STONIER-NEWMAN – My Labour Day salute to our handyDART drivers

IN THIS DAY and age, how do we celebrate Labour Day and recognize those who ‘labour’ on our personal and the economy’s behalf?

Originally, on Labour Day in former decades, benevolent societies and unions organized parades and picnics to recognize how important labourers are. Bands played, people gathered and held ball games, raced in potato sacks or sculled across waterways, then danced the night away.

In recent years, do we even recognize each other as workers who provide us with benefits? Perhaps Labour Day is an ideal day to say thanks to the workers who add to our lives.

Canadians have marked the Labour Day statuary holiday on September’s first Monday for 181 years. Its origins started when Canadian legislators recognized that working people, as voters, were interested in issues that impacted their lives. Those long-ago Members of Parliament decided workers would benefit from public recognition of their diligence around the struggles of working and of why the demand for fairness was increasing annually. By legislating Labour Day, our government declared workers are to be celebrated.

When I considered which workers I appreciate and want to thank, I recognized it’s currently the handyDART drivers’ work. As I start my third year of being a handyDART passenger, I’ve discovered how much those mature, good-natured drivers add to my days. As I’m helped aboard with my walker and braces aiding my mobility, the driver calls me by name and gives me respect. And in doing so, he or she creates a sense of community within the bus as many of us are repeat passengers.

In this digital era when I receive and benefit from unknown individuals’ impersonal labour, often provided via a machine or technical device, I’m usually a number. So for me, services given and received on a one-to-one basis are even more appreciated and why I’m grateful for the handyDART drivers’ perceptive services. They provide each of us with consistent capable assistance, day after day, expertly and patiently fasten us and our wheels, including big complicated motorized wheelchairs in. Or a driver’s helping hand adds a little stability to those using a cane – and as he or she assists each passenger with consideration, the passengers become a unique little community during each trip.

Sometimes, we exchange greetings, smiles and tidbits about our days – where someone’s going for an appointment or to shop, play cards, bowl or visit someone in hospital or in another part of town. As I settle into my seat, I relax, knowing that despite the current frustrating traffic situations on Kamloops’ streets, bridges and highways, the professional driver behind the wheel is going to get me to my destination.

And having a handyDART driver take me to that destination provides me with a personal freedom to travel at low cost and to feel safe while doing so. I don’t have to worry about managing driving, struggling with the walker, especially in the winters, or finding suitable parking within my limited ability to walk.

Who are these drivers on the City of Kamloops and BC Transit handyDART’s 15 fixed runs plus their special services? They are qualified drivers, mature individuals who like their work and are adept at giving service. While some have always been in transportation either as bus drivers or long-haul truckers, delivery or transportation drivers, a surprising number have had careers in other fields: small business owners of a wide variety of enterprises, former managers and accountants in big and small companies, care-aids, nurses and even a former naval pilot of fighter jets.

As a group, they provide transportation for we who have special needs and want to travel within the Kamloops area. On the fixed-route scheduled runs and special runs for the buses, passenger pick-ups and drop- offs are organized by dispatchers who also awe me – it seems rather like each dispatcher is able to constantly rearrange a jigsaw puzzle to hear dispatcher on the radios, coping with passengers’ changed bookings and the consequences of challenging traffic situations.

Yet within the pick-up times I’ve prearranged, that team of dispatchers have a driver in a handyDART bus regularly showing up at my address. On weekdays, there are at least 15 green and white BC Transit’s handyDART buses on the roads daily on their scheduled runs plus the special buses who provide extra services. And handyDART service is about to expand, adding more services which, in September, will be available on Sundays. Their service area is extensive and includes some destinations like Monte Creek. The areas and conditions for being a passenger can be checked out on BC Transit’s handyDart web site.

I’m saluting each one of the handyDART drivers to mark my Labour Day holiday this year. Thank you for your caring professionalism.

Lynne Stonier-Newman is a resident of Kamloops. She’s a social marketing and communication consultant, and a B.C. historian and author.