SAM services provided 10,431 rides in total, an overall increase of 13.7% compared to November 2018. SAM Gresham provided 7,584 of those rides as compared to 6,778 in 2018 (11.9% increase).

SAM Estacada experienced a 61.8% increase, from 526 rides in October 2018 to 851 rides this November. The Shopper Shuttle experienced an increase of 49% with 924 rides. STAR experienced a 16% decrease. ED had an increase of 17.9%.

In November, Sandy Transit released an Invitation To Bid on the construction of the 2 new Sandy Bus Barns. The bids were due by December 4, 2019. Also in November, Sandy Transit released an RFQ for a new trolley style vehicle for the Estacada route. Those bids are also due in December.

Two new vehicles for the STAR service arrived in November. Those vehicles, once registered and wrapped, will be put into service. Sandy Transit has updated the logo for the STAR route, changing the name to “SAM Rides”. This will allow the SAM logo to be used, representing to the public that the dial-a-ride service is operated by the City and is part of the Transit Department. Additionally, this name change reflects that the service is available to everyone and is a dial-a-ride service. As part of the logo and name update, Sandy Transit has also added “supported by local business” to the back of the vehicles to reflect the support of the transit tax for the services provided.

Also in November, Sandy Transit and RoJoy Services, LLC mutually agreed to terminate the Sandy Operations contract. This was not an easy decision for Sandy Transit or RoJoy Services. RoJoy, a small, local business has had difficulty recruiting qualified personnel and remaining competitive. Sandy and RoJoy had been working together to find solutions but were not successful. As of December 16, he City will hire Sandy and Mount Hood Express drivers as temporary City of Sandy employees and seek a permanent solution. Sandy Transit is grateful to the owner and operator of RoJoy Services, Joyce LeDoux, for all of her work on behalf of Sandy Transit. Joyce has been the Operations Manager for Sandy Transit since 2003. Joyce has decided to retire but remains willing to work with Sandy Transit as needed during the recent transition.