Starting NEMT in Jacksonville and Duval County: Vehicle-for-Hire Rules, JTA Paratransit Contracts, and Brokers

Jacksonville and Duval County share one consolidated government, so a single ordinance code covers nearly the whole county. Two local systems decide how a small company gets work here: the city’s vehicle-for-hire chapter, which applies to your business the day you carry a paying rider, and the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA), which buys paratransit driving from outside operators. Florida Medicaid enrollment, owner screening, and state vehicle rules are on the Florida guide.

Jacksonville’s vehicle-for-hire rule

Jacksonville’s Ordinance Code has no separate wheelchair or stretcher van permit. Chapter 158 certifies ambulance services, and it defines medical transportation as a ride that needs or may need advanced or basic life support. Paid rides without that care fall under Chapter 220, Vehicles for Hire, rewritten by Ordinance 2019-183-E.

Chapter 220 defines a vehicle for hire as any motor vehicle with a driver that carries passengers for a fare, fee, or other charge in Duval County. Its exclusions include ambulances, school and church buses, funeral home vehicles, interstate buses, and JTA’s own vehicles, and it names no exception for wheelchair or stretcher vans. It covers the consolidated city except Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, and the Town of Baldwin. The Director of Finance and Administration administers it.

There is no permit to apply for. The chapter puts these duties on your business instead:

Duty	What Chapter 220 requires
Driver application	Each driver applies to your company with address, age, license, and vehicle registration
Criminal check	A search of a multi-state criminal records database, with records confirmed at the source, plus the national sex offender website
Driving history	A driving history report for each driver
Recheck	The full background check again every three years
Insurance	A Florida-authorized insurer, or an eligible surplus lines insurer with a strong rating, and the driver carries proof on every trip
Records	Ride records for one year, and driver records for one year after a driver leaves
Receipts	On request, a written or electronic receipt with the pickup, destination, fare, and date

A driver is out if the check shows more than three moving violations in three years, or a felony in the last five years. So are drivers with a misdemeanor in the last five years for DUI, reckless driving, hit and run, fleeing police, a violent offense, sexual battery, or lewdness. Driving on a suspended or revoked license in the last three years, a sex offender registry match, or no valid license or registration also rules a driver out. Florida’s Medicaid screening is a separate check; see NEMT driver background checks.

The CPA report every other year

Section 220.501 adds a reporting duty. By January 1 of every other year, starting in 2020, each vehicle-for-hire business files an examination report from an independent certified public accountant with the Department of Finance and Administration. The CPA checks that you kept up the driver checks and insurance for the prior two years, or since you started if that is shorter, and states whether you complied. You pay for it. On that schedule, the next report is due by January 1, 2028.

Finding	Penalty under section 220.501
Report finds you noncompliant	$10,000 fine, and a new CPA report due by the next January 1
Second report still finds you noncompliant	$20,000 fine
Any report filed late	An added $10,000 fine

Fines are due within 21 days of the city’s notice. You have seven days from the notice to ask a special magistrate for a hearing.

Who arranges Medicaid rides in Jacksonville

Duval is in Region B of Statewide Medicaid Managed Care. Members outside a plan ride with MTM Health under the state’s waiver for July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2027, and plan members ride with their plan’s broker. As of August 31, 2026, the state counted 152,595 Duval members in comprehensive plans:

Health plan	Duval members	Broker for its rides
Sunshine Health	78,467	Alivi
UnitedHealthcare Community Plan	39,319	MTM Health, since March 1, 2026
Humana	27,111	Modivcare
Simply Healthcare	4,097	Ride2MD
Florida Community Care	3,502	Ride2MD

Sunshine alone holds about half, so Alivi is the first application to send. UnitedHealthcare’s switch moved its Duval trips to MTM Health; see the UnitedHealthcare change. In the waiver’s 2025 capacity tables, MTM counted 35 vehicles in its Duval network (23 cab, 10 lift, and 2 stretcher). Modivcare, whose fee-for-service regions do not include Duval, still listed 64 vehicles at Duval providers (36 ambulatory, 20 wheelchair, and 8 stretcher), for members who travel into the county for care.

JTA Connexion and its contract operators

JTA has been Duval’s Community Transportation Coordinator since March 1, 2001. On April 8, 2026, the Commission for the Transportation Disadvantaged designated it again for July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2031, on Northeast Florida Regional Council Resolution 2026-04. Its paratransit service, Connexion, carries riders certified under the ADA and riders in the state’s Transportation Disadvantaged program. The service plan says JTA does not provide Medicaid transportation.

JTA keeps reservations, customer service, vehicle maintenance, and compliance in house. The September 2025 service plan says that since January 1, 2014, MV Transportation has supplied drivers, road supervision, insurance and claims handling, dispatch, and trip scheduling. The state’s annual operating report for fiscal year 2024-25 shows the size of the work:

Measure	FY 2024-25
Total trips	249,602
ADA paratransit trips	211,243
Other paratransit trips	38,359
Medical trips	44,147
Trips driven by contract operators	All 249,602
Vehicles	100
Drivers	135
Cost per trip	$111.19
Total expenses	$27,752,489

The report counts two transportation operators, one nonprofit and one for-profit. The plan approved in September 2025 lists MV Transportation and Community Rehabilitation Center, both running wheelchair-accessible vans. The same report logged 936 complaints and 79 accidents in 2024-25, up from 217 complaints and no reported accidents the year before.

How the operator contracts work

JTA’s board approved a 10-year contract for paratransit and alternative service delivery in 2023, so the main Connexion driving work is already under a long contract. The plan sets out how JTA buys and pays for service:

• JTA picks operators through its own request for proposal process.
• The plan’s general terms let JTA renegotiate a contract for up to three years if service has been adequate, and re-bid at the end of any contract year.
• Dedicated vehicles are paid by the vehicle hour, and non-dedicated vehicles by the trip or by zone. Vans earn more than smaller vehicles, and split-shift vehicles that run only two to four peak hours in the morning or afternoon earn a higher hourly rate.
• A paid vehicle hour runs from the first pickup of the day to the last drop-off, minus time out of service for accidents, breakdowns, fueling, and meal breaks.
• Out-of-county trips are paid at an air mile rate.

Build your hourly price on that definition: the drive to the first pickup, the drive home after the last drop-off, and any breakdown time go unpaid. The plan’s service rates, effective July 1, 2025, are $33.45 per ADA trip, and $37.56 per ambulatory trip and $64.39 per wheelchair trip in the Transportation Disadvantaged program. Those are what the coordinated system charges for a trip. Operators are paid under their own contracts on the terms above.

Standards JTA holds operators to

Standard	What the plan requires
On-time trips	At least 90%, with a goal of 95%
No-shows	A 4% standard for JTA and its operators
Back-up vehicles	One for every ten in service
Accidents	Call JTA and 911 at once, a written report within 24 hours, and a post-accident drug and alcohol test
Complaints	Valid service and safety complaints under 0.3 percent per 1,000 boardings
Radios and ID	A two-way radio in every vehicle, and an ID badge on every driver
Driver history	No DUI, DWI, or reckless driving conviction in 20 years, never vehicular manslaughter, and no more than 5 points in 3 years
Driver files	A physical before hire and every two years, a pre-employment drug test under 49 CFR part 655, and a moving violation record sent to JTA every six months

JTA does not require its contracted drivers to be trained in first aid or CPR. Drivers call dispatch, which calls 911. Since April 2, 2026, Connexion riders can also opt in to a rideshare voucher worth up to $20 a trip, for up to 10 trips a week inside Duval County, so ask JTA how that has changed van demand before you bid.

Getting on JTA’s bid list

JTA posts every solicitation on its online procurement portal and in the Jacksonville Daily Record, and it accepts bids only electronically. Get a JTA vendor number and register on the portal to receive notices. Contracts over $325,000 go to JTA’s Procurement Review Committee and then its board. Read how to answer a NEMT broker RFP and becoming an ADA paratransit contractor before you write a proposal. As of September 2026, JTA is also the coordinator in Clay County and Nassau County.

What to do first

1. Screen every driver to Chapter 220 before the first paid ride: the national database search, the sex offender website, and a driving history, with a calendar reminder to redo each one in three years.
2. Line up a CPA who does attestation work, since your first compliance report is due by January 1, 2028. Keep ride and driver records in a form the CPA can test.
3. Enroll with Florida Medicaid, then apply to Alivi, MTM Health, Modivcare, and Ride2MD, in that order of Duval members.
4. Register as a JTA vendor and watch the portal for paratransit operator solicitations.