OPERATIONS:

Management Reduction: Our budget problems are pretty severe. Going from the federal rural program to the urban program will reduce our operating revenues by about $200,000. State financial assistance was slashed 20% last year and may be reduced this year. Add in big increases in health and automotive insurance and we have a big problem. We have eliminated a lot of administrative costs, but the next step is to reduce our labor costs. George Smith, our afternoon/evening supervisor, will be laid off as a supervisor on October 9. He has taken the open part time OWD position and you will see him around as a relief driver. (Bob)

More Service: Our ridership is exploding this year with a 30% increase in the first week. We have been adding extra trips where necessary to accommodate the increases. We will be adding more service during the month of October. On October 5, an extra bus will be added to the Saturday evening #3 Blue route to reduce the headway to 35 minutes. On October 6, extra buses will be added to #1 Red and #3 Blue on Sunday nights to reduce the headway to 35 minutes. On October 14, extra buses will be added to the weekday #1 Red schedule between Kildee and the Mortenson turnaround. Buses will operate at 10 or 15-minute intervals from 7:20am to 5:00pm on this busy route. (Bob)

Dail-A-Ride: We have reached an agreement with Heartland Senior Services to operate our DAR service from 6:30am to 6:00pm on weekdays. They will provide the drivers and buses and dispatch service for the daytime service. We will continue to provide evening and weekend service. This will save CyRide about $25,000 per year. The changes will start on Monday, October 7. Brent, Ray, and Rosemary will spend some time with Heartland drivers and our passengers to assist in the transition. (Bob)

Fall Back: Daylight Savings Time ends October 27^th. Don’t forget to set your clock (or watch) back one hour. Enjoy that extra hour of sleep! (George)

Gate Cards in Windows: Drivers, please do not stow your gate card between the two panes of the driver’s window. When the window is inadvertently closed on the card, it causes internal damage (crimping of the card) rendering the gate card useless. If a gate card is damaged, please contact a dispatcher. (George)

Tuck That Mirror In: When parking buses in front of base, please close your front doors and fold your driver’s (left side) mirror flat against the bus. This will make it easier for buses travelling in the center lane and lessens the chance of body damage due to collision. (George)

Snow and Slide Training: Drivers who started at CyRide since last March will receive both snow and slide training. Snow training is classroom instruction highlighting proper vehicle handling techniques on ice and snow. Slide training will be conducted when weather conditions permit at the Hilton Coliseum parking lot. Drivers will attain speeds of 30 mph (or greater) and purposely slide (skid) their 15-ton bus to experience the "feel" of winter driving conditions. These "skid drills" will help build confidence in your ability to handle anything an Iowa winter can produce. Brent will be contacting you if you need this training. (George)

Bus Stop Signs, Benches, and Shelters: When you see missing or damaged bus stop signs, rubbish strewn, or damaged bus shelters and/or benches, please record this information on a maintenance card. The maintenance card should be given to the dispatcher at the end of your shift. If damage creates a hazard to passengers, such as broken glass in the bus shelter, notify the dispatcher immediately. Your timely reporting assists us in keeping CyRide safe, clean, and professional looking. (George)

Lane 6 Garage Door Cold Weather Procedure: Now that colder weather is approaching, garage doors will be closed to keep the building warm. If the garage door for lane 6 is closed, drivers should park in front of the door and enter the building through the small door to the right of the garage door. Pressing the OPEN button located on the control panel next to the small door activates the garage door. Once the garage door is fully open and stopped, drivers should bring their bus into the garage until they are even with the 3 mph speed limit sign (this distance ensures that their bus will not be struck by the descending garage door). Drivers should close the garage door unless there is another bus immediately behind them. Pressing the CLOSE button on the right side of the garage door closes the door. The driver of the last bus through the garage door should make sure that the door is closed before parking in the garage. (George)

Accident, Attendance, Complaint Statistics: For the last quarter (July, August, September) our statistics in these three areas are as follows.

Accidents – we have been involved in 27 accidents with 22 of them being preventable. This was more than both of the previous quarters and this is the time when we have the best weather. Remember, Safety First!

Attendance – This has been about the same. This quarter there were 24 lates and 6 no shows.

Complaints – We received 17 complaints from July through September and one compliment. The types of complaints were as follows:

    Driving – 9
    Passed Passenger – 1
    System – 5
    Service - 2

For the next quarter we should all work on our driving to see if we can reduce those complaints. Also remember that value added service to the customer is important. (Karen)

Bus Garage: Bids were opened on the new garage addition on September 12. Harold Pike Construction of Ames was the low bidder with a low bid of $1,920,000. Construction should start in the middle of October. Watch for updates at the dispatch window. At some point in the construction process the driveway to the parking lot will be closed and all traffic to the parking lot will come in through the east end gates. It is very important that you get your bus out of the garage at your scheduled time or early, as all buses will need to use the east gates going out and returning. (Bob)

Used Orion V status Report: The first five 1990 Orion Vs have been in service at CyRide for five weeks they have preformed well giving us little trouble. The sixth 1990 Orion V is being painted, and will be on the road soon. This will be bus 965 it will be the second 1990 Orion V to be painted. We hope to paint one more before the paint bay is closed due to construction.

New Orion Vs: The eight new Orion Vs are on schedule with the intended delivery date set for April 2003.