Frontenac Transportation Service - Two Years And Thousands Of Rides

Linda Rush | Jun 05, 2013

May 1st of this year marked the second anniversary of the creation of Frontenac Transportation Service.

Transportation programs have arisen to address some of the huge challenges for people who live in rural areas and cannot drive or do not have easy access to a car. This can easily happen as people get older or develop illnesses or disabilities, and find that they can no longer drive as comfortably as they used to. It can also be pretty hard to keep a car on the road when the economy is bad, and families often need two cars to get the whole family where it needs to go. These are just a few of the reasons that people might make use of Frontenac Transportation Service (FTS).

FTS was the amalgamation in 2011 of a number of transportation services offered by Northern and Southern Frontenac Community Services, including the Rural Routes Transportation Service in Central and North Frontenac. With support from the County of Frontenac, the new service was developed to serve the whole county north of the 401.

FTS operates principally on a volunteer driver model. Requests are made for transportation and volunteers are found to fill the requests. The drivers volunteer their time, but are paid a mileage rate to cover the costs of the drives. Currently there are about 60 volunteer drivers distributed throughout the entire service area. Some drive occasionally, and others are on the road almost every day. Currently the service arranges around 600 drives a month and the number of requests is steadily growing.

The service can be used by any resident of South, Central or North Frontenac Townships.

The cost to use the service is .50 cents per km. For those who would find that cost too high, there are a number of ways to help to cover these user costs through programs at Northern and Southern Frontenac Community Services.

As requests for the service continue to grow, FTS is always interested in recruiting new drivers. It also welcomes any requests for rides. For information or to arrange a ride, call 613- 279-2044, or 1-877-279-2044.