Small Operators Celebrate Frontline Heroes Through Transit Professional of the Year Award
By Stephanie Jordan
Managing Editor
Transit California
During each California Transit Association Fall Conference & Expo, the Small Operators gather together for a special program and awards presentation. As reported earlier in Education and Insight from the November edition of Transit California, the Small Operators Committee made an unprecedented choice, which felt just right in an unprecedented year like 2020. The Small Operators Transit Professional of the Year Award was given to frontline public transit colleagues throughout the state, including operators, maintenance staff, customer service representatives, dispatchers, supervisors, utility workers, and other frontline employees.
At the virtual presentation ceremony, Rachel Ede, Deputy Director, City of Santa Rosa Transportation and Public Works (Santa Rosa CityBus) and California Transit Association Small Operators Committee Chair, said, “If we were all together, we’d be giving California’s frontline transit workers a standing ovation for their incredible commitment and many contributions to our agencies and communities this year. Since we can’t do that, we’d like to encourage everyone here today to find ways to celebrate this award back at your own agencies.”
That day and in the days and weeks following the presentation, many small operators created ways to celebrate their frontline workers. Here are a few examples of how small operator agencies acknowledged this group of individuals for keeping systems operational and maintaining transit service to California communities throughout the pandemic.
Victor Valley Transit Authority
To celebrate the Transit Professional of the Year award, managers at Victor Valley Transit Authority (VVTA) and contract partner Keolis North America combined efforts to make the day extra special for all staff and operators at their Hesperia and Barstow locations.
In a tremendous coordinated effort, just as the award was officially announced at the Small Operators Program and Awards event by Ede, simultaneously, the VVTA lounge room screens, social media channels, and on-board bus messaging all announced the distinction in unison.
To tie-in the award, all agency operators and staff were presented with custom commemorative certificates and gift cards to Stater Bros. Markets, a supermarket chain located throughout Southern California.
Yuba-Sutter Transit Authority
Yuba-Sutter Transit Authority (Yuba-Sutter Transit) took the statewide award as an opportunity to especially recognize and thank local frontline transit work Transit ers from its contractor Storer Transit Systems Yuba-Sutter Division.
“I am too often guilty of focusing on the task at hand, especially in an emergency, to the neglect of those who make accomplishing that task possible,” admits Keith Martin, Transit Manager, Yuba-Sutter Transit. “For that reason, it was critically important to me that we individually and as an industry publicly express our appreciation to our frontline staff (direct and contract) for their commitment to our passengers and the communities that we serve during this pandemic.”