The Rural Transportation Collaborative (RTC), a division of Tri-Valley Opportunity Council, Inc., has helped countless people and has compiled amazing statistics since the inception of the RTC program in 2002.
In 2012 alone drivers volunteered 22,148 hours and drove 659,023 miles. To put this into perspective, the moon is 238,900 miles away from earth. This means that RTC drivers could have gone to the moon over 2.75 times in 2012. The 22,148 hours of volunteer time equates to 2.53 years of work in just a 12 month period. In the 10 years of the RTC Program, drivers have driven 5,230,761 miles and volunteered 174,221 hours, equivalent to 19.88 years of work.
RTC is a partnership program that coordinates volunteer drivers to transport those who have no other means of transportation or cannot drive. RTC is a curb to curb, mileage based public transportation volunteer driver program. People are transported for various approved purposes. Volunteer drivers are available seven days a week with extended hours with the core service area is Polk, Red Lake, Pennington, Norman Marshall and Kittson counties. However, the program has working agreements with multiple other counties and has provided transportation to customers that have appointments as far as Minneapolis, Rochester as well as many North Dakota destinations.
For more information on becoming a rider with RTC please call 1-866-884-2695. To become a volunteer driver visit the RTC webpage at www.tvoc.org to fill out an application or call 1-866-884-2695. The RTC drivers donate their time and are reimbursed the IRS rate per mile they drive to cover the expenses they occur while on the road.