Business View Magazine | August 2020

139 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE AUGUST 2020 specialized, or accessible, transit services which operate in its two largest communities, Chatham and Wallaceburg. According to Ann-Marie Millson, CKTransit’s Manager, the entire system is “100 percent outsourced. We have three service providers, one for our Chatham conventional service; one for our inter-urban service provider who also provides our accessible service in Wallaceburg; and our 3rd provider is for our accessible service in the City of Chatham,” she reports. In addition, all the drivers, maintenance crews, and storage facilities for the system’s 17 vehicles are outsourced, as well. “Our transit is completely operated by two staff members who only dedicate fractional time. Ann-Marie, who is the Manager of Linear Assets, oversees the contractor agreements and funding applications. She also has an engineering technologist who handles a lot of our project implementation,” explains Ian Clark, Chatham-Kent’s Transit Project Manager. “So, it’s a very small staff complement We value the role public transportation plays in contributing to a vibrant community. Voyago helps many Ontario communities sustain a viable local transit service, as specialists in Para-Transit and First Mile solutions to get your community anywhere you want to go. www.voyago.ca | 1-800-263-7163 x265 for Jason Keillor CKTRANS I T and the rest is outsourced to various providers. It’s common for mid- to smaller-transit systems, where the bus operators and mechanics belong to third parties.” Millson reveals that, due to some recent upper government funding, CKTransit will be purchasing and owning its transit vehicles in the near future, while still intending to outsource its operations. “In our current fleet, right now, our conventional vehicles are 8 meters in size,” says Clark, “so, we don’t have the option to upgrade to electrical because the only electrical models in Canada are the full-size 12 meters. We’ve looked at, potentially, a long-term plan for electrifying our fleet, but given the size of our transit operation and the even larger size of our geographic territory, we have to figure out an infrastructure strategy, which would include having recharging stations strategically placed around the municipality. It’s part of our long- term plan, but for right now, we’re operating a mixture of gasoline, diesel, as well as CNG-