About this episode
Sharnese Johnson founded Optimal Reliability Transportation after leaving corporate work around 2016, driving for Uber and Lyft, then picking up her first private pay NEMT clients through a Craigslist ad. About two and a half years ago she began moving students, and student transport is now her focus, covering autistic and special needs riders, charter and private school routes, and children served under the McKinney-Vento Act. She explains why funded school district contracts guarantee roughly nine months of revenue, how volume changes the math against NEMT, and how providers win work in bidding and open enrollment states.
Key takeaways
- Johnson's first NEMT clients came from a Craigslist ad she placed while driving for another owner. One of those private pay riders stayed with her for nearly five years, until 2021.
- A funded school district contract locks in roughly nine months of revenue, she says, against NEMT work that pays trip by trip and, with a broker, caps what a provider can earn.
- Volume is the difference she points to. She describes running 20 to 40 children at once, where an NEMT contract might move five to ten riders in the same window.
- Contracting rules split by region. Northern districts including Massachusetts and New York often require formal bids, while Georgia, South Carolina and Florida use open enrollment or subcontracting under an existing provider.
- NEMT is not a prerequisite, Johnson says. A provider can start with one or two students and learn the routes, since both are passenger transportation with a different rider.
Chapters
- 0:00 Introduction
- 0:47 Sharnese's background
- 4:45 NEMT coaching and mentoring
- 7:00 Client success stories
- 9:35 Shift to student transport
- 13:35 NEMT vs student transport
- 18:10 How to do student transport
- 24:27 Demand for student transport
- 26:03 Fun stories of student transport
- 27:53 Conclusion
