Huron Shores Area Transit (HSAT) has launched a special Agency Day Pass Smart Card for use by social, health and wellness agencies that assist their clients with the cost of travel to and from appointments.
The Agency Day Pass is sold to agencies and provides unlimited same-day travel for the client on HSAT’s bus service. Typically this provides the agency a 50% discount on the regular fare. The special pass is expected to help a broad range of residents, including low-income individuals, those with physical or mental illness, employment seekers, those attending special education programs and other such services with the cost of travel and improve access to appointments.
Although set up for a single day’s use, the Agency Day Pass is a Smart Card with the same reload and reuse potential that HSAT’s set dollar value or unlimited travel Monthly Pass Smart Cards offer. For some clients, this may be their first introduction to HSAT’s public transit service and a channel for HSAT to expand awareness and use of its services.
To date, the Canadian Mental Health Association and Bluewater Health are two agencies that have invested in the Agency Day Pass for their clients. “There’s lots of other agencies out there that have not yet heard we offer an unlimited travel day pass,” says Transit Coordinator Susan Mills. “We’re working to get the word out as quickly and widely as we can and to offer features to the agencies that help them help their clients.”
Later this year, the manufacturer of the Smart Card and its associated web-based utilities will be adding additional features to enable agencies improved web-based expense tracking and reloading of dollar value to clients’ cards.
