rabbittransit MATP: How to Become a rabbittransit Transportation Provider in 2027

rabbittransit is the name the Susquehanna Regional Transportation Authority (SRTA) operates under. SRTA is a municipal authority that operates under Pennsylvania’s Municipal Authorities Act of 1945, with offices in Harrisburg and York. It runs buses and shared ride vans in Adams, Columbia, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Montour, Northumberland, Perry, Snyder, Union, and York counties and the City of Harrisburg. PennDOT’s performance report notes that the rabbittransit name covers three authorities: SRTA, the Cumberland-Dauphin-Harrisburg Transit Authority, and the Central Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.

For Medical Assistance members, rabbittransit is the MATP administrator in 13 counties. Pennsylvania’s MATP rules call an agency like it a prime contractor: a public or private organization under a direct contract with the Department of Human Services (DHS) to provide transportation (55 Pa. Code 2070.4). DHS’s April 29, 2026 slides say a direct contractor hires vendors to administer and deliver MATP services and may also deliver some itself. For how MATP works everywhere else, see the Pennsylvania state guide.

Where rabbittransit runs MATP

rabbittransit runs MATP in its 13 counties under three different arrangements, and the arrangement decides who actually drives the trips.

County	How rabbittransit runs MATP there	Who schedules and drives most trips
Adams, Columbia, Cumberland, Franklin, Montour, Northumberland, Perry, Snyder, Union, York	Direct contract with DHS	rabbittransit’s shared ride service, including its subcontractors
Indiana	Administrator since January 1, 2020, under its direct contract with DHS	IndiGO, the Indiana County Transit Authority
Dauphin	Administrator since July 1, 2026, replacing the Center for Community Building	rabbittransit, which the county says will keep working with existing transportation providers
Cambria	Appointed by the Cambria County Commissioners, effective April 1, 2025	CamTran, which contracts with other transportation companies and still books trips as of September 2026

DHS’s MATP Broker Study (June 25, 2026) counts 13 counties under two direct agreements, one with rabbittransit and one with the South Central Transit Authority for Berks and Lancaster counties. They are non-solicitation grants, awarded without a bid, capped at five years per agreement, and justified by the lack of other qualified MATP providers and little prospect of savings from a bid. The study footnotes Dauphin as moving from a county hybrid model to a direct agreement. It also backed keeping county-run MATP rather than hiring a statewide broker. See the study’s findings and Dauphin County’s switch.

The size of the work comes from PennDOT’s report for fiscal year 2024-25 (July 2024 to June 2025), which covers rabbittransit’s 11 shared ride counties:

Measure, fiscal year 2024-25	rabbittransit shared ride
MATP trips	172,959
All shared ride trips, including senior, disability, and ADA trips	742,841
Vehicles in service at the busiest time	253
Average shared ride cost per trip	$44.53
Operating expenses for community transportation	$42.2 million

rabbittransit’s budget for fiscal year 2026-27 (July 2026 to June 2027), adopted with its management work plan on April 30, 2026, adds $4,830,302 to take over the Cambria County MATP program and $1,085,000 for Dauphin County.

How rabbittransit buys transportation

rabbittransit does not drive every trip itself. Its reservation policy tells riders it uses subcontractors, so they may be picked up by different companies in a taxi, minivan, van, or bus. The vehicle may not carry the rabbittransit logo, but a transportation company name should be on it. Its travel guidelines add that subcontractors may use school buses. In the same 2026-27 budget, purchased transportation, meaning rides bought from contractors, is $44.3 million of $80.5 million.

Bids and thresholds

rabbittransit issues solicitations as a request for proposals (RFP), an invitation for bids (IFB), or a request for quotations (RFQ). Each one posted on its Requests for Proposals page links to the online bid portal where its materials, questions, addenda, and submissions are handled, and you can ask for RFPs at info@rabbittransit.org. It says it encourages small businesses owned by minorities and women to compete. Its purchasing manual, amended March 26, 2026, sets these tiers:

Purchase size	Tier
Up to $13,200	Micro-purchase
$13,200 to $24,500	Small purchase
Over $24,500	Large purchase, formal procurement required

Every procurement also needs an independent cost estimate before it goes out and a price or cost analysis to show the price is fair. See how NEMT broker RFPs work.

The 2026 paratransit subcontract

The most recent large transportation award shows how rabbittransit buys service:

Item	Detail
What it buys	Paratransit service run in SRTA-owned cutaway vehicles, to supplement SRTA’s shared ride operations
RFP issued	April 16, 2026, with proposals due May 27, 2026
Planned start	September 1, 2026
Proposals received	Two, scored out of 230 points
Awarded	July 23, 2026, to Easton Coach Company LLC, the highest score and lowest cost
Term	Two-year base, plus three optional one-year renewals at SRTA’s choice
Value	$4,097,088 for the base term, up to $10,746,804 over five years
How it pays	A fixed base fee plus a variable fee based on hours of service. Option year prices may be adjusted by the Mid-Atlantic consumer price index

The vehicles for this work are SRTA’s own. Watch the Requests for Proposals page for the next solicitation.

Cambria and Indiana counties

In Cambria County, SRTA’s agreement with CamTran ran from April 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. Under it, SRTA reviewed and approved subcontracts and paid CamTran within 45 days of each invoice, while CamTran took reservations, dispatched trips, and oversaw its own subcontractors. SRTA budgeted to take over the Cambria program from July 1, 2026, yet CamTran’s MATP page, updated September 28, 2026, still tells riders to book trips with CamTran. That page says numerous transportation providers contract with CamTran and that most earlier providers stayed on in the 2025 change. In Indiana County, IndiGO schedules and provides most trips. For work in either county, ask CamTran or IndiGO about subcontracting, and ask rabbittransit who books Cambria trips now.

How to become a rabbittransit subcontractor, step by step

1. Get PUC authority. When a paid trip starts and ends in Pennsylvania, you need a Public Utility Commission certificate before you run or advertise it, and the fine for operating without one is $1,000 per violation. Paratransit authority fits MATP shared rides: vehicles holding 16 or fewer people including the driver, individual charges, and advance reservations. The filing fee is a one-time $350, and you also file a tariff with your rates. The PUC estimates three months or longer, and notice in the Pennsylvania Bulletin can pause the application for up to five weeks. See NEMT license requirements.
2. Buy insurance at PUC limits or higher. Your insurer files a Form E with the PUC, and proof is due within 60 days of approval. The limits are in the next section. Ask rabbittransit whether its contracts require more.
3. Clear your drivers. Get the three Pennsylvania clearances for every driver before you bid, because rabbittransit must collect proof at hire.
4. Watch for solicitations. Check the rabbittransit Requests for Proposals page for transportation work, and get each full specification and its deadlines through the bid portal it links.
5. Introduce your company. Email info@rabbittransit.org with your PUC number, counties, vehicle types, wheelchair capacity, and hours. Ask whether it adds subcontractors outside formal bids and how it rates them.
6. Check the other counties. For Indiana or Cambria trips, contact IndiGO or CamTran, which schedule and provide most trips there.
7. Sign a written subcontract. It must carry the state’s required terms, listed below. Track your paperwork with the NEMT credentialing checklist.

What every MATP subcontract must contain

The MATP Standards and Guidelines (Rev. 11/2016) let rabbittransit rely on subcontractors but keep it responsible for their work. Every subcontract must be written and signed, and a copy goes to DHS within 30 days of signing.

Term	What it covers
Length and dates	Effective date, duration, renewal options, and how either side ends it
Rate	The negotiated rate for the service dates
Invoices and payment	How often and in what format you invoice, and how and when you are paid
Scope	The services, the riders covered, and any duties delegated to you
Sanctions	How rabbittransit can revoke work or impose sanctions if performance falls short
Trip data	You report data for every service on time
Hold harmless	You hold the Commonwealth and riders harmless if rabbittransit does not pay you, and you indemnify the Commonwealth for your own conduct
Records access	DHS and federal agencies may see and audit all records of the service
Record keeping	Books and records during the contract and five years after, longer during an audit, and source records at least four years
Confidentiality	You protect rider and program information
Disclosures	On request: ownership and control, convictions, and business transactions over $25,000
Laws	The ADA, nondiscrimination, and notice of the penalties for false claims

For a clause-by-clause review, see the NEMT subcontractor agreement checklist and how to subcontract NEMT trips.

Driver, vehicle, and insurance rules

Drivers

Check	Rule
Pennsylvania Child Abuse History Clearance	Required for every driver, proof collected at hire
Pennsylvania State Police Criminal Record Check	Required for every driver, proof collected at hire
FBI criminal background check	Required for every driver. Only certain volunteers who have lived in Pennsylvania for 10 years are exempt
Federal exclusion list	rabbittransit searches the HHS OIG list at least monthly and cannot contract with excluded companies, owners, or managing employees
Fraud procedures	rabbittransit must make sure every subcontractor has procedures to prevent, detect, and report suspected fraud and abuse

See NEMT driver background checks and the OIG exclusion list.

Rider assistance

Standard MATP paratransit service is curb to curb. The driver opens and closes doors, helps the rider in and out, folds and stores a wheelchair or other mobility device, or secures it in the vehicle. The driver does not lift riders and need not enter buildings. rabbittransit tells riders that door-to-door help is given when a medical need keeps them from reaching the curb. Riders must bring car seats for children under 4 and boosters for ages 4 to 7. See wheelchair securement.

Vehicles

Amendments to rabbittransit’s maintenance plan (Resolution 2647) came up for a board vote on September 24, 2026. As proposed, subcontractors running vehicles for SRTA services must follow SRTA’s preventive maintenance schedules, inspection checklists, and standards, and keep their maintenance records open to SRTA’s review. Lifts, ramps, securement systems, and other ADA equipment are tested at every scheduled inspection. A vehicle with an ADA equipment defect comes out of service if it is not repaired within three days. Ask rabbittransit for the adopted plan before you sign.

Insurance

The PUC sets the minimums for passenger carriers. See NEMT insurance requirements.

Vehicle size	PUC minimum
15 passengers or fewer	$15,000 bodily injury per person, $30,000 per accident, $5,000 property damage, plus $25,000 first party medical and $10,000 wage loss benefits
16 to 28 passengers	$1,000,000 combined single limit per accident per vehicle
29 passengers or more	$5,000,000 combined single limit per accident per vehicle

Trip rules rabbittransit riders are told

Your drivers will be held to what rabbittransit promises its riders. These come from its reservation policy, travel guidelines, and MATP pages, as of September 2026.

Situation	Rule
Booking	By 1:30 p.m. the business day before, up to two weeks ahead. Friday by 1:30 p.m. for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday
Pickup window	30 minutes. Riders get an automated call the evening before with their window
Waiting	Arrive any time in the window and wait five minutes. If early, the five minutes start when the window opens
No-show	The vehicle arrived in the window, waited five minutes, and the rider did not board
Late cancel	The rider canceled less than one hour before the pickup window
Appointment timing	Riders may be dropped off as early as one hour before the appointment and picked up as late as one hour after it. State rules allow up to 2.5 hours for grouped trips longer than one hour
Late appointments	Riders call rabbittransit, or have the doctor’s office call, so the return vehicle is not sent too early

The five-minute wait comes from a DHS waiver of the standard MATP pickup rule, effective July 26, 2025. The letter covers the counties where rabbittransit holds a direct contract, and rabbittransit’s site now lists Dauphin with them. Without it, the standard rule makes a vehicle that arrives before the window wait until the scheduled pickup time, and a vehicle arriving on time or up to 15 minutes late need not wait.

Riders who miss trips too often are suspended. A pattern means at least 7 trips booked in a month, at least 3 no-shows or late cancels within the rider’s control, and misses of at least 20 percent. Suspensions run from a warning letter up to 21 days. A suspended MATP rider keeps service for two more weeks so another ride can be arranged.

Records, reporting, and audits

DHS monitors rabbittransit directly, and rabbittransit must run a monitoring plan for its subcontractors. At a DHS review, the administrator has 45 calendar days from the letter of intent to gather documents, and subcontractors may join the standards review meeting. rabbittransit must check that each provider claim matches an authorized trip, and it verifies 5 percent of trips each year against real appointments. Keep a record of every trip leg with times, places, driver, and vehicle, as the NEMT trip log template lays out, and keep books for at least five years after the contract ends.

Who to call at rabbittransit

For	Contact
Bids, RFPs, and business inquiries	info@rabbittransit.org, and the bid portal linked from each solicitation on the Requests for Proposals page
Administrative office	901 N. Cameron Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101, weekdays 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
York office	415 N. Zarfoss Drive, York, PA 17404
Customer service and MATP booking	1-800-632-9063, weekdays 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday 7:45 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Indiana County trips	IndiGO call center, 724-801-8857
Cambria County trips	CamTran, 1-800-252-3889, as of September 2026