Mar. 18—SOUTHERN INDIANA — A Southern Indiana company is working to make it easier for employees to get to work.
ProLogistix is a staffing firm that finds workers for logistics jobs and is partnering with bus service Zeelo to find rides for employees.
Regional Vice President Tim DeVine said this allows ProLogsitix to provide stepping stones for success.
"A lot of our employees struggle with reliable transportation," he said. "So we wanted to address that and we found about 47% of our employees were interested in some sort of shuttle service."
He said workers in the River Ridge area don't have enough access to public transportation.
With the price of gas going up and the cost that it takes to own and maintain a car, Devine said it can be a challenge for people to even get to work.
That's where the purple and white ProLogisitix shuttle buses come in.
"One of our first riders was someone who didn't just not have transportation, he didn't have a license," DeVine said. "He wouldn't have been able to participate in the labor market without this. Now he gets to work five days a week to earn a paycheck."
The 14-passenger bus makes stops in New Albany, the River Ridge area and will have a stop in Louisville. The shuttle first launched at the end of January. Employees have to pay $5 to ride both ways and ProLogistix is paying the rest of the cost.
Transportation has always been a large barrier for people to receive and maintain a job, said Southern Indiana Works Executive Director Tony Waterson.
"The lack of public transportation certainly is a huge barrier not only for our urban centers, but certainly in our rural centers," he said.
The number of bus routes in the area has decreased because of things like the COVID pandemic, and if a vehicle breaks down, people might not have a ride to work.
"The two biggest barriers for people to get employment are transportation and child care," he said.
The pandemic has played a role in both, he said, especially since used car prices are skyrocketing.
"There was a lot of momentum going into the pandemic, with pilot projects around the country utilizing ride services like lyft or Uber," he said. "When the pandemic hit, those two services really dropped."