SURTC Facilitates PASS Training

Transit agencies in North and South Dakota are improving the levels of service and safety provided by their drivers with help from SURTC.

SURTC associate research fellow Gary Hegland received trainer certification in the Passenger Service and Safety (PASS) Certification Program last fall at a training session sponsored by SURTC and the Dakota Transit Association in Oacoma, SD. He's now working with agencies across the region to provide the program to their drivers. "I encouraged the states to have all of their drivers certified and the department of transportation in North Dakota and South Dakota accepted that challenge and provided funding support. SURTC is working with them to accomplish the goal," Hegland says.

To date, Hegland has participated in PASS training in Pierre, SD, Valley City, ND, Dickinson, ND, and St. George, UT. Hegland is one of 14 certified PASS trainers in the Dakotas. "I've been going out with the trainers that were certified in our region to team-teach their first class," he says. That arrangement allows him to help the first-time teachers while gathering information on agency needs for additional SURTC and DTA programming.

The PASS Driver Certification Program ensures that community transportation drivers have expertise in passenger assistance techniques and sensitivity skills appropriate for serving persons with disabilities and the general public. The PASS program has a three-day train-the-trainer session to certify trainers. The trainers then offer a two-day program of instruction for drivers.

Some of the advantages of offering the PASS Certification Program are: the ability to reduce organizational liability; comprehensive, up-to-date training on the assistance drivers should be providing to passengers with special needs; intensive emergency situation training; certification oversight provided by national leaders in the community transportation field; and updates for all participants on relevant ADA changes.

The two-day driver certification class covers:

• Stress management & Americans with Disabilities Act
• Driver sensitivity, awareness and communication
• Mobility equipment (including walkers, canes, crutches, braces, etc.)
• Hands-on assistance (including body mechanics, transfers and guiding the vision impaired)
• Wheelchair types and features (including scooters)
• Lift operations
• Securement
• Principles of crisis management
• Evacuation techniques and emergency procedures
• Bloodborne pathogen protection
• Handling seizure disorders
• Responding to passenger abuse and neglect
• Driver/passenger sexual improprieties

SURTC Sponsors Workshop on Human Resource Management

A SURTC-sponsored workshop on human resource management was offered to transit managers and human resource directors in five states to help them be more effective.

The May 9 session was based in Fargo, but was broadcast via the Internet over the Transportation Learning Network (TLN) to 26 sites in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Utah. "We used the TLN to reach more individuals and to make the workshop more accessible to agencies that don't have the flexibility of sending staff to remote training," explained Gary Hegland, the SURTC associate research fellow who coordinated the training.

Topics included tips on interviewing, employee documentation and related laws. Instructors for the course were Lyn Hellegaard and Carol Wright. Hellegaard is coordinator of the Montana Transit Association and executive director of the Missoula Ravalli Transportation Management Association. She serves on several local, state, regional and national transit committees and has several years experience developing and implementing training programs. Wright is president of the Dakota Transit Association and project director of James River Transit in Jamestown, ND. Wright has a master's degree in human development/education/gerontology and is a member of SURTC's advisory committee.

"Lyn and Carol have extensive experience with human resource management as well as familiarity with transit," Hegland says. "They provided a very practical and detailed approach to this topic."