UCHRA’s transportation department feeling the pressures of today’s vehicle and part shortages.
Executive Director Mark Farley said the current fleet has several maintenance issues. Farley said the fear is that the agency’s routes may be impacted.
“We are running into situations where particular parts of the vehicle we can’t get repaired,” Farley said. “We do have some vehicles that we can scavenge off of to keep another one running, but at this time, that’s going to end at some point.”
Farley said the agency is usually on a rotation of new vehicles. Farley said dealers are indicating new vehicles would not be available until July 2023.
“It could potentially affect our ability to provide rides to a degree,” Farley said. “We just want to be cautious of that and realize that is out there. We can’t put passengers in a van that we feel like aren’t safe. We run those up pretty high mileage, so we’re going to have to run those up even higher than we do.”
Transportation Director Holly Williams said she has had orders still not delivered from 2019. Williams said she is working with T-DOT to possibly start a refurbished vehicle plan.
“Our team is working very hard,” Williams said. “We’ve reached out to our partners across the state to see if that is something that can be a potential plan. It’s all new territory for everyone.”
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