advancement are available.
In addition, we also regularly evaluate whether staff responsibilities align with their actual capacity. For example, the Mobility Management Center currently employs two dedicated staff members who are responsible for:
- Serving as primary contacts for paratransit-related inquiries in San Francisco and the greater Bay Area.
- All outreach efforts for the SF Paratransit office, including initiating contact with community organizations and handling incoming requests.
- Overseeing the administration of the Essential Trip Card program, Shop-a-Round, Van Gogh, and Travel Training programs, including Photo ID appointments for the ETC program and Shop-a-Round.
The Mobility Management Center receives between 400-500 calls per month, amounting to 2,600 calls from September 2023-February 2024.
Since the introduction of the Essential Trip Card (ETC) program call volume and the need for staff time dedicated to intake and administration has increased. On average, ETC intakes have increased 66% from September 2023-February 2024 compared to the same timeframe last year (See Figures 1 and 2).
Added staff capacity would enable the Mobility Management Center to restore its original availability to conduct outreach and pursue new avenues of outreach. The Center currently utilizes Mondays and Fridays for ETC photo ID appointments, limiting staff’s ability to accommodate outreach on those days. Added staff capacity would also lead to shorter wait time for photo ID appointments. At present the Mobility Management Center can provide 50 photo ID appointments per week.
The SFMTA will undergo a new procurement process for paratransit services in FY25 and will award a new contract by the end of FY26. It is important that any selected vendor can demonstrate the ability to recruit and retain staff that provide high-quality services.
Figure 1. Essential Trip Card Customer Intake, FY22-23
Figure 2. Essential Trip Card Customer Intake, FY23-24
Figure 3. Number of Calls to Paratransit Broker Transdev
