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SAFETY IS NO ACCIDENT

November 2005

THE GENERAL MANAGER’S REPORT

By Vickie Shaffer

    TTA was recognized on Friday, October 21 by the Huntington Mayor’s Committee for Persons with Disabilities as a Business/Employer who has hired persons with disabilities and has complied with the Americans with Disabilities Act. In addition, an award was presented to David Workman for his courageous battle with the stroke that temporarily set him back. Congratulations, David, you won! The awards ceremony was held at the Cabell County Library.    The Transit Authority will ask the Cabell County Commission and the City of Huntington to place the TTA levies on the Primary election ballot in May 2006 to be renewed by the voters. The Authority will present the County and the City with preliminary paper work in November. Eight billboard locations have already been reserved for the four weeks preceding the election.
    President of the Board, Alice Hall-Rickard, has been reappointed to serve on the TTA Board through September 26, 2008. Her reappointment was approved by City Council at its regular meeting on September 26, 2005.
    TTA ridership has grown significantly during the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2006. Following a small increase in July, ridership grew 21% in August and 18% in September. The average increase in riders between October 1 and October 15 was 350 per day.
    The Pullman Square Shuttle bus service revealed much stronger sensitivity than we expected to the 50 - cent fare that went into effect on October 1 after six weeks of free service. During the last week of the free service, daily ridership averaged 142. The first week in which the fare was 50 cents, the average number of daily riders fell to 58. The riders increased only 22 per day in the following week. As the shuttle service is a condition of the grant for Pullman Square and because the cost is covered by rental income from Pullman Square, we have decided that we should take advantage of all the tools at hand to build up the ridership. I would like to see it reach at least 200 a day. In that mode, TTA has removed the fare for the shuttle and it has operated for free since October 24. TTA will also delay the start time for the shuttle to noon Monday through Saturday as morning riders have not averaged more than 20 for the eight weeks the shuttle has operated.
    The percentage of annual operating cost “recovered” (paid for) from bus and dial-a-ride fares dropped from 52% in 1973 to 9.8% in 2005. Declining cost recovery has been a trend throughout the transit industry and explains why modern mass transit is a public enterprise. In competition with the convenience of an automobile, it is not imaginable that anyone in the TTA service area would pay the $5.28 it cost TTA to carry each bus passenger or the $10.70 it cost to carry each dial-a-ride customer in Fiscal Year 2005.
    Unlike America in 1973, the choice to travel by bus in smaller urban areas is most often made by those who do not or cannot drive or own an automobile. A survey of TTA riders conducted by a professional survey firm found that only 17% of TTA customers had the choice of driving but rode the bus instead. Until recently, that statistic continued to be reliable. However, more “choice riders” are taking the TTA instead of driving as a result of the rapid growth in gasoline prices. TTA has seen ridership increase for eleven consecutive months. Keep up the good work!

SNAPSHOTS OF FISCAL YEAR 2005

    Fiscal Year 2005 began July 1, 2004 and ended at midnight June 30, 2005. It was TTA’s 32nd year of mass transit operations. It was a year of recovery from the losses from the year before when the bus service to Ceredo and Kenova was ended. It was a year of dramatic increases in fuel prices brought on by the growth of international consumption and market uncertainties.
    Systemwide ridership rose 1% from the year before. The number of bus rides grew by less than 1% while dial-a-rides grew 12%. Still, the Authority did not fully recover as annual ridership remained less than it was two years ago.
    Operating revenue in the fiscal year increased 2.3%. TTA began receiving revenue from a new and ongoing source, the lease for properties owned by the Authority at Pullman Square. Improvements in the financial markets led to improved earnings from investments. The annual profit of $6,275 from fuel sales was an increase of $773 from last year. Annual operating expenses increased 3.5%. The driving force was the cost of fuel.
    The cost of operating TTA for the year was $4,039,987. Revenue from operations was $394,926. Non operating revenue was $548,308. Personnel was 73% of the annual expense. Non personnel expenses in the operations and maintenance departments were 18% of the annual expense. Non personnel administrative expenses were 9% of the annual expense.
    During the year, TTA conducted traditional promotions. Marshall students and personnel enjoyed free TTA transportation service in September 2004. In November, senior citizens rode free on election day and TTA conducted the annual Thanksgiving “Food for Fares” drive. The donations went to the local Salvation Army. TTA offered the annual Christmas Lights Tours in December. This holiday season, we plan to try a new route in cooperation with the town of Milton.
    Seven years of dedicated effort by TTA were rewarded in the Grand Opening of Pullman Square on November 19, 2004. Federal, State and Local officials and dignitaries participated in the ribbon cutting ceremony that was well-attended in spite of a steady Autumn rain.
    The bus service to the grocery store for senior citizens that Tradewell and Foodland sponsored throughout most of TTA’s history ended in March 2005. Foodland no longer found the service profitable.
    The TTA General Manager was featured in a Fall issue of Metro Magazine as one of five women in the United States who has had “a profound influence on the transit industry.” Metro is a monthly publication serving the national public transit and private motor coach industries. The Southwestern District Labor Council - AFL-CIO recognized the TTA General Manager with an honorary membership for “promoting and standing for local union labor in TTA’s development of Pullman Square.”

Editor's Corner

By Paul E. Davis

    Once again it is time for thanks giving! Therefore, November 19, 2005 is Food-For-Fares day at TTA. Customers boarding a TTA bus on Saturday, November 19, 2005 with a non-perishable food item will ride for free. Customers riding with a canned food donation will also receive free zone fares. The donations from Food-For-Fares day will be given to the Salvation Army this year to help make holiday food baskets for needy folks in the TTA service area. Many people on fixed incomes find it difficult to budget their money to cover the high heating costs of keeping their homes warm in the winter and still have money left over to buy groceries. So jump in and give a helping hand. Encourage your customers to get out and take a ride with us on November 19th and help the Salvation Army stock their shelves so that no one will go hungry this holiday season.

Awards Dinner

    The annual awards dinner is December 4, 2005 at 1:00 p.m. As in the past, we will hold it at TTA Center. Four Seasons will cater the event and like past years, there will be plenty of good food. So go ahead now and make plans to attend. When you see Rachel Fashbaugh, thank her for all of her hard work in making the great food arrangements for this year’s event.

New Faces

    TTA has welcomed seven new faces to the team since our last newsletter. Cynthia Adkins, Millard Stollings, Norman Andrews, Brian Wray, David Workman, Ben Martin and Joseph Staley are now part of the TTA team. Cynthia, Norman and Joseph came on board as Dial-A-Ride drivers. Milliard, Brian and Ben joined our team as Bus Operators. Last, but not least, David joined our TTA team as a customer service representative at TTA Center. Please join us in welcoming them to the TTA family.

Dial-A Ride

Soon, Dial-A-Ride will be eight (8) years old - well sort of. Beginning in 1978, the operation was operated by Goodwill Industry and Mountain State Centers for Independent Living for TTA. TTA began in-house operation of the Dial-A-Ride on December 1, 1997. Since then ridership has grown from an average of 70 customers a day to 160 per day. Now that’s a serious increase in daily ridership. Congratulations to all the Dial-A-Ride operators for another year of success.

Flu Shots

    Well, flu season is fast approaching, but please be patient, the flu shots are coming. According to Family Urgent Care, their vaccine order is not ready. However, they have assured me that we are going to be the first to know as soon as it’s available.

MU Students
Ride the Bus

    Great news! 5,458 Marshall students took advantage of TTA’s offer to ride the bus free in September. Last September 4,632 students took advantage of the offer. That is an 18% increase over last year. I guess our students are really getting smarter each year. Those economic classes are starting to pay off.

Congratulations are in Order

    TTA was recognized for having the Best Transit Marketing Program in West Virginia and received the Good Neighbor Award. The Good Neighbor Award is given to transit agencies for helping other transit operators in the State. TTA was nominated by Tri-River Transit for being there when they needed us. TTA’s very own Vickie Shaffer was presented the General Manager of the year award by the West Division of Public Transit. In addition, Vickie was recently inducted into the Huntington Wall of Fame for her work on the Pullman Square project.   Next time you see Vickie congratulate her on her recent awards.

First Sentry Bank Adopts TTA Bus

It’s a wrap... First Sentry Bank is the first to wrap a bus since Paris sign took over the Adopt-A-Bus program. The bus is completely wrapped in vinyl. No space is unused, including the windows. One of the neat properties of this technology is that it can be removed at the end of the contract with the bus as it was before. What is underneath that vinyl mask? It’s really Bus # 0653 in disguise.

Last but not least, remember Thanksgiving. All of us at TTA have many reasons to be thankful. As we go into the holiday season, we should look around and we will see there are many people that are less fortunate than ourselves. Look into your heart and your wallet and select a charity and give.

Jokes

Serious Hearing

      An elderly man had serious hearing problems for many years. He went to the doctor and the doctor was able to have him fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed him to hear 100%.
    The elderly man went back in a month to the doctor and the doctor diagnosed, “Your hearing is perfect! Your family must be very pleased.
     To which the elderly man said, “Oh, I haven’t told them yet. I just sit and listen to their conversations. I’ve already changed my will three times.”

Dogged Lawyer

      A lawyer’s dog, running about unleashed, beelines for a butcher shop and steals a roast.
    The butcher goes to the lawyer’s office and asks, “If a dog running unleashed steals a piece of meat from my store, do I have a right to demand payment for the meat from the dog’s owner?”
    The lawyer answers, “Absolutely.”
    “Then you owe me $8.50. Your dog was loose and stole a roast from me today.”
    The lawyer, without a word, writes the butcher a check for $8.50 (attorneys don’t carry cash).
    Several days later, the butcher opens the mail and finds an envelope from the lawyer: It was a bill for $100.00 for a consultation!

Jeff's World

by Jeff Heinl

It’s Jerry Singleton

    That’s right it is Dial-a-Ride’s very own Jerry Singleton! Jerry has been with TTA for over a year now and you may be asking yourself the question, “How much do we really know about him?” After interviewing him the answer to that question is no longer “very little.”
    Born on New Years Eve in 1980 this young whipper-snapper has crammed a lot of living into his thus far short existence. The Huntington area has been blessed to see him share his talents in a number of different venues.
    Jerry’s class was the first to graduate from the “new” Huntington High. On graduation day he could look back over an impressive list of accomplishments. What follows is only a partial list of highlights. In the sports realm Jerry was an All-state defensive end with scholarship offers to Nebraska . . . in wrestling he was ranked 5th in the nation in his 152 lbs weight class with a scholarship offer to Ohio State . . . in track he was a member of the state champion 4x100 and 4x200 relay teams.
    There is another side of Jerry which you may not be aware of. Music has been (and still is) a very big part of his life. In school Jerry was a member of Huntington High’s Show Choir which placed number 1 in the competition held at Disney World. As a member of the marching band (grades 6-10) he played tuba and was ranked 2nd string All-state.
    Jerry worked hard in school but still found time on his hands for other pursuits. He landed his first job at KFC (grades 10-12). He worked as a cook at the deep frier. When I mischievously asked what was the nastiest thing he experimented with in the frier (we’ve all heard the horror stories) he was quick to reply “no way . . . I never messed with the food . . . I liked to eat it too much!”. During the 4-year interim between high school and TTA Jerry held down a number of jobs.
    In 2001 Jerry graduated from truck driving school and received his class “A” driver’s license. He was too young to go on the road so he was forced to stay locally in order to find employment. While working for Home City Ice in Milton he used the buses to commute to and from work. It was on a dark rainy night while riding the PM Central that he was accosted by TTA’s Transit Ambassador who was pushing the Commuter Tax Benefit. We discussed the topic for a while but before we parted he asked if TTA was hiring. At the time we were not but the thought must have never left him because in June of 2004 we hired him as a Dial-a-Ride Operator.
    Jerry has been a welcome addition to the work force. His customers, coworkers and supervisors all find him easy to work with. He is always quick to smile and eager to help out when things (as they frequently do) go crazy for DAR.
    I asked Jerry what he liked best about his job. He surprised me with his answer when he replied “the independence!” Jerry explained “even though you are out there representing TTA and following the rules, you are still free to express yourself as an individual to your customers.” The profundity of that statement should resonate within all of us as we go about our jobs. Jerry takes great pride in being courteous to his customers and insuring that they always feel welcome and appreciated. Every day his good attitude is rewarded through his customers. Keep up the good work Jerry!
    P.S.   . . . are you sure that maybe even one little grasshopper or cricket didn’t hit the frier?

Back To Top

Shop Talk

by Danny Stanley

Thanks to Ben Ellis, the two dispatch offices are now much whiter and brighter. Ben prepped and made repairs before applying a new coat of paint to the offices. His hard work is greatly appreciated.
Thanks also goes to Judy Plybon for her hard work returning the trolleys back to a clean and respectable appearance. On a recent Saturday afternoon both trolleys were on a charter to Gallipolis, Ohio for a wedding. What was unknown ahead of time was that the trolleys were to travel two miles over an extremely dusty dirt road to the church. Larry McNeely and Lee Spires were the drivers of the charters and upon returning from their experience, you would have thought both of the drivers and the trolleys had participated in a desert Baja race. If you know anything about NASCAR, you know how important the draft is. In this instance it only served to pull the dust throughout the trolley’s. Needless to say, the bride was not too happy about the condition of the road and poor Lee got the worst of the deal because he had to make two trips through the dust bowl.

SEAN’S SPORTS

By Sean Hensley

         I cannot stress enough on how safety needs to be the first thing on everyone’s mind as soon as we walk through the door to do our jobs. Each employee is expected to obey safety rules and to exercise caution in all work activities. Employees must immediately report any unsafe condition to the appropriate supervisor. In the case of accidents that result in injury, regardless of how insignificant the injury may appear, employees should immediately notify the appropriate supervisor. It seems we have had a rash of accidents lately, some that was not our fault but we must be aware of what is going on around us and try to stay out of situations that may cause accidents. Remember, common sense is the best weapon on preventing accidents.
    Also it has been brought to my attention by several drivers that on the Pullman Shuttle run making the turn onto 6th avenue at 18th street can be pretty dangerous at times when there are vehicles parked there. Please use extra caution when making that turn.
    One other thing we need to remember is that there is absolutely no smoking on the buses or vans. This includes on the relief bus and other buses going to and from town.

Controller’s Corner

By Scott Stultz

Deductibles

I was recently asked to explain our property/automotive insurance deductible; I’m going to dedicate this month’s article to it. I realize that a discussion about insurance deductibles is almost as exciting as watching paint dry, but please try to stay with me for a bit.

Our insurance deductible is like the one that you pay for your own personal insurance policy. We have to pay a given amount of money for each accident before the insurance company will pay anything; that amount is currently $2,500 for TTA. This deductible is not like our health insurance deductible where the costs are cumulative. Instead, the property/automotive insurance deductible is applied to each accident individually.

What does this mean to TTA? It means that the company has to pay the first $2,500 of every accident that we have. Over the past sixteen months (when the new deductible started) we have paid nearly $9,000 in deductible charges for accidents involving TTA vehicles.

Both major and minor accidents cause our insurance premiums to increase. Our insurance premiums have risen by approximately 20% this year, and the minor accidents have greatly contributed to that increase.

Therefore, it would be in the best interest of each TTA employee to be a bit more cautious when driving so as to help to control our insurance costs. The amount of money that we have available for items such as pay raises and employee benefits is decreased every time that we have an accident.

A WORD OF THANKS!

By Rachel Fashbaugh

As you already know, I was hired as the new evening dispatcher. I have been training in the dispatch offices for Dial-A-Ride and regular bus service. I want to especially thank Jeff, Fred, Sean and Brian for showing me the ropes. Everyone has been very patient and helpful including all the drivers. It is not as easy as it looks! So, thanks again. I will try my best to be a great dispatcher.

Milestones

Employee	Years of Service
George Presley	39
Paul Barker	36
David Parsons	33
Vickie Shaffer	25
Taylor Carter	22
Deborah Bryan	22
Stella Fowler	21
John Bocook	21
Jim Forto	20
Larry Collins	19
Curtis Hodges	19
Roger Kipp	18
Mark Hunt	18
Pat Gilkerson	18
Jeff Heinl	18
Jennie Gilkerson	18
Kenneth Fuller	17
Paul Davis	17
Ed Payne	16
Tom Day	15
Chuck Boggs	15
Robert Patrick	15
Peter Haffer	14
Susan Hillyer	14
Jack Collins	14
Vince Moore	14
Fredrick Adkins	13
Danny Stanley	12
Jim Pine	11
Judy Plybon	11
Kevin Kendrick	10
Albert Thomas	8
Terry Wolford	8
Jullian "Lee" Spires	8
Sean Hensley	7
Roger Camp	7
Phyllis Jackson	6
Rhonda Kelly	6
Renee Mullins	6
Greg Kipp	6
Scott Stultz	6
Dianna McCallister	6
Tom Bator	6
Oral Moncer	6
John Smiley	6
James Howerton	5
Benjamin Ellis	5
Robert King	4
Anna Cummings	4
Thomas McRae	4
Robert Sliger	3
Shaun Upchurch	3
John Webb	3
Randy Rodriguez	3
Janie Fraback	2
Priscilla Lawson	1
Donnie Tiller	1
Larry McNeely	1
Edwin Ferguson	1
Jerry Singleton	1
Carole Holbrook	1
Peggy Miller	1
David Mannon	--
Darrell Simmons	--
Rachel Fashbaugh	--
Cynthia Adkins	--
Millard Stollings	--
Norman Andrews	--
Brian Wray	--
David Workman	--
Ben Martin	--
Joseph Staley	--

Birthdays!

If you should see Tom on his special day,
please wish him a Happy Birthday.

Employee	Birthday
Thomas McRae	November 24

As The Wheel Turns is published by the Tri-State Transit Authority. Vickie Shaffer, General Manager; Paul E. Davis, Editor. 1120 Virginia Avenue, West Huntington, West Virginia 25704. Phone 304-529-6094 Fax 304-529-7300 Email tta@tta-wv.com

All images and copy are the property of Tri-State Transit Authority 2004