Drivers and some users want an end to reliance on for-profit contractors.
HandyDart riders and drivers say they’re “extremely frustrated” with TransLink’s decision to extend its contract with a private company,Transdev Canada.
Transdev has been managing HandyDart since October 2022. Its contract was set to expire at the end of June 2026 but has been extended to give TransLink more time “for deeper analysis and engagement,” said a company spokesperson.
HandyDart is for people who can’t take conventional public transit without assistance due to physical, sensory or cognitive disabilities. Drivers offer door-to-door service and are trained to work with people with a range of disabilities and mobility aids. Passengers can book a ride up to a week in advance and pay the same fare as users of regular public transit. They will often ride the bus with several other passengers.
HandyDart riders have beencriticizing Transdev’s managementfor years, and some have organized as the HandyDart Riders’ Alliance. Members of Amalgamated Transit Union, or ATU, Local 1724 have also joined the riders’ alliance to lobby for change.
Formore than a decade, the groups have asked TransLink to stop contracting out to private companies and bring the service fully in-house.
In response, TransLink launched a HandyDart delivery model review in June 2024 to determine whether the transit authority should keep contracting management out, bring the service in-house or adopt a hybrid model.
The TransLink board was scheduled to make a decision on June 25.
But instead the board has kicked the issue down the road by extending Transdev’s contract by 18 months past June 2026, said Sarah Maceda-Maciel, an organizer with ATU International.
Extending the contract will let TransLink continue “to engage with HandyDart users, caregivers, staff and community partners,” a company spokesperson told The Tyee.
TheJune 25 board meeting agendasays TransLink has already done workshops, focus groups and two surveys in which they spoke with around 600 HandyDart customers.
Maceda-Maciel said ATU Local 1724’s 600 members are “extremely frustrated” with TransLink and the provincial government.
“TransLink has been rocked by multiple strikes related to this company,” she said, because Transdev is “notorious for poor labour relations.”
The most recent strike took place in September 2024 and lasted for 20 days. The strike was over negotiations for a new contract between Transdev and ATU Local 1724 members.
Maceda-Maciel said TransLink has already had a year to do this service review and shouldn’t need an additional 30 months. She also wants the company to be more transparent about why it needs to extend the review.
Maceda-Maciel is also frustrated with the BC NDP for backtracking on its 2024 election promise to “bring B.C.’s HandyDart service into government.”
That changed once the party formed government: Transportation and Transit Minister Mike Farnworth’smandate letterdirects him to make sure HandyDart is “cost-effective,” “responsive to the concerns of transit riders” and not duplicating existing services.
Maceda-Maciel said the best way to do that would be to bring the service in-house, rather than contracting the service out to a for-profit company.
The Tyee asked the premier’s office and the Ministry of Transportation and Transit why the NDP campaigned on bringing HandyDart in-house and then changed course once elected. Neither office answered the question directly, but the Transportation Ministry said it was committed to getting people where they’re going “conveniently and efficiently.”
Despite the delay, ATU Local 1724 president Joe McCann said he thinks the union is the “closest we’ve been” to getting the service brought in-house. He said the union will continue lobbying the government and advocating for this change.
Leo Yu, a HandyDart driver and shop steward, said staff are burnt out and dealing with high levels of anxiety because of Transdev.
“They’re striking a lot of fear into drivers through layoffs and disciplinary actions,” he said. “We have to do our jobs safely, but there’s so much strain on the system, so little slack in our schedules, and operations are so unpredictable. The combo has made it extremely difficult to work. Everyone I speak to are afraid of making mistakes or being disciplined.”
This is leading to high rates of injury and staff turnover, Yu said.
Yu said a for-profit company will always seek to maximize profits over prioritizing customers. Transdev accepts all ride requests and then scrambles to find ways to accommodate those requests, he said.
“The company puts a lot of pressure on dispatchers and drivers to pick up clients in a set window,” he said. “The trade-off is riders can be stuck on a bus for two hours and travel through three municipalities” even if they requested to be taken a short distance.
Being stuck on a bus for hours has become a big source of anxiety for passengers, he added.
When The Tyee contacted Transdev Canada for comment, a company spokesperson pointed to its overall high customer satisfaction score and said it investigates all formal customer complaints.
TransLink said its metrics show HandyDart is one of its highest-rated services. Customers rated it 8.8 out of 10, with 99.6 per cent of requested trips delivered and 91 per cent of all trips arriving on time.
Yu said he’s heard these delays should be expected because HandyDart is a ride-share service. So is carpooling, he said, but you wouldn’t want to carpool with someone who picked you up and then drove in the opposite direction of where you’re going for an hour, he said.
Beth McKellar is co-founder of the HandyDart Riders’ Alliance and has used HandyDart to get around for 25 years. She’s also frustrated by the board’s decision.
“They’re spending all this money on highly paid consultants when they could be having all this free consultation with their drivers and clients. But they don’t listen to us,” she said. “It’s so discouraging and upsetting.”
McKellar is also frustrated with Transdev’s reliance on taxi drivers to fill in service gaps.
HandyDart drivers are trained to offer door-to-door service, while taxi drivers expect you to load your own walker in the trunk, she said. “If I could do that I wouldn’t need HandyDart,” she added.
Taxis accounted for24 per cent of total HandyDart rides in 2023and 23 per cent in 2024.
This is lower than in other major North American cities, TransLink said. Non-dedicated fleet vehicles, like taxis, make up around 28 per cent of Wheel-Trans trips in Toronto, 55 per cent of the trips in Calgary and 62 per cent of all Access-A-Ride trips in New York.