§ 27:25-39 — Paratransit best practices pilot program.

5. a. (1) The New Jersey Transit Corporation, in consultation with the Department of Human Services, shall develop and implement a paratransit best practices pilot program. (2) The corporation, in consultation with the department, shall select a qualified community organization to assist it in developing and implementing the pilot program. The qualified community organization shall meet the following criteria: (a) the organization shall operate a facility that provides services to persons with intellectual or developmental disabilities; (b) the organization shall directly provide paratransit services to persons with disabilities with those services paid, in whole or in part, by funds received from the Department of Human Services and the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services within the Department of Labor and Workforce Development; (c) within the previous five years, the organization has received a Federal Transit Administration grant awarded by and administered through the New Jersey Transit Corporation for improvement to paratransit services; (d) during the previous five-year period, the organization has demonstrated improvement in key performance metrics, including average trip time, vehicle accidents, and cost per passenger mile for paratransit services; and (e) the organization provides transportation trips on a sufficient scale, including at least 250 daily trips under normal operating conditions. b. Phase one of the pilot program shall include the following: A training module for paratransit best practices shall be developed jointly by the qualified community organization and the New Jersey Transit Corporation in consultation with the department. The training module shall include: (1) an integrated paratransit software package that includes trip generation and scheduling, GPS directions for drivers, a mobile application for users that allows for trip requests, confirmation of trip requests, and trip status updates, and a trip accounting system; (2) a driver safety system that includes dashboard cameras, incident monitoring, and driver training; (3) assistance in hiring staff if necessary to fully implement the transportation system and train existing staff in the use of new technologies and business processes; (4) a curriculum that educates agencies about fleet management and specialized driver training for the needs of paratransit users; (5) personalized agency culture training; and (6) agency training on how to develop synergies between optimal transportation practices and the other programmatic needs of paratransit providers who provide transportation trips funded by the Department of Human Services. c. Phase two of the pilot program shall include the following: The corporation, in consultation with the department, shall establish an application process where up to five paratransit providers that provide transportation trips directly funded by the Department of Human Services or the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services within the Department of Labor and Workforce Development are selected by the corporation, in consultation with the qualified community organization, to receive training in paratransit best practices from the qualified community organization. When selecting service providers to receive training, the corporation shall consider the cost for the paratransit provider to adopt these best practices, which may include but is not necessarily limited to the acquisition of new software, hiring of staff, and any necessary changes in vehicle fleet composition as well as potential savings that the paratransit provider will be likely to realize from reducing average trip time, vehicle accidents, and cost per passenger mile by adopting these best practices and the likelihood that those savings could self-fund the adoption of the best practices. Any paratransit providers selected to participate in the pilot program shall receive training from the qualified community organization. d. Phase three of the pilot program shall include the following: (1) If the efficiencies realized by the paratransit providers that received training in phase two are sufficient to justify widespread adoption, then the corporation, in consultation with the department and the qualified community organization, shall expand the training program by further developing the module into a best practices training package designed in a manner that allows a paratransit provider to independently adopt the best practices and software on its own, or in conjunction with assistance provided generally through the paratransit coordinating councils established in accordance with section 6 of P.L.2020, c.114 (C.27:25-40). It is intended that this phase three training module shall allow for the eventual integration of paratransit services throughout the State. Integration of paratransit services shall mean the widespread adoption of the software package developed pursuant to phase one of the pilot program, or similarly compatible software package, so that requested trips by customers may be fulfilled, if possible, by any applicable paratransit provider, and that paratransit providers shall meet the minimum operating standards established by the New Jersey Transit Corporation so that those paratransit providers may compete for regular and routine Access Link trips under the revised Access Link program as described in section 4 of P.L.2020, c.114 (C.27:25-38). If the efficiencies realized in phase two do not justify expansion of the training program further, then the corporation, in consultation with the department and the qualified community organization, shall determine an alternate method of integrating paratransit services throughout the State in a manner that allows paratransit providers that meet minimum operating standards to compete for regular and routine Access Link trips under the revised Access Link program as described in section 4 of P.L.2020, c.114 (C.27:25-38). (2) The regional paratransit coordinating councils shall be established in accordance with section 6 of P.L.2020, c.114 (C.27:25-40). e. The New Jersey Transit Corporation shall utilize the complete paratransit best practices training module, including the associated software package, when making changes to corporation paratransit service to comply with the requirements of section 4 of P.L.2020, c.114 (C.27:25-38). f. (1) The New Jersey Transit Corporation shall enter into a contract with the qualified community organization that compensates the qualified community organization for its costs in developing the paratransit best practices training module as required for phase one of the pilot program as established in subsection b. of this section, and providing the training module as a publicly available resource that can be utilized by other paratransit providers in the State and used by the corporation for its own paratransit services. If phases one and two of the pilot program are determined to be successful, the corporation shall also enter into a contract with the qualified community organization to further develop the training module into a self-administered best practices training package as required for phase three of the pilot program in subsection d. of this section. The self-administered best practices training package shall also be a publicly available resource that can be utilized by other paratransit providers in the State and by the corporation for its own paratransit services. (2) The corporation shall enter into a contract with the qualified community organization for the actual training of agencies under the pilot program, which shall include performance standards as the corporation shall deem appropriate to ensure that the agencies being trained are adequately prepared to implement safer, more efficient, user friendly, and customer-focusn ed transportation services. (3) To the extent possible, the corporation shall require paratransit providers being trained under the program to first utilize operating savings resulting from adoption of the paratransit best practices training pilot program to fund the costs of software, staff, and equipment that may be required under the program, and limiting the overall costs of the program. L.2020, c.114, s.5.