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Coborrus County Transportation Services Finol Report — September 2015 CCTS uses Route Match software for scheduling and dispatching. The software has greatly increased the efficiency of scheduling trips from the time when CCTS scheduled trips on paper. The dispatcher can still manually assign trips to vehicles in the software, but the software can recommend modifications in the schedule to improve efficiency or the software can automatically assign trips. The use of Route Match has improved performance in other ways as well. The call center can use the software to quickly identify whether the requested trip would originate in an urban or rural area, which determines eligibility for certain funding sources. Also, the dispatcher can see the exact location of each vehicle, which can be useful to estimate the time of arrival at the next destination or to determine which vehicle is closest to pick up a return trip. During a site visit, it was noted that there is great communication between the reservationists, dispatchers, and drivers. Cabarrus County uses the Microsoft Lync messaging software, which allows the call center to send instant messages to the dispatcher when someone cancels a trip or calls to say they are ready to be picked up from a medical appointment. Dispatchers mainly communicate with the drivers through radios, but they can also send messages to their MDTs or tablets. According to CCTS policy, a no -show will be recorded if a ride is cancelled less than two hours before the scheduled pick up time or if the rider is not ready within five minutes after transportation arrives. Three no -shows within a 90 -day period are considered excessive and will result in a 30 -day suspension from service for the offending rider. A same day cancellation is recorded when a cancellation is made on the day of a scheduled pickup or after 1 pm on the day prior to the pickup. Three same day cancellations are equivalent to a no -show. CCTS noted that no -shows have been a problem in the past, but due to strict enforcement of the no -show policy, no -shows have substantially decreased in the past year. 4.4 STAFFING CCTS is governed by the Cabarrus County Board of County Commissioners (BCC). The BCC is responsible for the financing, staffing, and overall policy direction of COTS. Day -to- day operations are delegated to the Transportation Manager and CCTS staff. CCTS also has a Board of Directors that serves as the Transportation Advisory Board (TAB). NCDOT requires sub recipients to have a TAB to serve as an advisory board on matters related to community transportation. The Board of Directors /TAB has quarterly meetings with no set schedule. Meetings are generally scheduled around grant timing or policy changes. The Board of Directors is appointed by the Cabarrus County Board of County Commissioners. Board members are appointed for two or three -year terms. According to COTS, most members have served multiple terms, and there are open Board seats. The current Board is 50 percent female and does not include any African- American members or Attachment number 1 \n F -3 Page 110