Community Transit’s “Smile and Ride” Philosophy Looks Good In Uniforms

August 22, 2010

By Carol Brzozowski

In Snohomish County, Wash., operators of the Community Transit system have a sole focus for their customers as exemplified in their companys motto: Smile and Ride.

Through its uniform program, Community Transit has aimed to extend that image of comfort and relaxation to its employees as well as its vehicles. Employees have played a key role in making decisions on their own uniform styles. Community Transit drew together a uniform committee, composed of representatives from each work group, who then decided the items of clothing and the color schemes for each position.

The same committee evaluated the proposals, rated each vendor on the proposal and sample clothing, and then selected the vendor, Blumenthal Uniforms & Equipment, says Jeri Welch, an administrative assistant with Community Transit.

Community Transit began service on Oct. 4, 1976, and serves more than 1,300 square miles in the northwest county.

The transit service operates 259 buses covering 63 routes as well as 49 para-transit vehicles and the third largest vanpool system in the United States.

Community Transit provides safe, reliable, convenient, friendly service to the citizens of Snohomish County by using innovative methods to meet the needs of our diverse customers, Welch says. Those innovative programs include:

Honoring commuters for their commitment to traveling by bus, carpool, vanpool, bike or foot. Every year, Community Transit rewards its Commuters of the Quarter and Saves Money Reduces Traffic award winners with a luncheon and a $100 gift card for gasoline or merchandise.

Instituting a pilot WI-FI program allowing laptop users to read e-mail and browse the Internet while riding the bus.

Offering a vanpool program to a group of 5 to 15 commuters who ride to work together. The group sets its schedule and route, with fares based on the size of the van and the round-trip mileage. Fares also cover the cost of gasoline, maintenance, insurance and vehicle washing.

Working with 84 area companies to meet the Commute Trip Reduction Law goals through its Employer Outreach department.

The transit service has 400 uniformed employees. Community Transit issues uniforms to coach operators, operations supervisors, dispatchers, sales and distribution personnel and internal security officers.

Uniform items worn by Community Transit employees include a three-in-one parka system, fleece jackets, sweaters, turtlenecks, button-down short-sleeve and long-sleeve Oxford shirts, polo shirts, trousers and hats.

Welch says while the uniform style is the same for each position, the color of the shirt differentiates one position from another. Operators wear blue, supervisors and internal security officers wear white, dispatchers wear beige and those in sales and distribution wear yellow.

Shirts are embroidered with a logo on the left side, and supervisors and internal security officers have their position embroidered on the right side.

With respect to parkas, supervisors wear red with the word Supervisor on the back in reflective striping. Sales and distribution personnel wear green, and those in other positions wear navy blue.

Uniform trousers are navy blue, except the black ones worn by sales and distribution staff. All hats are navy blue.

The employees have an option of long sleeves, short sleeves, a light jacket, a warmer jacket, shorts or trousers. Welch notes that the parkas are water-repellent, the trousers are a poly/cotton twill and the shirts are a mix of cotton and polyester.

The Community Transit logo is blue and green, with the words community transit in lower case letters and an arrow swooping through the words. The logo brings together the function of transit moving through the community and connecting locations with the goal of friendly service through its simple and fun design.

Seattle-based Blumenthal Uniforms & Equipment has an in-house embroidery department that decorates shirts, trousers and jackets for the agency.

The way in which uniform purchasing is handled for Community Transit results in paperwork reduction. Community Transits operators are issued individual purchase cards loaded with virtual money. The card enables the operator to act as his or her own purchasing agent for individual uniform requirements, eliminating the need to cut individual paper purchase orders each time they make a purchase.

Blumenthal Uniforms & Equipment tracks the inventory by computer.

Employees are given a full uniform allowance every odd year based on the costs of five shirts, six trousers and a parka, says Welch. They will get a half of an allowance during even years to maintain the uniform. That allows them to purchase more shirts or pants or other optional items such as shoes, belts or gloves.

Roger Heldman of Blumenthal Uniforms & Equipment says his company uses the PRISM software system from Merchant Technologies to assist in tracking uniforms.

Uniform fittings are done at Blumenthals North Seattle location.

Blumenthal Uniforms & Equipment has a corner just for our uniforms with logo items stocked on the shelves. Alterations are also done at the store, Welch says. Quarterly, the vendor will come on-site for the day. They use a training room to set up, bring samples to try on, do fittings and take orders for uniforms. Any items that have to be delivered are sent to the employees home. There is no cleaning agreement.

One uniform item Blumenthal Uniforms & Equipment is developing for Community Transit goes along with the companys culture of Smile and Ride. Its a custom Hawaiian shirt that will serve as a marketing tool. The design incorporates artwork of area landmarks, such as an aircraft carrier on Puget Sound, Edmonds Lighthouse and bus stop signs of the communities serviced by the agency, as well as pictures of all the vehicles the transit service operates.

When it comes to updating the uniform program, Community Transit does so on an annual basis.

Employees are surveyed about items they like and dont like, what they like or dont like about the vendors customer service, and what they would like added to the uniform program, Welch says. This year, we are trying to add two styles of sweaters and hats based on the survey. Because of this survey in the past, we have changed vendors based on the employee comments.

Recent surveys of the employees indicate they are happy not only with the uniform items but with the vendor as well, and thats what led to Blumenthals ability to secure the contract.

The [former vendors] customer service was poor, the quality of uniforms was poor, we had accounting problems, and they were located in another state, Welch says.

Heldman says Blumenthal Uniforms & Equipment strives to provide the good service that Community Transit was lacking in its last uniform provider.

The difference between ourselves and other providers is the attention to detail, he says. We have the ability to track what weve issued to each individual operator.

At any given time, Blumenthal Uniforms & Equipment is tracking on behalf of each operator about 25 different uniform components, including shirts, trousers, outerwear and accessories such as gloves, belts and footwear.

Heldman offers an example of how the card system institutes efficiencies in the uniform ordering process. He says at the end of 2005, his company had received a number of phone calls from Community Transit employees who wanted to use their card rather than lose their allowance by Dec. 31.

We were able to tell them what they had spent it on and what they had left, he says. Its really important to Community Transit that we make their uniform purchasing an easy experience for their operators as well as getting a quality product in a prompt manner. The previous provider had a hard time doing that.

In partnering with Community Transit to provide the best possible image, Heldman says that Blumenthal Uniforms & Equipment listened to the transit agencys desire for a functional uniform, and the image they want to portray is one of warmth and friendliness, which is the focus of their new logo to send a message that its fun to ride the bus.

For Community Transit, the bottom line of its uniform program is not only presenting an image to the public that meshes with the companys culture of Smile and Ride, but also offers employees a sense of comfort in serving the public.

We want our operators to appear neat and to be comfortable while operating a coach but have the items available to them to be able to handle the Pacific Northwest weather, Welch says.