Handi-Van’s ‘unacceptable’ reservation system draws an apology

After getting a busy signal for two days from the Handi-Van’s reservation line, Mary Wilkinson called the telephone company out of frustration Wednesday and had the phone company test Handi-Van’s number to be sure it was actually working.

"This was really unacceptable," said Wilkinson, 85, of Hawaii Kai. "They are supposed to be modernizing their services."

Roger Morton, president and general manager of Oahu Transit Services, which operates the paratransit service, acknowledged Thursday that there have been problems with the reservation line the past few weeks.

"I have to apologize to our customers," he said. "We’re not giving them acceptable service now."

Morton blamed the problem on the Oct. 16 rollout of new features in the reservation system that were supposed to give customers more precise pickup and drop-off times.

The problem, he said, is that it takes longer to complete a call for reservations.

"What’s eating us up is the call lengths are longer than we thought," Morton said. "It’s been a struggle for our Handi-Van reservationists, and it’s been frustrating for our Handi-Van customers."

Before the new features were turned on, call times averaged two minutes and 15 seconds.

Officials expected call times would increase under the new system because reservationists must negotiate with callers for the best pickup time, rather than just taking down customers’ requested pickup times.

The additional time per call expected: 30 seconds. And OTS hired two extra reservationists to handle the additional workload.

But the actual additional length for calls has been averaging one minute, largely because of callers’ confusion with the new system, Morton said, leading to a backlog in calls and the vexing busy signal. He said the queue for the reservation line can hold 25 callers before the busy signal is heard.

"Once you fall behind, it becomes much more difficult to catch back up again," Morton said.

He expects call times to shorten as customers become accustomed to the new system, but it could take a month before OTS can hire another reservationist.

Morton said OTS is looking into additional ways to improve the reservation backlog, such as rewriting their call script and adding phone lines.

Mike Formby, director of the city Department of Transportation Services, which oversees Oahu Transit Services, said the new system, called the automated real-time scheduling feature, has actually has been an unused part of OTS’ system for the past 15 years. He said real-time scheduling is considered a "best practice" elsewhere.

But the obstacles in the system have been extremely frustrating for some, including Manoa Handi-Van user Milton Kubo.

He said he’s had to wait as long as 45 minutes on hold because of the new reservation system and reaches a busy signal 90 percent of the time.

"It’s ridiculous," he said, adding that he loathes the new reservation system, which forces him to accept pickup times that are much earlier than he needs.

"They’re forcing us to take times we don’t want," he said. To compound his frustration, the Handi-Van still shows up about an hour late, he said.

Morton contends the new features are an improvement. That’s because reservationists can book customers to a specific seat on a van, which means a more accurate pickup time for the customer. Under the old system, reservationists booked pickups without knowing how many other riders were booked for the same time, which inevitably led to a longer wait for customers, Morton said.

"The newer system in theory is a better system, but there is still a lot of adjusting to go to get used to it," he said.

He said the system can remember details to become more efficient and also uses advanced information for more accuracy, such as expected roadway speeds and the length of time it takes to load a person using a wheelchair into a van. Once the kinks are worked out, the system will be able to offer additional features to customers which Morton was not ready to discuss.

Morton said customers can help by directing their complaints about the new system to supervisors rather than the reservationists because that takes away from their time helping other customers.