About this episode
Donte Harris, a Detroit area owner who also runs one of the industry's earliest NEMT education channels, came home from prison in 2015, spent about a year at Denny's earning $9.25 an hour, and launched his own company in 2019 with a 2006 Ford Taurus running ambulatory trips. He is up to nine vehicles with seven on the road, and roughly 40 percent of the load is student transportation, a niche that arrived with a contract a former employer handed him along with the blueprint for getting into school districts. The rest leans private pay.
Key takeaways
- Student transportation reshapes the day. Routes start early and some students are finished by midday, which lets two of his drivers who are mothers work a shorter shift and still cover the run.
- Private pay in his market means the Down River cities south of Detroit and a facility in Lincoln Park. A larger conglomerate holds the hospital contracts, so entry takes repeat visits, not one pitch.
- Fuel and labor costs climbed while trip reimbursement did not. Harris wants that argued nationally rather than region by region, and ties it directly to whether owners can offer drivers health insurance.
- Background checks do not predict attendance. He cites a former employer whose driver no-showed a Saturday contract, leaving the owner to get out of bed and cover the trips himself.
- He started posting to TikTok around 2021, moved the content to YouTube, and now runs a private community plus one-on-one consultations, blocking Wednesday through Sunday for them.
Chapters
- 0:00 Introduction
- 0:35 Donte's background and businesses
- 26:25 NEMT industry trends
- 41:38 Bambi's origin
- 46:44 Bambi software demo
- 1:03:50 Concluding thoughts
