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Orange County Transportation Services ADA Paratransit Plan <br /> <br />Orange County Planning Department Page 20 <br /> <br /> If a No Show occurs, the return trip is not automatically cancelled. Staff attempt to contact the <br />customer to verify the need for the return trip. However, only the customer can cancel the return <br />trip. <br /> If a passenger is not ready at the scheduled pick-up time or refuses a trip, the driver will continue <br />with his/her regular schedule and the trip is considered a No Show. <br /> Drivers notify the Dispatch office to log the trip as a No Show in the Passenger Individual Ridership <br />Percentage record. <br /> The driver marks the appointment on the Driver Manifest as a No Show. <br /> Designated staff conducts a monthly evaluation of the Passenger Individual Ridership Percentage <br />record to determine ridership/cancellation percentage. A letter of warning is sent to customers <br />that had three or more No Shows and whose ridership percentage falls below 90 percent. <br /> <br />Letters are sent out at the beginning of each calendar month. For visually impaired customers, a phone <br />call can be made in addition to the letter. <br />8. Missing Trip Pattern Policy <br />OCTS reserves the right to suspend service to an individual who, for reasons within his or her control, <br />has a “pattern or practice” of missing scheduled trips. A monthly review of ridership are conducted to <br />evaluate every passenger’s ridership percentage or ratio of rides a passenger keeps compared to number <br />of rides a passenger cancels late or fails to show for the scheduled trip. This provision does not apply to <br />trips that are missed for reasons that are beyond the passenger’s control, including trips that are missed <br />due to a family emergency, sudden turn for the worse in a variable medical condition, or County error. <br />OCTS also reserves the right to suspend service to an individual who engages in violent, seriously <br />disruptive, or illegal conduct on a paratransit vehicle or toward a paratransit driver. Before suspending <br />service, OCTS takes the following steps: <br /> <br />OCTS monitors the ridership percentage of every paratransit patron monthly. A notice of warning are <br />mailed to patrons when they had three or more No Shows and whose ridership percentage has fallen <br />below 90 percent for reasons within the individual’s control. The notice: (a) advises patrons that <br />ridership needs to improve to at least 90 percent during the next evaluation period; (b) invites patrons <br />to adjust their schedule if needed; and (c) notifies patrons that service may be suspended at a future <br />date if the ridership percentage continues to fall below the acceptable threshold. <br /> <br />If ridership remains below the 90 percent threshold for a second consecutive month or if a notice of <br />warning is issued three or more times in the 12-month period following the initial letter of warning, and <br />the reasons for missed trips are within the patron’s control, OCTS issues a written notice of suspension <br />of service. <br /> <br />The first suspension of service are for a period of 14 calendar days. The second suspension of service are <br />for a period of 30 calendar days. Each subsequent suspension will add 30 calendar days to the previously <br />issued suspension. <br />In the notice of suspension, OCTS describes an appeal process, which gives the individual the opportunity <br />to be heard and to present information and arguments to an individual that was not involved with the <br />initial decision to suspend service to the individual. The appeal process is described below. <br />30