Good News Garage Driver

Good News Garage launched in Burlington, Vermont in 1996 as one of the nation’s first car donation nonprofits providing affordable and reliable transportation options for people in need. Now expanded to Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, Good News Garage has provided over 5,000 New England families with reliable vehicles.

The Ready To Go program at Good News Garage provides van transportation to individuals and families, enabling them to access essential life activities, including work, job training and childcare.

Good News Garage is a member of Ascentria Care Alliance, one of the largest human services organizations in New England. With locations throughout the region, Ascentria is creating measurable, positive impact in communities by empowering people to reach beyond life’s challenges and thrive. For more information, visit ascentria.org.

Ascentria Care Alliance employees and volunteers take pride in the impact they have on the people they serve. It’s more than just a job, it’s an opportunity our employees have to care for and share in the lives of people who greatly need and appreciate their presence. Ascentria Care Alliance focuses on every child, elder, disabled person, refugee, endangered teen or teenage mom in order to build stronger communities one person at a time. This is an excellent opportunity to enhance the operations of a $75m non-profit social services organization with programs throughout New England.

Summary:

Ready To Go drivers transport vulnerable populations safely, courteously and efficiently throughout the state of Vermont. Clients include adults and unaccompanied minors. Drivers are responsible for physically escorting child clients as needed, using scheduling and tracking related technology, maintaining clean program vehicles, and coordinating needed maintenance and repairs. The Driver reports directly to the Program Manager.

Essential Responsibilities:

• Transport Ready To Go participants in a safe, courteous, and timely manner
• Execute schedule with changes and updates as the dispatcher directs
• Be responsive to dispatch and communicate schedule changes as related to client needs accordingly
• Assist child riders entering/exiting the vehicle and escort from vehicle to destination as needed
• Understand and use child safety seats appropriately
• Maintain a clean vehicle and coordinate maintenance and repairs
• Use good judgment in driving situations especially with regard to weather
• Use smart phone to record accurate ride data, communicate with dispatch, etc.
• Rider behavior management as needed
• Perform other duties as assigned

Qualifications required:

• Ability to work within the Mission of the Agency
• Excellent driver with clean driving record and current VT license
• Personable, clear communicator
• Independent decision-making required to trouble shoot problems that come up on the road, to cope with changes in schedule due to the weather or the needs of the Ready To Go participants
• Willingness to work closely with general public, staff and vendors as a courteous Ascentria Care Alliance representative
• Must be able to demonstrate safe and proper use of child safety seats upon completion of training program prior to driving
• Maintain confidentiality of program recipients
• Ability to work as part of a team
• Accurate and thorough; good follow-through on all tasks
• Must be able to read, understand and effectively use smartphones and GPS to locate clients and destinations
• Must have good vision for driving
• Must be available 6:00 am to 6:00 pm. On average, not driving more than 8 hours in that time period

Trainings Required:

• Car seat safety training
• State of Vermont, Mandated reporter training
• Ascentria on line training (OSHA, HIPPA, etc)

Physical/Mental Demands:

Sedentary - While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit. The employee must occasionally walk into destination locations and lift and/or move up to 40 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include Close vision, Distance vision, Peripheral vision, Depth perception and Ability to adjust focus. The employee is frequently required to use hands, handle, or feel and reach with hands and arms.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to problem solve, make decisions, interpret data and organize.

• Ability to do detailed work with high degree of concentration
• Ability to work under stress or in a fast-paced environment