How to Develop an Individualized Transportation Plan

Transportation needs of customers can be complicated or fairly straight forward. One thing is for sure: mobility issues impact all customers across the entire range of services they are attempting to access.

The value of an individualized transportation plan (ITP) is that it examines in detail any potential transportation barriers a customer may have and customizes a solution for that person. This means it is customer-centered and goes beyond simply handing the customer a bus schedule or referring them to a website.

Building an ITP is an 8-Step Process.

Determine customer awareness of nearby transportation options.

Assess customer’s travel needs.

Identify special considerations for customer’s mobility.

Identify potential transportation services for customer.

Determine financial/in-kind resources to support customer’s transportation needs.

Work together with the customer to create an ITP.

Determine additional types of support customer needs (e.g., travel training, a budgeting class, emergency problem solving)

Follow up with customer after plan implementation.

Tips

• The ITP should be viewed as a plan you develop with the customer, not for the customer. It includes a component in which the customers’ actively assess the services available to them; depending on the customer’s abilities, this can be done independently or under the guidance of a services professional working with them. Either way, this is the first step in ensuring that the customer has ownership of and is actively involved in developing the ITP.
• Through the process of developing the ITP, comprehensive questions about a customer’s transportation needs are asked and answered.
• Any plan of action is only as good as its implementation. Through the ITP development process, you are encouraged to determine what type of support the customer will need in putting the plan into action and then follow up with the customer to determine how the implementation is progressing.
• The ITP also serves as a tool for documenting your efforts in helping the customer secure transportation.
• Some of your customers will already have individual plans that they have developed through other support services, such as individualized education plans or individualized service plans. The ITP can be used as a stand-alone plan or can be integrated into these other individualized plans.