Charlotte County FL Transit: Charlotte Rides, Its Driver Contract, and Where Van Companies Fit

Charlotte County runs its own public transit, and all of it is curb-to-curb shared rides booked ahead. Charlotte Rides, the county’s service, carries the general public and the state’s Transportation Disadvantaged (TD) riders on the same county buses, at no fare. The county does not buy trips from van companies. It buys drivers: since October 1, 2025, CPR Medical Transportation LLC has supplied them under an hourly contract.

Florida’s TD program pays for rides for people who cannot drive or buy a ride, and each county has one community transportation coordinator that gives or arranges those trips. Medicaid enrollment, state vehicle rules, and the plan brokers sit in the Florida guide, so this page covers only what Charlotte does its own way.

Who runs Charlotte County FL transit

The Charlotte County Board of County Commissioners is the coordinator, acting through its Transit Division at 545 Theresa Boulevard in Port Charlotte. The county’s transportation section officially became the coordinator in October 1987, and the division moved under the Human Services Department in January 2026. County staff handle dispatch, budgets, and oversight, and the county supplies the buses, radios, scheduling software, and fuel.

The county kept the role for a new five-year term:

Step	Date
County commission says it will stay coordinator (Resolution 2025-161)	May 13, 2025
Charlotte County-Punta Gorda MPO board recommends the county (Resolution 2025-03)	December 15, 2025
MPO sends its recommendation to the state	January 7, 2026
Commission for the Transportation Disadvantaged approves it on a consent motion	April 8, 2026
New term begins	July 1, 2026, running to June 30, 2031

How riders use Charlotte Rides

As of September 2026, Charlotte Rides runs Monday to Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in a limited area, with no Sunday service. Riders book at 941-575-4000 or in the county’s app, and a same day ride depends on space. On December 9, 2025, the commission repealed Resolution 2016-071, which had set a $2.00 fare and a $1.00 TD fare, so no rider pays.

TD eligibility needs one of three things: age 60 or older, a disability confirmed by a licensed professional, or household income at or below 125% of the federal poverty guidelines. The county decides within 10 business days of a complete application, and riders renew every three years. When seats run short, individual medical trips come first and social trips come last.

Charlotte’s TD numbers

	Fiscal 2024-25 (state report)	Fiscal 2025-26 (county draft)
TD trips	26,562	24,369
Medical trips	7,185	4,108
Trips by coordination contractors	4,269	10,055
Drivers	24	33
Vehicles	35	35
Cost per trip	$78.01	$80.78
Unmet trip requests	1,973	712

The draft column comes from the county’s operating report shown to the Local Coordinating Board on September 3, 2026. TD riders are only part of the system: counting the general public, Charlotte Rides carried 85,946 trips in fiscal 2024-25, all of them demand response.

How Charlotte County buys its drivers

The driver contract is the one large piece of outside work in the system. Under RFP 25-384, the contractor supplies drivers, at least two safety supervisors on every shift, and a local general manager who meets the county’s transit operations manager each month. The county pays only for hours worked, reconciled against driver manifests and a time clock the contractor provides.

RFP 25-384, Transit Contract Driver Services	Detail
Proposals due	June 2, 2025, after Addendum 1 corrected the date
Proposals received	Three
Scoring	Qualifications 25, approach 25, references 20, price 30
Went to the commission	July 22, 2025
Term	October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026, plus two one-year renewals
Fleet listed in the bid	31 transit vehicles, 18 to 24 feet long (county list of March 4, 2025)

The evaluation committee scored CPR Medical Transportation at 77.7 points, Parking Veterans of North Tustin, California at 70.0, and Ameditrans of Port Charlotte at 54.0. CPR’s cost proposal was $61.74 an hour in the first year, $63.63 in the second, and $65.52 in the third. The staff recommendation called for negotiations before signing, so the contract rate may differ. For comparison, the county told bidders it paid its previous driver contractor $1,152,125 for 41,655.61 billed hours in fiscal 2024, about $27.66 an hour.

The county then awarded RFP 25-626, a study of up to $69,328 by Alfred Benesch & Company, to compare hiring its own drivers with contracting them. It went to the commission on November 25, 2025. Ask Transit what the study recommended before you count on the renewal years.

What the driver contract asks of a company

• A local office. A business location in Charlotte County, accessible to people with disabilities and open to county inspection.
• Experience. At least two years of paratransit service, and a general manager with one year of success in that role.
• Insurance. General liability of $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate, auto liability of $1 million combined single limit, workers’ compensation, $1 million employer’s liability, and professional liability, with the county as additional insured and an insurer rated A:VII or better. See NEMT insurance requirements.
• Driver checks. Three years licensed, an FDOT physical every two years (never from a chiropractor), a driving record review every three months, a Level 2 screening under chapter 435, E-Verify, and FTA drug and alcohol testing. See NEMT driver background checks.
• Licenses. A Florida Class A commercial license with endorsements, or the ability to get one within 90 days of hire. A driver hired without one needs a valid Florida license. See whether NEMT drivers need a CDL.
• Records. No more than one moving violation in two years, no license suspension for moving violations in three years, and no serious violation such as DUI or reckless driving in seven years.

The bid holds subcontracted drivers to the same standards, and any subcontract needs the county’s written approval. A small company can still offer trained drivers to the prime contractor on those terms.

How coordination agreements work in Charlotte County

Charlotte’s other door is a coordination agreement, which lets an agency carry its own clients inside the TD system. The sample in the county’s service plan is a vehicle operation agreement: the county lends a sound vehicle and pays for its repairs, fuel, and insurance at its transit fleet limits. The partner provides drivers with a valid Florida license, no moving violations in three years, drug-free workplace compliance, and an FDOT physical within two years. Either side may end it on 30 days’ written notice.

As of September 2026, the one partner is Hope PACE at 3280 Tamiami Trail in Port Charlotte, a program of the nonprofit Hope Hospice, which signed a coordination agreement with the county on June 16, 2026. In the draft fiscal 2025-26 report it ran 3 wheelchair vehicles with 3 drivers and carried 10,055 trips, all paid by AHCA: 7,038 ambulatory and 3,017 wheelchair. The May 2026 plan update also listed Quality Independence, Inc., a Port Charlotte nonprofit that serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in its own vehicles, but its contract had never been used. The September 2026 draft plan no longer lists it.

Both partners on record carry their own clients, and every for-profit company on the county’s 2026 draft provider list is marked non-coordinated. For a van company, the route in is usually the agency itself: PACE transportation contracts and subcontracting NEMT trips explain how that work is priced.

Does Charlotte County require a permit for wheelchair vans

No county certificate covers them. The county’s ambulance ordinance, rewritten by Ordinance 2025-014 on May 27, 2025, requires a certificate of public convenience and necessity for advanced and basic life support services. Section 2-3-49(6) exempts vehicles for riders who need a stretcher or wheelchair vehicle and do not need medical care on the way.

The local step is a business tax receipt from the Charlotte County Tax Collector (941-743-1911). Get zoning approval for your address first, from the county zoning office (941-743-1964) or from the City of Punta Gorda if you are inside the city. Receipts renew from July 1 to September 30, and a late renewal adds 10% in October plus 5% a month after, up to 25%. Honorably discharged veterans, their spouses, and some low-income owners can ask for an exemption. State rules are in Florida NEMT license rules.

Medicaid rides in Charlotte County

Charlotte sits in Medicaid Region F under section 409.966 of the Florida Statutes. Members outside a health plan book with MTM Health at 1-844-239-5974, and MTM’s 2025 capacity analysis counted 15 Charlotte vehicles: 11 cab and 4 lift vehicles, with no stretcher van.

Most members are in a plan, and each plan picks its own broker. As of August 31, 2026:

Plan	Charlotte members, main plan	Who books its rides
Sunshine Health	10,515	Alivi
Humana Medical Plan	3,184	Modivcare
Simply Healthcare	2,704	Ride2MD
Community Care Plan	864	Modivcare
CMS Health Plan (children with special health care needs)	564	MTM Health
Florida Community Care	326	Ride2MD

Sunshine Health also had 488 Charlotte members in its specialty and child welfare plans. Charlotte counted 18,697 Managed Medical Assistance members that month, so Sunshine alone held more than half. The Sunshine Health page covers how its rides are booked.

What to do first in Charlotte County

1. Get your business tax receipt once zoning approves your address.
2. Register on Purchasing Bids Online. The county emails registered vendors by commodity code, and the driver bid went out under codes 95200, 95294, 96100, 96182, 96200, and 96289. Purchasing answers at 941-743-1378.
3. Call Transit Operations at 941-833-6234. Ask whether the driver contract renewed for the year starting October 1, 2026, and what the driver staffing study recommended.
4. Ask about the empty board seat. The Local Coordinating Board’s bylaws reserve a seat for an experienced person from the local private for-profit transportation industry, and it was vacant on September 3, 2026. The MPO staffs the board, which meets next on November 5, 2026 at 10 a.m. at the Family Services Center, 21500 Gibralter Drive, Port Charlotte.
5. Enroll with Florida Medicaid, then apply to the brokers. Alivi, Modivcare, and Ride2MD carry Charlotte’s plan members, in that order of enrollment. MTM Health carries members outside a plan and CMS Health Plan members.
6. Read the state grant rules before you apply. In the fiscal 2026-27 Innovative Service Development round, state staff ruled a Charlotte ambulatory applicant ineligible because the required non-traditional provider documents were missing and it offered no wheelchair service. The county’s own request, $287,484 for three dedicated vehicles serving three dialysis centers that would book trips directly in its scheduling system, ranked first statewide with 325 of 420 points. The Commission tabled all the recommendations on June 11, 2026 because the state budget was not final, and they were not on its September 17, 2026 agenda. See dialysis transportation.

To the south, Lee County runs its program through LeeTran. To the north, Sarasota County’s Breeze Transit serves the Englewood part of Charlotte County under an agreement with the county, and the Sarasota County page covers that system.