Independence through Mobility

Ride Right
Written by Jessica Ferlaino

Ride Right has asserted itself as a driving force in the U.S. transportation sector. Fueled by a compassionate focus on delivering service with dignity, understanding, and respect, the company has improved access and quality of life for transit-dependent Americans nationwide with one goal in mind: helping them arrive at their destinations on time, safely, and with world-class service.
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For Ride Right, “every trip is important,” and this philosophy has certainly played a role in the company’s success. Since its inception in 2009, the company has grown substantially and now operates from multiple offices in twelve states, with the ability to serve remote locations.

Born from a need for a dependable community transportation partner, Ride Right has set the standard for transit . As Ride Right grows, it provides its clients and their passengers with a larger suite of transportation services, inclusive of non-emergency medical transportation; paratransit, a type of transportation for individuals with disabilities and the elderly; fixed route transit; special needs transportation; and mobility management services. Each year, Ride Right facilitates more than one million trips for passengers who are elderly, disabled, and transportation disadvantaged, as well as the general public.

“I found that there was a gap in the industry for how transportation services were offered for individuals that are disabled and elderly, those who need the additional assistance,” said President and CEO Alaina Maciá. “We take for granted mobility, people who don’t have mobility issues. You need a company that knows how to handle the passenger, both physically and behaviorally, and provide them reassurance – let them know that they are going to be safe. Elderly individuals not only have mobility issues, they also have trust issues. We’ve been very focused on providing quality transportation service that is focused on the individual passenger.”

The company has achieved this and has the goal of being, as Maciá says, “the best customer service organization in the industry.”

Ride Right is also a certified woman-owned business enterprise in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, New Jersey, and Tennessee, which has led to growth opportunities.

“We lend a different experience,” said Maciá. “We have a lot of women on our team, and I do believe that men and women approach business differently, and combined, it really provides a diverse experience. We’ve been able to leverage having a diverse workforce to promote different things that are important to the company. Like, for instance, we are very focused on customer service, training, and community outreach as a result.”

Leading its approach to customer service is an exceptional fleet and staff. It employs drivers who are highly trained to accommodate many passenger needs. Whether passengers need transportation to places of education or employment, to get to appointments, or to run daily errands such as grocery shopping, the company takes individuals where they need to go, while helping improve the ease, quality, and independence of their lives.

“We also provide healthcare transportation for health insurance companies, taking individuals to any of their medical needs: dialysis, cancer, adult day healthcare needs. We also work with our clients to provide some other components of their services. We help them with their eligibility determinations,” Maciá added. Additionally, the company offers customer service and dispatch solutions for transit agencies.

Ride Right’s services are all customizable to meet the unique needs of every client and passenger. By concentrating foremost on the passenger experience, it delivers safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation services. This focus, combined with strong relationships with the communities and agencies it serves, allow Ride Right to work closely with clients to achieve program goals from implementation to contract management.

“Working with our affiliate company MTM, which provides nationwide transportation for health insurance organizations and state agencies, through that partnership we can leverage some very sophisticated technology,” Maciá said. “We really see ourselves more as a management company for our clients, not just a transportation vendor.”

Ride Right looks for expansion opportunities that will complement its current services. “We really say to ourselves, ‘What do our clients need? What are they struggling with? What are their pain points?’ And if we believe that a service extends naturally from our business model, then we pursue it.”

Ride Right is supported by a corporate and regional management team that makes frequent visits to its various sites to provide the necessary training, resources, and support. “There really isn’t a market in the U.S. that we’re not able to work in or serve,” Maciá proudly stated. “Within the U.S. borders, we have done a very manageable and methodological growth trajectory so that we can ensure that we fulfill our commitment and our mission.”

“While we have grown quickly, and we have grown rationally, we will continue that model, but as we grow, we start managing larger contracts which then allow us to bid on even larger contracts,” Maciá noted.

The company’s philosophy of treating passengers with empathy, dignity, and respect originates with the corporate leadership team and permeates Ride Right at every level of its operations. Despite its swift growth, the company has not compromised on delivering quality service.

“We have an understanding of how to support that type of rapid growth. It is a challenge, and it also gives you increased depth as a company if you add additional management resources for your company – if you add additional management resources to your company, it actually can also help to facilitate that growth as well,” said Maciá.

With over five hundred employees, Ride Right relies on training to reinforce its reputation as a trusted service provider. Driver training emphasizes passenger interactions, confidentiality, and service.

The company also has a safety-first culture that includes regular fleet and vehicle maintenance, routine pre-trip inspections, safety audits and inspections, as well as driver safety and training on such topics as accident prevention. It boasts one of the lowest accident frequencies rates in the nation and continually tracks performance levels to identify areas of improvement.

“We are a family- and privately-held company based here in the U.S., and we are focused on inclusion of our employees in our business model, and that does attract people who want a higher-level purpose, not just a paycheck,” explained Maciá. “Our drivers are our front-line team. They represent our company. That’s who people recognize as who the company is, so we have a very employee-engagement focused model with a lot of rewards and incentives for things like safe driving, customer service, drivers of the month, and drivers of the year.” Ride Right offers various incentives such as its Drive Rewards program.

“You can always get paid more in a different job, and although our pay is competitive, we like to attract those people that are looking for more of a culture and the mission, because that’s what translates every day throughout the organization – that the organization cares. They care about me; they care about the passenger, and that makes me want to be the best employee possible.”

The work culture behind the top-notch passenger experience leads to Ride Right always receiving positive feedback from its passengers, and this is a major source of pride for the company and its employees.

“They, on a daily basis, help Ride Right achieve its mission of servicing passengers and creating community access. They can tie what they do every day to that overall mission,” said Macia. “We have just amazing drivers, and then supporting them, we have great training and general managers who are very focused on recruiting those individuals with a great employee engagement mindset.”

“It all starts with people, having a good mission and a good vision, giving them the tools and resources they need to be successful. That really is followed by good processes and lastly, enabling technologies. We are definitely a company that is led by people and efficient processes, and there is lots of amazing tech out there.” As just one example, Ride Right’s fuel-efficient fleet decreases its carbon footprint while offering fuel- and cost-effective transportation.

Ride Right endeavors to be the best transportation service provider in the U.S. Looking to the future, Ride Right will continue to expand its presence into new markets and identify communities that need reliable, safe, trustworthy transportation services. It also plans to expand its successful fixed route offerings. The largest fixed route contract held by Ride Right is in Tracy, California and truly showcases its abilities.

“It’s been very successful, so we look forward to adding more fixed route contracts,” said Macia. “We’ve been bidding on work in Canada, and we feel that’s a natural market extension for us.” The Ride Right regional business model will help more individuals and communities gain independence through mobility as it focuses on its core vision of ‘every trip is important.’

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