Palm Tran is launching a transportation service in the Glades that is not only improving travel mobility; it is also adding jobs to the economy. The service, “Go Glades,” is a pilot program launched by Palm Tran, the Florida Department of Transportation is a funding partner and MV Transportation will operate the service on Palm Tran’s behalf. The service intends to make public transportation more flexible and convenient for residents of Belle Glade, South Bay and Pahokee. In total, the Go Glades service has hired more than 20 drivers and all drivers are from the Glades region.
“The most exciting part about Go Glades is that the service is adding jobs in the Glades community in addition to making public transportation more accessible,” said Palm Tran Executive Director Clinton B. Forbes. “I am thrilled we were able to hire locally. That exemplifies part of Palm Tran’s mission to provide access to opportunity for everyone.”
Go Glades supplements Palm Tran’s bus system overhaul, which took place in September. As part of the bus network redesign, the Belle Glade/Pahokee bus Route 47 merged with Route 48 serving Canal Point and South Bay. Service hours were extended and the frequency of the buses was improved.
Go Glades allows people in the Glades area to call for a ride on a small vehicle. It also allows them to request a circulator vehicle make a slight detour from its regular route to pick them up.
“What we are able to do for the community and what the community is doing for us with enthusiasm and acceptance and wanting this transportation is tremendous,” said General Manager of MV Transportation Jeanie Chrisman.
South Bay resident Samanthia Smith is one of the trainees hired for the Go Glades program. Smith has always had a passion for working in the transportation industry. When she saw the opportunity arise to become a driver for Go Glades, she jumped at the chance to apply.
“[With] transportation, you have to have a desire, you have to do it from the heart — my heart is here,” she said. “I want to advance. I want to get to know all I can to become a better person…that go-to person in the community.”
Smith described the training as “great,” and feels she is learning from the best.
“I mean you can’t ask for better training or trainers,” she said.
To become a driver, candidates must pass an extensive background check and receive 120 hours of training. The recruitment was done primarily with the company CareerSource, in addition to advertising via radio station Sugar 900 and The Okeechobee News.
Jeanie Chrisman said the one of the challenges of training the new Go Glades drivers was differentiating between Go Glades and Palm Tran’s fixed-route and paratransit service.
“I ran a deviated fixed-route (system) in Indiana years ago, so I have experience with it, but one of our challenges is teaching the drivers, the managers, and everyone really what a deviated fixed-route is and how it will work and the big advantages for passengers,” she said.
Because of this, MV Transportation HR Manager Tara Jones said it was important to hire locally to ensure drivers had a familiarity with the Glades region.
“You have to know the area, how to get through neighborhoods. If there happens to be a technical difficulty, you have to be able to whip your books out and get to point A to point B in a timely manner,” Jones said. “The turnout has been very surprising for us. We know that this is a small area, but if you were to see the turnout, you would be shocked,” she added. Furthermore, Go Glades has provided an opportunity for residents of the Glades to climb the corporate ladder in the transportation sector.
“We are able to provide a job that will allow them to get paid more money than they have been in decades,” Jones said. “When I looked at the statistics, they are not getting paid that much to be in the fields and work in agriculture, so to be able to be a part of the transportation world, that provides such a service and they are able to bring more income to their families.”
MV Transportation Manager of Operations Shirley Fordham added that as a Belle Glade native, she is most excited to help the elderly in the community.
“I love helping the elderly. They are the most important people,” Fordham said. “I love coming to work. I just love my community.”
Safety is a top priority for the service; however customer service training is also crucial, said MV Transportation Director of Safety Kerterlier Collins-Machen.
“Customer service is the number one thing that we keep in mind as well,” Collins-Machen said. “We understand that this is a new service out in this area so just making sure that the community gets treated the best so that they can continue to ride the service and hopefully the service will work.”
“Because we are in the transportation field, the best customer service is being on-time and everything else will fall into place,” said Tara Jones.
As Samanthia Smith continues training to become a Go Glades driver, she said she looks forward to being employed in the community she’s always known as home.
“It’s a small knit community where everybody knows everybody, and there’s much love in this community,” she said.
