Veolia, Inc.’s days as the VanGO service provider in Charles County may be numbered. Its contract expires this summer and the county may not be renewing.
VanGO (which began in 1997) is a popular and useful service to Charles County. Veolia (formerly Yellow/Connex, Inc.) manages and runs the service; it maintains the vehicles and employs the drivers. In 2005, it provided over 400,000 trips on ten town routes and four rural routes. Current statistics were not available on the website, which doesn’t seem to have been updated in 2 years.
Frank Stone, Veolia’s site manager, at the VanGO Waldorf office spoke candidly with The Bay Net about the services strengths and weaknesses. He admitted that the most frequent complaint about VanGO is its ability to stay on schedule. One responsibility of VanGO is to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act with accessible vehicles to provide service to people who would otherwise have difficulty or be unable to ride a traditional bus. However, Mr. Stone noted, the extra time drivers take to help riders needing assistance frequently puts them “little behind schedule”. Although Stone would prefer a 99% on-time rating, he’s satisfied with VanGO’s current 97% score. The County expects VanGO to maintain at least a 97% on-time rating; the service monitors its own ability to keep to schedule.
During the discussion of new business at Tuesday’s commissioners meeting Dr. Edith Patterson (Vice-president of the Charles County Commissioners’ Board) pointedly asked whether the contract had been renewed and was audibly glad to learn it had not been. Dr. Patterson alluded to a quantity of complaints the service has garnered during its tenure, the most recent of which were received at the last Town Meeting in Bryans Road.
Mr. Stone told The Bay Net that Veolia’s strength is the personable service their drivers provide. He is confident that most drivers know their customers’ needs and serve them in a respectful, helpful manner. Veolia has held the VanGO service contract with Charles County for nearly the last decade. They are pursuing renewal of the contract and would be happy to have it for another three to five years.
Bids from new vendors were due at the Commissioners Office by the end of last week and a new provider may begin its contract on July 1st of this year.
