Bassendean Youth Services is a Business Unit of the Town of Bassendean and seeks to assist young people aged 12-25 throughout the region.
A recurring issue facing young people in Perth is that of obtaining a Driver’s Licence, which has been made more onerous by the introduction of the Graduated Licensing System (i.e. logged supervised driving, and two stages of probationary licence restrictions).
The introduction of this system within Victoria necessitated the establishment of the L2P Learner Driver Mentor Program across 63 sites at a cost of over $22 million via the TAC via VicRoads.
The lack of a similar funding model in Western Australia led the Town of Bassendean to develop a pilot program designed to run along similar lines, but aiming to automate processes relating to communication, bookings and risk management
The RYDE (Regional Youth Driver Education) Program leverages the in-kind support of multiple agencies specialising in specific aspects of its operation, linked by a proprietary software platform.
The OBAMS (Online Booking And Management) software significantly reduces the analogue human input required to deliver the RYDE Program by automating and coordinating as many aspects as possible.
The RYDE Program allows the burden of delivering a complex program to be shared by multiple program partners who possess expertise in particular areas of operation.
Their activities are coordinated by the software, which attempts to provide ‘fail safe’ treatments of many possible contingencies.
RYDE participants are screened, inducted and supported by partner referral agencies within the community.
The local Volunteer Centre recruits and supports Mentors from the local community, whilst the local Library manages the Program vehicle.
All other aspects of the RYDE Program are managed by the software which incorporates over 100 business rules to direct SMS messages, automated emails, calendar bookings, cancellations, mentor inductions, session payments, case-note submissions, and on-road tuition exercises via tablet computer.
The RYDE Program is currently available for 23, 90-minute driving sessions per week at a cost of $15 each, and the fuel, insurance and maintenance overheads are fully recovered at below 40 per cent usage.
More information about the RYDE Program can be found at: www.ryde.org.au
