Agenda item

DIAL A RIDE

The Committee will receive a presentation on the work carried out so far by this Committee and its predecessor in resolving the on-going issues of the Dial a Ride service in Havering.

 

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee received a presentation on the issues faced by Havering residents in relation to the Dial a Ride service.  The Sub-Committee was given the background to what the Dial a Ride service was.  It noted that the service was provided free to its members, providing that they meet the relevant criteria.  The cost per journey was £25.66, compared with just £12 per journey under the Taxicard scheme.

 

The issues experienced by users of the Dial a Ride service included:

 

·         Poor scheduling of collections and arrivals of passengers – evidenced by buses having one passenger at significant times, or three buses in the same road for three separate requests.

·         The refusal levels of the service – 5.5 % of all requests made in 2010 were refused or Dial a Ride were only able to offer a one way trip.

·         The lack of consistent performance monitoring information from TfL to the London Boroughs – it was only noted that the neighbouring borough of Barking and Dagenham received on average 40 trips per member per year, whereas Havering received 28 trips per member per year.

·         The lack of liaison between TfL and the London Boroughs – There was never one contact and if a name was given they were very difficult to contact or obtain any information from.

·         Inconsistencies in service on a borough by borough basis – Havering had a much older population than its neighbouring borough of Barking and Dagenham, however the service levels were very different.

 

The Sub-Committee noted the population figures from the 2011 Census and that the population aged 65+ of Havering, was larger at 18% than Barking and Dagenham (9%), London (12%) and England (15%).

 

A visit to the Dial a Ride Head Office and call centre took place in July 2009.  This meeting consisted of officers and members from Havering, a local user and a member of Havering LINk (now Healthwatch).  They met with a number of Dial a Ride officers including the General Manager.  The findings of this visit included:

 

·         Transport could not be provided to hospitals (only visiting) – appointments overrun and there was no set pick up time.

·         The service operated on a local area with the majority of trips under 5 miles as the crow flies – with Havering being a large borough, this had implications for those residents living in Cranham in the East who were unable to access Romford Town Centre.

·         No vehicles had trackers installed – therefore the office did not know where vehicles were, hence lots of dial a ride vehicles being seen parked in residential streets when they could be better utilised.

·         Dial a Ride had 350 vehicles across 31 boroughs, this achieved 1.4 million trips a year at a cost of £25.66 per person per trip. – the in-house Passenger Travel Service could provide the same service was £30 an hour, including all costs and was not per person.  The equivalent of Dial a ride moving one person per hour.

The Committee, at the time, again approached the General Manager of Dial a Ride in late 2009, suggesting the opportunity to work in partnership, as part of the London Mayor’s Door to Door Strategy, by making use of the council minibus fleet surplus capacity in the middle of the working day and throughout the school holidays. Other approaches were made to the Mayor for London however there was no response received from either approach.

 

In late 2012 another approach was made, this time to the Deputy Mayor for Transport requested that a meeting take place to discuss the issues.  A meeting was set up for February 2013.  At that meeting a number of issues were discussed.  The following items were agreed by TfL:

 

·         That Havering was different from other boroughs and was not a “one size fits all” service

·         Dial a Ride schemes elsewhere operated more efficiently even using the same software

·         Recognition of the limitations of the system and the need to adequately train the booking operatives. 

 

The Director of Surface Transport at the meeting agreed that there were ways to improve the service, these included providing a depot in Havering, providing a door to door service, arranging for someone locally to deal with the bookings, to ensure continuity and base the drivers locally, to ensure the vehicles meet the needs and that the drivers are a credit to the service.  Furthermore TfL would wish to find a cheaper way to deliver the servie in a more efficient way, to be able to deliver more trips in a day and avoid the problem of having empty vehicles stood idle.  He also added that exploring the option of delivering the service on a pilot basis initially with a depot based in the borough.  Members and officers agreed that this for Havering would be a good start.

 

Representatives from TfL did visit Central Depot in December 2013, during the visit the representatives were shown; vehicles, staffing, Transys booking system, together with what Havering can offer.  Officers explained that they wished to work with TfL in developing a localised service that provided more journeys for the local community and to not take over the management of the service.

 

The Sub-Committee was informed that consultants were employed by TfL to carry out a Review of London’s Social Needs Transport Market findings.  A brief had been prepared which was shared with the sub-committee.

 

Officers had tried on numerous occasions to find out the current position, only to be told that they were responding to the review and would update boroughs in due course.

 

The Sub-Committee was keen to continue to talk to TfL in order to progress and improve the service for residents of Havering.