Grant helps COAST meet demand

The Council on Aging and Human Services has received a grant from Innovia Foundation for COAST Transportation in the amount of $30,000.

Ryan Avery, transportation coordinator, was the lead grant writer for the grant to upgrade the technology used in COAST’s vehicles.

The grant will be used to purchase tablets where the drivers can more easily log mileage and location, as well as see their schedule. The tablets will be connected to a single server. The server will be upgraded to allow for realtime tracking and scheduling.

This upgrade, particularly the auto scheduling, should cut down on wait time for those being picked up and increase efficiency overall.

“COAST has more ride requests than ever before. This is the only way to keep up; having increased efficiency.” Avery said,

Right now COAST handles requests for approximately 100 rides a day, but struggles with the workload, taking hours to schedule and organize all the rides.

Overall, the upgrades would allow for more rides to more people, Avery said.

Larger organizations are already using programs similar to what COAST will be getting.

“It’s something we’ve needed for a very long time,” Avery commented.