Saferide staff at the Salisbury University Involvement Fair. Image courtesy of Saferide.
Saferide is a student-run transportation service free to Salisbury University undergraduate students. They operate Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights from 10 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. within a 3-mile radius of campus.
The service safely transported over 1,000 students within its first week of operation. However, the staff realize that some students are hesitant to use Saferide as they might be afraid of any negative repercussions, especially since the inside of the van is always being recorded.
“I feel like our biggest misconception this year is a lot of people assume that we're RAs,” President of Saferide Erik Moseley said. “They assume that we're mandatory reporters and stuff and that's just not the case. Yeah, the side of the van says Salisbury University, but we're kind of there to provide a service that they want to use, right?”
“If somebody's out at night, we want to make sure that they're able to get home safely," Moseley continued. "And we'd rather them call us and us take them home.... Everything we do for our passengers is strictly confidential and doesn't go outside of the van that they're in."
Director of Personnel Rebecca Eure and Director of Operations Ron Tash operate a variety of roles within Saferide but both worked together in the same van on the night of Sept. 20. They both want to inform students of Saferide's protocol.
“We don't work with the police, that's what everyone seems to think,” Eure said. “[Saferide] is purposely student-run so students don't feel weird getting in a van with adults that they don't know. It’s more comfortable when it’s students that they [do] know.”
“I will say that we are students,” Eure explained in regards to passenger confidentiality. “We have classes with a lot of people, and there are sometimes... the person who gets in our van knows us and we know them from class. We won't say anything to them unless they start the conversation, but normally they are the ones that are like, ‘Oh my gosh, you're in my history class....'"
During the ride-along, Eure worked the role of the ‘rider’, utilizing a phone as a walkie-talkie and a sheet to record data. “It's an interesting job. You have to be kind of multipurpose because there is a lot going on."
"The driver... you just need to know where you are going," Eure explained. "For me, I have to make sure that [I’m] navigating [and] I have to write down the pickup and drop-off [locations]. I have to communicate with dispatch, and also the other vans as well. Riders, I would say, are the most complicated of the roles."
“Say we have a call at the back of [University Park]. I would take the call, or one of the other vans would take the call, and we would write down that we're going to the back of UP," Eure explained.
"We would get there, see how many people would be getting into the van, then we'd ask them their drop-off location and then I write [it] down.... And [once] we get there, I mark it off and then we’re good to go.”
“When [Saferide ‘riders’] have to write down our passengers, it's [because] passengers [are] what keeps Saferide open," Eure said. "The more passengers we have each night, or each semester, really benefits us. It's what keeps Saferide open. Without our passengers, Saferide wouldn't be operating.”
The first weekend of Saferide's operation saw over 1,000 passengers, which excited Eure for the upcoming year.
“[It] was astonishing. For three nights we had over 1,000 people and that was a lot for us to take in because it hasn't been like that since... pre-covid," Eure shared. "So we know that Saferide is starting to come back again and if we can keep those passenger count[s] the same or even higher then we're going to be here for a very long time."
As part of Saferide's hiring process, Eure shared that potential Saferide drivers must undergo a process to become driver certified, in addition to having no more than 5 points on their driver's license.
"We are just not putting a bunch of random people in a driving position," Eure said. "They actually have to go through the process to drive which makes it a lot more comfortable for people who are intoxicated.... They know that they're safe and someone behind the wheel knows what they are doing."
“We are strictly by students for students," said Ron Tash, one of the drivers for the night's operations. "We want everybody to get home safely. We see people in all sorts of different conditions, as long as we are getting them home safe that's what we care about."
The vans have a strategic communication system and are able to reach one another using work phones. “The way it works is we have dispatchers which are in an office," Tash explained. "And when you make the phone call [to Saferide], that's who's answering the call. Then they use a walkie-talkie app to dispatch the calls to us. They’ll either dispatch the call to every van or they’ll call a van privately if they're in the area."
Since Saferide's goal is to get students home safely, they have rules against picking up students from the main campus and only drop off their passengers at residential locations. To protect passengers' anonymity, employees are not allowed to ask passengers for their contact information.
Those who have used Saferide will notice there are cameras in every van recording the interior, including the van's passengers. However, Tash confirms that the passengers remain anonymous and that the footage isn't shared.
The students calling the service don't need to worry about their data being recorded either. "We don't really record any personal information of those calls,” Tash said.
With strict policies and protocols, Saferide prioritizes the safety and privacy of its passengers. In addition to driving students home, Saferide fundraises on campus and hosts JDL, a memorial 5K for former Saferide employee Jerry "Danny" Landsman. Those who are interested and want to be a part of Saferide's tight-knit community are encouraged to apply the first two weeks of every semester.
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By MARGARET ABLER
Staff Writer
Featured image courtesy of Saferide
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