van pool program commuter services overview

1:47:27It's a good idea. Great. We have some slides up. My name is uh Ken Bowden. I'm uh the manager of the commuter services program at T Barda. I'm joined today by my colleague Arlinda Karuli with Commute with Enterprise. Um we're just gonna give you a general overview of the Van Pool program, some of our successes. I do wanna mention right off the bat that We're funded by a grant through

1:47:57uh the FTA, the Federal Transit Authority. Um it's 5307 money and comes in the form of a commuter assistance uh program grant.

1:48:11So I'm gonna push through these uh first couple slides so that uh we're kind of limited on time, but I do want to mention that we have other services that we uh provide folks. Um in terms of active transportation, such as bicycling and walking, we have information on our website about uh the best routes to take. We provide information on public transportation system. Go Pasco, for instance, is on our website. And we

1:48:41also provide occasional regional challenges. So these are commute challenges where people have an opportunity to try other modes of transportation other than just driving alone every day.

1:48:56So the way that we like to promote our services is actually through the employer. Um and when Arlinda and I go in and we talk to our employee employers. We have a couple questions that we really want to know. We have an open conversation, but we really want to know. Are they having problems with attracting and retaining employees? Do they have parking issues at their facility? And we also want to know Um, do they

1:49:27have a green initiative? Are they participating in a program to help reduce their carbon footprint? Tying all of these programs together, we provide the emergency ride home program. And that's really a safety net. It's a way for people who Let's say they're in a van pool, they're in a car pool, And they happen to miss their ride home. We'll provide them the cost of an Uber, a Lyft, or a taxi. All they need to

1:49:57do is collect the receipt. There's a form to fill out and then our agency will provide uh compensation for that ride home.

1:50:09Let's talk a little bit about the Van Pool program itself. So At the time in 2020, right before the pandemic, we hit a high of 1707.

1:50:23And two months into the pandemic The number fell to one thirty seven. We probably would have even gone lower, but F Dot helped us out. They reduced the number of people necessary to keep a van pool going. So we went from four to two occupants in a van pool. These were it was just a strategy to make sure that these van pools didn't go away. Um we're now back up to a minimum of four people per van pool. And

1:50:54uh through uh 2021, the first part of 2022, we kind of bounced between 150 and 140 van pools. Since March uh with the price of gas going up to four dollars a gallon, pushing past that amount the program has started to really expand rapidly. Um when I sent this slide deck over We were at 186 vans. Um we're currently at 190 vans and it keeps expanding.

1:51:28Most of our employers are actually part of the federal employment system. Um we have James A. Haley, uh the VA in uh Tampa. has currently 90 vans in operation. McDill Air Force Base has about 60 in operation. But this is just a good overview of the people that we're currently working with. Um we are working very hard to get the program expanded to non-federal work

1:51:58sites. Um and we're finding a lot of interest in people in uh companies that are involved in Food processing Healthcare, Baycare has approached us about uh setting up van pools for their employ employees. Um and the hospitality industry as well. And some unusual uh folks too, uh landscape companies who need to move people from distant locations into a

1:52:28central uh location. They're they've been talking to us as well.

1:52:35This is a map uh of all the current van pools in operation. And I just want to really point out that right now 40% of those van pools cross county borders. So this is a really great example of a regional transportation system.

1:52:56In terms of the impact to Pasco County.

1:53:00Um 37 van pools currently start their commute from Pasco County and go to places like the Coleman Prison, James A. Haley, McDill, and the TSA at uh Tampa International Airport. Currently we're serving a total of a hundred and seventy-seven passengers from Pascoal. Um Employers involved with us right at the moment uh Pasco County itself is working with us to initiate a

1:53:31van pool program with their employees. We're really just kind of waiting on a service agreement. And that'll give us data that we can analyze. We can form carpool groups out of that. And then start to have uh group meetings where we meet with these groups and we get the van pool out on the road. Uh Paul Aerospace is also involved. And I actually do have some good news. Um We have a recent uh uh employer in Pasco

1:54:01County that has as a destination, um, the VA Clinic in Newport Ritchie. Has a van pool with folks that are originating uh their van pool trip from uh Spring Hill up in Hernando County.

1:54:18So I'm going to turn this over to my colleague, and uh Arlinda's gonna tell you a little bit about the nuts and bolts, how the Van Pool program works, and how it uh gets off the ground.

1:54:32Good morning Commissioner. Commissioner Starkey. I know we talked a little bit about this before. Um just a quick introduction. Arlene DeCaruli, I'm the account executive for Commute with Enterprise. So we work in partnership with T-Barda to launch the program. I just wanted to share a little bit about how the program works for the folks that are not familiar with it. It does function a lot like a large carpool. So ideally, we partner with the work site, as Ken mentioned earlier. We do a mapping analysis to identify where the majority of folks are coming from. And then we start targeting

1:55:02those long-distance commuters to see if we can offer them this type of solution. So, four is the menu. Minimum do we need to kick off a vampel? And fifteen, uh in terms of capacity, the largest vehicle that we have available that we offer. We've actually seen as many as 20 or 30 participants. Sometimes they'll use it for multiple shifts. So if shift one leaves, comes back, parks it at a centralized location of their choice, then group two takes it. So that means a lot lower cost for

1:55:32that particular group. So the actual groups decide what centralized meeting locations they'd like to. So a lot of the time we offer park and ride options. Um they take a look at uh plazas and and make uh uh c connection with those particular work sites to see if they can leave their vehicles there. Or it could start at someone's home. The group actually gets an extra 200 miles for personal use. So we've seen a lot of them eliminate second or third vehicle

1:56:02they were using just to get to and from the work site. They can have it on the weekends with friends and family, so it opens up doors to that. The vehicle is something that Enterprise provides, and again, they end up keeping it at The end of the day. Participants share driving responsibilities. So when we start looking at those long distance commuters, it means rotating means a lot to them, right? A little bit less wear and tear on their personal bodies as well as their personal vehicles. They get some time back to their day to maybe catch up

1:56:32on some work, uh take a nap, uh come to work, refresh, recharged.

1:56:38So looking at white employer support, uh some of the challenges that we end up seeing, especially right now, recruitment and retention probably is a a huge one, right? Um especially when we start considering cost of housing. We end up seeing a lot of more folks uh relocate to rural areas, but the work site is still in those um uh major cities. So something that a lot of our partners have done. Is identify or work with their current local career source or EDC, right, to try to figure

1:57:08out where majority of the folks are traveling from to hire within those areas and say, hey, let's give them the VAMPL program. What I mean by that is sometimes the work side contributes towards the cost. So they'll say, We're gonna cover 100% of your transportation. All we need you to do is come here. It costs a lot. more to uh retrain someone, right? So that being able to utilize this as a retention tool is also wonderful. I I heard Bill talk a little bit earlier about a lot of the manufacturing sites that are

1:57:38relocating. Those are a huge target of ours because they typically have shift worker type employees. So it makes it a lot easier to identify a group and bring them to and from the work site. So Ken mentioned earlier the the new the clinic that got a vampel kicked off. We see a lot of folks leaving the clinic. County, we want to make sure that we're bringing um other employment back in here. So equitable right to work, right? Corporate citizenship, that's a huge one. It's very important to a lot of companies. Improving that carbon footprint. Something

1:58:09that we actually do is Based on the van pools we calculate what that CO2 emission decreases. So businesses can look at that outside the typical approach, right outside the four walls of the business, and we provide that data. Those analytics that show how many miles we're removing off the roads, how many uh parking spots they're reducing, and what that CO2 emission decreases. Employee savings, this is a lot again when it comes to hiring a new person. re training them all over. They actually get pre-tax

1:58:40payroll deduction as an option to the employee as well as pre-tax to the employer. So it kind of works both ways. Congestion mitigation, I know we talked about traffic. And then also again that the the number, the infrastructure costs when it comes to parking, we show what that number looks like. So again, these are the challenges that we end up seeing out there we address immediately with the work sites. We've had a lot of communication more in the private sector now than ever because they're facing all of this or offering

1:59:11them a solution. Our biggest challenge right now is sometimes getting in our foot in the door just because they're not aware of how the program works, right? So we need the help of the community to kind of help spread that. Ideally we like to work with human resources because they have some analytics. They typically provide us data. So what that means is they give us an employee zip code or their address with an employee identifier. So they remain anonymous to us, but the company can take a look and say, hey, we've got you know 10 or 15

1:59:41of these individuals that are living outside of this 10 mile, 20, 30 mile radius. Let's see if we can connect all of these folks, and Ken and I will actually physically go in there and talk to them about the program, um share what that cost looks like in comparison to their drive to uh uh uh excuse me uh alone to their personal vehicle. So The benefits to that employee are yes, cost savings because now it's spread among four to fit five other individuals, less wear and tear in their personal vehicles.

2:00:11We provide the insurance as well, so that their vehicle is covered for bumper to bumper up to a total loss. There's a million dollars in liability, so there's a bit of ease, right? Maintenance is also something that we include in that cost. So we've got preferred vendors that take it out to and charge enterprise directly. So again, it's kind of all planned out and thought out, including that emergency ride home program, so they don't feel like they're stranded at work if there is an emergency. But this is really the best way to identify

2:00:41that there is an opportunity for a work site. And uh we recommend As you can see we have a lot of federal sites, so they can't release a lot of the information. So if they can't, we normally suggest they do that internally. Like look at the cities that you've got where majority of our folks are coming from, the longer commuters. Let's go ahead and approach that group. So looking at again why employees love it, the maintenance program we talked about, 24-7 roadside assistance, so they don't have to have another plan to

2:01:12to if if um uh there's a flat tire, right, or if they lock the keys inside, the savings is really the biggest piece here when we talk about fuel cost. Um being able to have that insurance included. It's a month-to-month program. So there it's not a long term financial commitment that they're just signing a contract they're stuck in. If it doesn't work out for them, uh we just need a 30-day notice, we take the vehicle back. Average lifespan of a vampel pre COVID was six years. So we're starting

2:01:42to get back up there as we were adding additional vamples. Obviously COVID affected those numbers and it wasn't just the fear of maybe sharing the ride, but a lot of folks started working from home, right? Administrative staff that we had at certain work sites, a lot of deployment when we start looking at Modil, and then a lot of retirement, just you know, um folks deciding to to leave a little earlier. But now that we're leveling off, I'm fairly comfortable to say we're hoping to approach the two milestone number uh by the end

2:02:12of December and we've got plenty in the pipeline and a lot of other private sector work sites so you know we're pride proud to hopefully show some samples here coming up soon. Um in terms of the actual vehicles that we offer, they're anywhere from a seven passenger SUV, eight passenger vans, ten, twelve, fifteen, so it really depends on what the group is interested in moving forward with. The cost variations are going to be based off of that. Again, they're not stuck in that vehicle, so we end up seeing a lot of vamples grow. Uh TSA is a big example.

2:02:43We started with one seven passenger, went up to fifteen, they started splitting. Now we're at 17 vamples. This was just launched not too long ago. So that's that's our little success story there. Um and then also looking at the impact to participants, I think this is some important data. This is from all of the VAMPOLs that we shared with you. So these numbers, what happens once a month, this report opens up for the VAMPOL where they kind of check mark all the folks that rode and the days

2:03:13of the week. We already have their route already put put in the system. And then once they check those uh names off, we get this report on um a monthly basis. So we can see that. There's an average of almost $9,000 in savings per year. So now that they're kind of rotating through the driving responsibilities, they're getting some time back. We call them families because they end up really building that community culture within the VAMPOL program. They'll get coffee for each other. They're

2:03:43skeptical at first because they're not sure how it's how it's gonna work out, but we hear some great success stories out there. Um And then the miles reduced. Again, looking at what they're removing off their personal vehicle, this is not personal use. This is just driv traveling to work. It's about twenty thousand miles per year. Looking at uh vehicle shortage, right? All the what's affecting the economy right now and uh pricing of the vehicles, that goes a long way for someone that's gonna have to replace it soon since 20,000

2:04:14miles a year is a lot. So uh we're lucky that Enterprise has the bleep to support that. So we could go to our um car rental company and just take vehicles off of that if we can't get them directly for for commute um on our own. So And um this is just a financial consideration that we put together to give you an idea at what the pricing looks like. The calculation for this is based off the first 2,000 miles per month. Which is normally what we end up seeing the route is just under that. So the

2:04:44monthly cost that you see on there for the variety of options that we've provided for vehicles, it includes that insurance, the liability right, it includes the maintenance, the roadside. Once we remove the $400 subsidy from T Barda, you'll see what that cost to passenger is. So again, the more they have an vehicle the lower that cost is going to be to them. So if you have, you know, a fifty passenger van, fifty-three dollars, we actually I love to break it down on a daily basis

2:05:14per person, what that looks like, just so they can see we're talking about a couple dollars, right? We do the same thing for the work sites. I'm gonna pass it back to Ken to talk a little bit about that. I believe we have a couple more on pricing, but

2:05:26some

2:05:26uh Yeah

2:05:27we've only got a few minutes left. Some of the

2:05:29lunch

2:05:29meetings. So just looking at the the impacts to the Tampa Bay region itself, um we've reduced the amount of uh vehicle miles traveled in our region by about seven point five million. That's over twenty twenty-one. And we've reverse reduce the amount of CO two emissions by about six and a half uh million pounds as well. That's the same amount of C O two that would that would be contained in the air of one thousand six hundred and 65

2:06:00Raymond James Stadiums. So that's a lot of savings. Yeah. We'll go on.

2:06:09So really we're here now just to take your questions. If you have anything that you'd like to ask us Fire away.

2:06:18Well I just wanted you here to make sure that um the public was r reminded and we have a lot of new people that have moved here about um these opportunities. I I know the clerk's sitting here uh gathering some information for her employees. I texted uh Mike Carbala when we take over the management of the jail. I'd love for there to be a presentation over there about um band pooling for those employees and as we um are

2:06:49more and more successful with companies moving here and you know European companies in particular, I just want this to be part of our presentations to them that this is this is an opportunity that they need to be aware of because I I think most people are not aware of this opportunity.

2:07:06A hundred percent agree. Especially with a lot of companies Like you said, that are relocating here, then they're used to hundreds of methods of transit. I'm from Europe myself, so I know exactly how much easier it is to get around. Or the companies that come here from up north, we get a different type of response. They're like, oh yeah, let's implement this immediately. Let's talk through those. So now that we're seeing a lot of them relocating on this side, we are in that communication stage, right? them know it's available. Um but we really appreciate

2:07:37coming up here because communication is big. And our contact information is on there so if if anyone is interested in learning a little bit more or doing that analysis for their work site, it is free of charge. We can um take care of that. So let us know. Thank you.

2:07:51Madam Chair I was just curious, how long has this program been going on for?

2:07:57Well uh Van Pool was initiated originally with the very first gas crisis. So that's back in 1972. Um and in the Tampa Bay area it's been running strong since the nineteen eighties.

2:08:12Okay, 'cause I I know my my brother in law was on the board when it was called Bay Area Commuter Services. Right.

2:08:18Okay. And I remember hearing about this in two thousand twelve, but I haven't heard from it about it since. So it's out there, but it it's good to make everyone well aware. Thank you.

2:08:28Enterprise acquired a company. Called V Ride, which is who was managing it at the time, about four years ago. So we've revamped, we've done um things a little bit different. They um across the country there's forty-eight states now that implement the VAMPOL program through Commute with Enterprise. So things have changed a little bit. I think it's very