Transit agency forks out $9m in last three years Metro has had to pay for as much as $11 million in free rides over the past six years because the contractor providing the trips to disabled riders has been late or failed to show up at all, according to an inspector general’s audit.
And $9 million of those costs have hit Metro in the past three years — including $2.75 million last year — after the transit agency agreed to give out two free-ride coupons for every late or missed MetroAccess trip to settle a class-action lawsuit stemming from the chronically late paratransit service.
Metro Inspector General Helen Lew made the findings while auditing MetroAccess ridership and revenue. She urged Metro in her report released this month to reassess how it measures the contractor’s lateness and the penalties enacted on it.
| Metro on hook for late-service costs | ||
| Fiscal year | Free-ride coupons | Net estimated costs to Metro |
| 2006 | 22,072 | $722,262 |
| 2007 | 23,301 | $757,399 |
| 2008 | 22,607 | $504,403 |
| 2009* | 55,964 | $1,847,454 |
| 2010 | 117,672 | $4,461,578 |
| 2011 | 74,848 | $2,746,496 |
| TOTAL | 316,464 | $11,039,592 |
| *First full year that includes a class-action settlement requiring two free-ride coupons for any missed or late trip | ||
| Source: Metro Office of the Inspector General | ||
“Our concern is that [Metro] bears a significant cost when the contractor misses a trip or is late, and the current compensation structure may not be a good incentive for on-time performance and deterrent of excessively late/missed trips,” Lew wrote.
Metro, however, disagreed with the report, saying it does not believe that the free-trip coupons have led to worse on-time performance and doesn’t think it needs to change how it measures on-time performance.
“We question the characterization of the $11 million figure,” Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said.
MV Transportation, the contractor that provides the rides, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
MetroAccess is a federally mandated transit service under the Americans with Disabilities Act for people physically unable to take Metrobus or Metrorail.
Metro requires MV Transportation to be on-time for at least 92 percent of all trips. If MV doesn’t hit that mark each month, it can face up to $30,000 in fines. “Late” means the vans or taxis arrive after a 30-minute pickup window.
In fiscal 2010, MV Transportation was late or missed 58,836 trips under those standards, the report said. The agency subsequently was on the hook for twice as many free rides. It not only lost out on the fares for its share of the free trips given to riders, an estimated $153,000, but it also had to cover the taxpayer-subsidized cost of giving out those free rides at about $41 per trip, the report said. Lew estimated the total cost to Metro was $4.5 million for that year, after MV Transportation paid $210,000 in late penalties.
Assistant General Manager of Access Services Christian Kent disputes the numbers, arguing that many riders likely would take those trips anyway, regardless of having a free-ride coupon, to get to their regular dialysis appointments, jobs and medical visits. “They’re not going to change their ridership patterns because of a coupon,” he said.
He estimates the coupons are costing Metro the amount of fare lost — about $821,604 over six years, according to the inspector general’s calculations — not any extra new trips as the report assumed.
The findings come as Metro is starting an effort, including town hall meetings this week, to determine what it wants from its next MetroAccess contract. Its contract with MV Transportation expires in June 2013. “To try to change the terms now is really not productive,” Kent said. “We’re going to be reviewing that in the new contract.”
