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4 mins
the eye of the 20H PAM handicap bis
A PAM service vehicle for Ile-de-France residents with reduced mobility – (L’OEIL DU 20 HEURES / FRANCE 2)
In the Paris region, taking public transport when you have a disability or reduced mobility can be an obstacle course. So for 20 years, on-demand transport, the PAM, has been picking up these users from their homes, for the equivalent of the price of a metro ticket. But in recent months, certain functions of this public service recently delegated to the private sector have deteriorated…
Every Wednesday, after her swimming lesson, Céline Boeuf relies on one of these vehicles to return home. But for several months, the service, she says, has deteriorated. “Last week I was late because I helped a blind classmate who is new to the pool and who has found the place, she remembers. And they didn’t wait for me so I found myself without a way to get back.”.
That evening, no vehicle left… a source of stress for Céline who is blind. FFinally, a few minutes later, a taxi… to which the PAM delegated the journey due to lack of available vehicles.
“A lack of consideration”
Canceled races, users left on the sidewalk…Here is the type of messages they have received in recent weeks: “Your reservation cannot be honored”; “We have assigned your ride to another vehicle.”
Sonia Giraud experienced these inconveniences. For 3 years, she has suffered from multiple sclerosis. She needs PAM on a daily basis to get to work: “If they don’t come I lose days, and if they come, so much the better. Sometimes they ask us if we can leave our chair at home. It’s borderline if they don’t ask us if we can stop being disabled. .. it’s a lack of consideration.”
For her, this lack of consideration would be due to a new organization. The PAM service, formerly managed by each department, was regionalized last April. And the regulation of races has been entrusted to a private company: Kisio, a subsidiary of the urban transport giant Keolis.
Imprecise software
At the wheel of one of these vehicles, Karine Broutin is now guided by new software which tells her what errands she needs for the day and who to pick up. That morning, she had to pick up a young autistic man in Paris.
But when it comes time to find him, things get stuck. The new software does not always accurately indicate users’ addresses. A setback for Karine Broutin and her passenger… who must not cross the street alone. Some drivers see this new management as a lack of awareness of disability. By telephone, several of them denounced what they say would be an Uberization of their profession.
“There is a timer that starts every 5 minutes. If the person isn’t there after 5 minutes, you press a button and you leave. Before it wasn’t like that. We went up to pick people up from their homes if necessary.“.
“The driver is cheated“, say some employees
Another goes even further: “The driver is being cheated. If he doesn’t do things on time, we have to justify it”.
Kéolis refutes these accusations and affirms that geolocation already existed before the overhaul of the service:
“It is one of the tools used in all transport companies because it makes it possible to continually improve the quality of service for the benefit of travelers and also makes it possible to optimize drivers’ journeys.”
For its part, Ile-de-France Mobility deplores this poor organization and claims to have asked its service provider to react: “These dysfunctions are unacceptable, particularly because we are addressing vulnerable people. We asked our operator to increase resources”, says Grégoire de Lasteyrie, vice-president (LR) of Île-de-France Moilités.
They assure that the staff of the call platform has just been doubled, and that the fleet of vehicles will be expanded soon.
On the other hand, for users who prefer to book their trips online, they will still have to wait. The PAM website would still be inaccessible to the visually impaired according to Manuel Pereira, accessibility referent at the Valentin Haüy association. He wants to demonstrate it to us on his computer. When he begins to book a ride, a voice command activates in incomprehensible, robotic English: “Normally, if we follow accessibility standards, the information must be given to me clearly, he comments. It’s incredible that we can launch a service aimed at people with disabilities in the Île-de-France region with a reservation system that is inaccessible to them! Do we consider that they should get help from a third party?” protests Manuel Pereira, who makes a point of being perfectly autonomous in his daily life.
Île-de-France Mobilités affirms that the website works, but recognizes that the mobile application encounters technical problems.currently being paid“.