Business View Magazine - Dec 2023

as well as more secure for all of the drivers and support staff. However, these operational expansions, while much needed, actually fit within a larger plan to expand transit services. “Bus Rapid Transit or BRT is a service that provides frequent service down corridors.” “Think of it as a little light rail on rubber wheels, where the line often has a dedicated lane.” This new service will come with a unique brand of platform bus stops, will have traffic signal priority, and is intended to replicate the practicality of light rail stations without needing as much modification to the already existing road structures. ESSENTIAL PARTNERSHIPS OF STANRTA With all of these changes and expansions already underway and scheduled for the future, some things simply have to remain constant in order for everything to work smoothly. In this case, it’s the two third parties that act as the logistical backbone of StanRTA. On the operational side of things, there is Transdev, which provides the agency with innovative ways to run its operation and reduced costs. This company essentially manages the majority of the transit authority. “All of our drivers and support staff are actually employed through them,” Barth says, explaining that this is a common occurrence, as many transit systems in the US also contract for transit services from third party operators. Since the availability of bus drivers is always in a state of flux,with drivers coming and going,Transdev is the entity that ensures that all incoming drivers receive adequate training and testing within the appropriate time frame, which is usually one to two months. Due to this, as the overseers, the Transdev operators are usually looking ahead and forecasting how many drivers they’ll need within that same one to two-month time frame. 323 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 12 STANISLAUS REGIONAL TRANSI T AUTHORI T Y