Call-n-Ride Essential Delivery Service

About the Program

Category: Transportation (Best in Category)

Year: 2022

Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) Call-n-Ride (CNR) Program provides subsidy assistance to help transport low-income seniors (65 years and older), and individuals with disabilities (aged 18-64), to medical and/or personal appointments. To mitigate the immense and compounded difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and help the destitute and highly vulnerable segment of our society stay safe while meeting their basic needs; Call-n-Ride introduced an Essential Delivery Service initiative/program on April 24, 2020. The program used the County’s taxicab companies to assist program participants with pick-up and delivery of their food orders from grocery stores, food banks, or restaurants in Montgomery County to their residence. Clients would order and pay for groceries or meals online or by phone and/or confirm pick-up of food packages from the foodbanks, then contact a taxicab company’s dispatch office to arrange for pick-up and delivery by a taxi driver. Because we were at the height of the initial wave of the pandemic, and most clients were part of the population at risk of complications if they contact COVID, all deliveries were contactless, items left at clients’ doorstep, and delivery confirmation phone calls were made to the client by the driver or the taxicab dispatch office. The cost would be paid by the program participants County’s subsidized program account. The delivery cost is subsidized between 50 – 91% depending on the income of the resident.