The seven contractors that provide HandyDART bus services in Metro Vancouver will be merged into one beginning next year, when TransLink plans to hand over the reigns to a single contractor.

That means the North Shore's current provider will be tossed aside.

Enid Jeffreys manager of 3120 Ventures, the company that serves the North Shore, said she didn't have the resources to put in a proposal for the contract.

"All this has come down now, and I'm really sad now, to tell you truth," she said. "I would have really liked to have gone through until the 2010 Games were over."

Jeffreys wondered if MVT is prepared for the challenges of its new contract -- combining seven separate services, and negotiating with three different unions.

"Do they really know what they're doing?" she said. "Do they really know what they're up against?"

TransLink has promised that all of Jeffreys's drivers will have jobs with the new contractor, and she suspects many schedulers and dispatchers will also be taken care of.

"More than likely, I won't have a job," Jeffreys said.

This will be the first Canadian contract for MVT, a California-based company that has 185 contracts across the United States.

© North Shore News 2008

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