THE BENZIE BUS 2007 in Review!
The Benzie Bus celebrated our 1 year anniversary on January 2nd. What a fabulous year we have had at our agency. We want to express our sincere “Thank You” to all of you that have supported our service since it’s conception. So many people have contributed time, money, services, etc. to make the Benzie Bus a reality.
I would like to review some of the events that took place this past year, and let you know about some of the changes you will see in 2008.
January 2007
We opened our doors on Tuesday, the 2nd. We had a total of 5 buses that had been transferred to our agency from the Council on Aging. Amy Lone and I were sitting on the floor in our offices trying to get our copier and computers functional and connected. We had just finalized arrangements to rent our facility days prior to opening our doors. So, we were far from settled, but we had to be at full speed to make sure that the transfer of service from the Council on Aging to our agency went smooth. It was anybody’s guess how busy we would be, but we provided 1150 rides our very first month. Our total staff was 13 people.
February
We were able to have two 15 passenger buses from Kalkaska added to our fleet through a transfer from the State. I was busy doing presentations for organizations and answering questions about the service we intended to provide. We had office furniture donated to us and we were still trying to get procedures in place since we started from “scratch” we had to build it ourselves. We had several of our staff decorate one of our buses and enter it in the Winterfest parade, and we won second place! We started the process of running a logo contest. I started the process of writing a grant for $28,000 to purchase bike racks for our buses. Our rider ship increased to 1707 this month and our staff increased to 14.
March
The public forums at Lake Ann Elementary, Betsie Valley Elementary, Platte River Elementary and Frankfort/Elberta Elementary pretty much dominated the month. We had a good turn out to all of the forums and received many positive comments and suggestions. We selected a winner of our logo contest, Mr. Jack Van Maastrict. We also started the process of getting our website started. Our landlord agreed to expand our office space because it had become very apparent that we needed to move our Dispatch to a quieter location within the building. We purchased two 15 passenger vans locally to add to our fleet. Our ridership continued to increase to 2374 and our staff increased to 15.
April
We started to make the preparations to offer transportation to Traverse City, a medical transport twice a month and some cooperative transportation with Manistee. The Board also approved to extend our hours during the summer months until 10:00 p.m.. Our ridership increased to 2447 and our staff increased to 18.
May
Our website will be www.benziebus.com! We started to promote our summer fun pass for students at a reduced rate. I met with members of the legislature informing them of our progress and the importance of their support for Benzie County. Yup! Riders increased to 3155 and staff increased to 21.
June
We moved into the remodeled area of our building. Offices were moved and we had to settle in and prepare for the onset of our summer transportation. We were putting the finishing touches on our decals for the buses and choosing uniforms for our drivers. Two of our new buses arrived, and another increase in riders and staff.
July
We suffered a terrible loss when our employee David Miller died suddenly at his residence. Dave was a wonderful man, and will always be remembered by our staff as one of the first drivers of the Benzie Bus. His craftsmanship is evident everywhere you look in our building. He is greatly missed. I received word that my grant was approved for bike racks so we ordered four (4) racks for our new buses. Bus decals were completed and we opened our routes to Traverse City with limited service with reservations. Riders to Traverse City started out slow but have steadily been increasing. We hit a milestone in July of over 4,000 riders, 4,013 to be exact.
August
The big event of August was our open house. We served hot dogs, potato salad, chips, cookies, etc and provided transportation to our facility for the community. We had the privilege of meeting many of our riders face to face. We figured that we served over 200 people food, and many others came in just to show support and to meet our staff. We purchased our server and computer software for Dispatch in an effort to provide more efficient service for our clients. Billy DeRooy, left his employment with TCAPS to became our full time mechanic. What a blessing to have a quality mechanic to maintain our vehicles in the very best condition possible. Another increase in riders, we provided 4,562 this month.
September
We were awarded one 15 passenger bus, a battery charger and a portable vehicle hoist from the City of Milan via the State of Michigan at no cost to our agency aside from transporting everything from Milan to our office. We had a bus participate in our first Coho festival parade. Dispatch was busy entering data so we could go “live” with our new software October 1st.
October
We put our new software into use on October 1st. It is just a great program and will help provide us with information to analysis our service and costs, and also provide the necessary reports required by the State of Michigan Department of Transportation. We purchased a maintenance truck and a snow plow in preparation for the winter months ahead.
November
The Board of Directors unanimously voted to offer service to our community on New Year’s Eve by extending our hours until 3:00 a.m. We also posted a survey on the web, and asking our community to give us some feedback about the service we have been providing, and what they would like to see in the future. Our staff, with their own donations distributed food to three households in our county for Thanksgiving.
December
December 31st , New Years Eve, we transported approximately 86 people between 10:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. Many residents were very grateful for the opportunity to take the bus instead of driving home after celebrating the New Year. We ended the year with our highest number of riders in a month, 4,730.
As we look forward to 2008, we will be diligent to provide the very best service we can to all the residents of our county. With that in mind, we are so very grateful for the beautiful county we live in, and the opportunity to serve you.
-Susan M. Miller
Executive Director
Service Priority Procedure In an effort to provide the most efficient service for all of our passengers. The Benzie Bus will be using the following service priority procedure to establish the priority of passenger requests.
Priority One-
Services established in advance, same passenger, same time and same origin.
Priority Two-
Services that are reserved 24 hours in advance of service needed.
Priority Three-
Services for passengers that call at least two hours in advance of service needed.
Priority Four-
Services for passengers who wait until the last minute to make their request.
It is the intent of the Benzie Bus to make sure that the needs of wheelchairs, Priority One and Priority Two rides be fully administered before addressing the needs of the Priority Three and Priority Four passengers.
Benzie Bus can currently take anyone within the boundaries of Benzie County to any location within Benzie County. Benzie Bus can pick riders up at their home or from a business and drive them to any address within the county lines. To ensure the highest quality of service to customers, reservations made 24 hours in advance are recommended. Reservations can be made by calling (231) 325-3000 or toll free 1-866-325-3380 during regular business hours. For a map of Benzie County, click here.
Benzie Bus also provides rides to Traverse City at Munson Medical Center and the BATA Transfer Station. For a detailed schedule, click here.
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