# Martin County FL Transit: Marty, Martin Community Coach, and the Van Companies That Drive It

Canonical URL: https://nemtguide.com/states/florida/martin-county/ · Updated 2026-10-02

Martin County FL transit has two parts. Marty, the county's fixed-route bus, has been fare free since November 2025. Martin Community Coach is the door-to-door Transportation Disadvantaged service, booked at 772-469-2063 and coordinated from Vero Beach by the Senior Resource Association as Martin County Transit. Contract companies and agencies drive every one of its trips, under operator contracts that run to June 30, 2027.

- Martin Community Coach runs entirely on contract companies: the coordinator schedules from Vero Beach and emails each vendor its run.
- Operator contracts ask for $200,000 and $300,000 in liability, a Level 2 check on every driver, and full training within 90 days of hire.
- More than half of the 2025-26 Community Coach trips ran on a state innovation grant whose next round was vetoed, so trips are being limited in 2026-27.
- The state trip rate for Martin rose to $46.71 and $80.08 for 2026-27, but the trip grant behind it is only about $294,000.
- Martin has no wheelchair van permit, its business tax is $26.25 a year, and Palm Beach lets you bring a Martin rider home without its permit.

## Martin County NEMT at a glance

| Fact | Details |
| --- | --- |
| Coordinator | Martin County Transit, a Division of Senior Resource Association, 694 14th Street, Vero Beach. Coordinator since October 1, 2018, reselected in 2025 for a term through fiscal 2030. |
| Ride line and fare | 772-469-2063, weekdays 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Book 72 hours ahead. $1 each way (service plan approved August 25, 2025). |
| Who drives | Complete brokerage: contract operators and agencies ran every coordinator trip in 2024-25. Five operator contracts run to June 30, 2027. |
| Operator insurance | $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident, the state minimum under Rule 41-2.006 and the figure in Martin's contracts (2025-26 evaluation) |
| State rate, 2026-27 | $46.71 an ambulatory trip and $80.08 a wheelchair trip, up from $26.05 and $44.66 in 2025-26 (rate model approved June 1, 2026) |
| Trips, 2024-25 | 72,258 (20,246 medical) on 85 vehicles with 123 drivers, at $24.84 a trip. Operators ran 26,248 and were paid $1,092,403. |
| Community Coach, 2025-26 | 29,208 trips, 15,731 of them paid by a state innovation grant whose next round was vetoed |
| County van permit | None. County Code chapter 87, article 4 certifies ambulance and life support services only, and the code has no vehicle for hire chapter. |
| Medicaid | Region G. Modivcare books rides for members outside a plan. Sunshine Health had 6,926 of the county's 11,980 main-plan members on August 31, 2026. |

## Who arranges rides here

- [Martin County Transit, a Division of Senior Resource Association](https://www.martincommunitycoach.com/): County coordinator; schedules Martin Community Coach and holds every van operator contract. (772) 569-0760
- Martin Community Coach reservations: Books door-to-door rides for registered riders at least three business days ahead. (772) 469-2063
- [Martin Metropolitan Planning Organization](https://martinmpo.com/our-boards/local-coordinating-board-for-the-transportation-disadvantaged/): Staffs the Local Coordinating Board and ran the 2025 coordinator selection. (772) 221-1498
- [Martin County Public Transit (Marty)](https://www.martin.fl.us/transit): Runs the fare-free Marty buses and the ADA trips for riders who cannot use them. (772) 463-2860
- [Modivcare, Florida fee-for-service](https://www.modivcare.com/transportation-providers-contact-us/): Books Medicaid rides for Region G members who are not in a health plan. (866) 726-1457

Martin County FL transit means two services. Marty is the county's fixed-route bus, fare free since November 2025, with its northernmost stop at the Walmart on Lennard Road in Port St. Lucie, where riders change to St. Lucie County's Area Regional Transit. Martin Community Coach is the door-to-door service for older, disabled, and low-income residents who have no other way to travel. For a wheelchair or ambulatory van company, Community Coach is the one that matters, because the coordinator that schedules it drives none of its trips.

Community Coach is Martin's share of the Transportation Disadvantaged program, Florida's state-funded ride service, which each county runs through one [community transportation coordinator](https://nemtguide.com/glossary/community-transportation-coordinator/). Medicaid enrollment, background screening, and the state's driver and vehicle rules are in the [Florida guide](https://nemtguide.com/states/florida/).

## Who runs Martin County FL transit

Martin has had a coordinated Transportation Disadvantaged program since 1991. The Senior Resource Association, the Vero Beach nonprofit that also coordinates [Indian River County](https://nemtguide.com/states/florida/indian-river-county/), took over Martin on October 1, 2018. Since July 1, 2025 it has worked here under the name Martin County Transit, a Division of Senior Resource Association. The Martin Metropolitan Planning Organization staffs the Local Coordinating Board for the Transportation Disadvantaged and runs the coordinator selection.

The 2025 selection ran through a county request for proposals. Martin County Purchasing advertised RFP 2025-3660 on February 19, 2025, and two proposals arrived by March 19: one from Innovative Transport and Logistics Solutions and one from the Senior Resource Association. The selection committee picked SRA on April 11, the board and the MPO endorsed it on May 12, and the state commission awarded the term through fiscal 2030 on June 26, 2025.

Marty is a separate system, Martin County Public Transit, with its own phone line and its own ADA service, Marty Access.

### How riders use Martin Community Coach

The service plan the board approved on August 25, 2025 sets these rules:

- **Booking.** 772-469-2063, weekdays 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Trips need 72 hours' notice, and same-day trips are added when a seat is free, most often for riders who book in the app.
- **Who qualifies.** A resident who meets any one of these: 65 or older, income at or below 100% of the 2025 federal poverty level, a disability a physician documents on a level-of-need form, or a child with a disability or at risk. The level-of-need form also sets which kind of vehicle the rider needs.
- **Fare.** $1 each way, the amount since September 1, 2018.
- **Priorities.** Medical trips first, then employment, education, grocery, agency, and other trips. Standing trips for dialysis, work, and school may use no more than half of each month's money.
- **No-shows.** A third no-show within 60 days suspends a rider for 30 days, then 45 and 60 days after each reinstatement.
- **Medicaid riders.** Anyone eligible for Medicaid uses Medicaid transportation for medical trips.

The riders skew old. The coordinator's status report for July to October 2025 counted 989 current riders with an average age of 84.

### Martin County in numbers

The state's 2024-25 operating report counts no trips driven by the coordinator itself and none billed to the Medicaid agency. Contract operators and the agencies that carry their own clients ran every trip.

| Measure | 2023-24 | 2024-25 |
|---|---|---|
| Total trips | 63,043 | 72,258 |
| Medical trips | 19,544 | 20,246 |
| Trips run by contracted operators | 28,972 | 26,248 |
| Trips run by agencies for their own clients | 34,071 | 46,010 |
| Paid to contracted operators | $925,522 | $1,092,403 |
| Vehicles and drivers | 49 and 108 | 85 and 123 |
| Cost per trip | $34.02 | $24.84 |

The payments work out to about $32 per operator trip in 2023-24 and $41.62 in 2024-25. In 2025-26, Community Coach alone carried 29,208 trips, 23% more than the year before: 9,180 paid by the state trip grant, 15,731 by a state innovation grant, and 4,297 by the county.

## Every Community Coach trip is driven by a contract company

The service plan says it plainly: in Martin County, transportation vendors are the sole source of Transportation Disadvantaged trips, and the coordinator schedules them from its Vero Beach office. Customer care agents book each trip with a vendor, and the transportation director emails every vendor its run as a spreadsheet file. The 2025-26 evaluation says trips go out by trip volume and each vendor's capacity.

That evaluation, approved by the board on June 1, 2026, lists five operator contracts, all running to June 30, 2027. Its accessibility review counts the vehicles each one has available:

| Operator | Vehicles for Community Coach | Wheelchair accessible |
|---|---|---|
| An Answer To Care Transportation | 25 | 23 |
| Ultimate Comfort Transportation | 16 | 11 |
| Council on Aging of St. Lucie County | 8 | 8 |
| Round the Clock Transportation | 4 | 4 |
| ARC of the Treasure Coast | 2 | 2 |

Every vendor needs a contract on the state commission's standard form before it runs a trip. The evaluation says the current operators were chosen through requests for qualifications and that the newest joined in July 2024. When the coordinator picks a provider, the service plan has it weigh the company's capabilities, age and experience, management and staff, ability to carry the required insurance, training and safety programs, accident history, local knowledge, contract monitoring, reporting, financial strength, price, and how it answers the solicitation.

### What the contract asks of your drivers

- **Background.** A Level 2 check on every driver, plus criminal, child abuse, and elder abuse checks, on file with the coordinator before the first trip. A felony conviction in the past five years disqualifies a driver, and so does a DUI, careless driving, or reckless driving conviction in the past five years.
- **Training.** First aid, defensive driving, assisting passengers with disabilities, your emergency procedures, bloodborne pathogens, and fire extinguisher use, all within 90 days of hire. Wheelchair loading and tie-down training comes before a driver carries any wheelchair rider. CPR is not required, because drivers call 911.
- **Files.** Training records, a license copy, evaluations, background results, FDLE and driving record checks, and a signed drug-free workplace policy. You report a new disqualifying conviction within 24 hours.
- **Drug testing.** The coordinator's drug and alcohol policy follows Federal Transit Administration rules, and every provider and its drivers must follow it.

### What the contract asks of your vans and service

- **Insurance.** $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident, the state minimum in Rule 41-2.006 and the figure in Martin's operator and coordination contracts. The five operators reported insurance costs from $18,000 to $45,000 in the 2025-26 evaluation. See [NEMT insurance requirements](https://nemtguide.com/guides/nemt-insurance-requirements/).
- **Vehicles.** Working air conditioning, heat, and ventilation, a mirror on each side, sound seats and belts, no torn upholstery, and the safety equipment in Rule 14-90. A van that fails comes out of service until it is repaired. Yearly inspections and the December review follow the same SRA standards described on the [Indian River County](https://nemtguide.com/states/florida/indian-river-county/) page.
- **Timing.** A 60-minute pick-up window, a 15-minute wait at the door, no more than one hour on board except on long trips, and 90% on time. In the 2025-26 evaluation, two of the five operators came in below 90%.
- **Complaints.** The service plan gives you 48 hours to answer a complaint in one section and three business days in another, so answer within 48 hours. An injury, driver misconduct, or a safety issue needs an answer by the end of the same business day. Too many complaints can cost you the contract. The coordinator logged 16 complaints in 2025-26, 6 of them about vendors.
- **Billing.** You invoice the coordinator on its forms and schedule, and it pays once you sign off each invoice. State rule gives a coordinator 7 working days to pay a subcontractor after it is paid itself.

One practical point from the August 25, 2025 board meeting: a member reported that when riders cancel with Community Coach directly, the word does not always reach the vendor in time. Ask how cancellations will reach you before you sign.

### Other work near Community Coach

- **ADA trips.** Marty's drivers carry the county's ADA paratransit riders, 2 to 14 trips a day. In its 2025-26 evaluation the coordinator said it would like its Transportation Disadvantaged vendors to take those trips so Marty drivers can stay on the buses. See [ADA paratransit contracts](https://nemtguide.com/guides/ada-paratransit-contractor/).
- **Agency contracts.** The Kane Center, Helping People Succeed, ARC of the Treasure Coast, and the Council on Aging of St. Lucie County carry their own clients under coordination contracts, 46,010 trips in 2024-25.

## Why Martin trips are being cut in 2026-27

Two state grants carried much of 2025-26, and both are gone. The first was the $750,000 Innovative Service Development grant the coordinator won on June 26, 2025, which paid for 15,731 Community Coach trips and the booking app. The second was Advantage Ride, SRA's four-county program for riders with developmental disabilities, about 40,000 trips a year, which ended on June 30, 2026. A July 27, 2026 staff memo to the board says the Governor vetoed the next round of innovation grant money the state commission had approved for Martin, and that without service changes the program's money will not last through the year. The coordinator logged 18 complaints about trip limits in the last two days of June.

The state trip grant does not fill the hole. Martin's 2025-26 trip and equipment grant was $255,725 plus a $28,413 local match, and staff projected about $294,000 for 2026-27. The rate model the board approved on June 1, 2026 raised the state rate per trip to $46.71 ambulatory and $80.08 wheelchair, from $26.05 and $44.66, so each grant dollar now buys fewer state-funded trips. The state commission's September 17, 2026 package proposes deleting the innovation grant from Rule 41-2.014 because it has no recurring funding. The July memo asked the board to choose among service reduction options, and the board meets next on December 7, 2026 at 10 a.m. in the Commission Chambers, 2401 SE Monterey Road, Stuart.

## Does Martin County require a permit for wheelchair vans

No. Article 4 of chapter 87 of the Martin County Code sets four certificates of public convenience and necessity, all for ambulance and other advanced or basic life support services, reviewed by the Fire Rescue Chief. The code has no vehicle for hire or wheelchair van chapter. The county business tax under chapter 123 is $26.25 a year for every business, due by September 30, at half price for a business that starts in the second half of the license year. Add a city receipt if you are based in Stuart or another city. State rules are in [Florida NEMT license rules](https://nemtguide.com/guides/florida-nemt-license/).

Trips south are different. Palm Beach County permits wheelchair and stretcher companies as vehicles for hire, but section 19-217 of its code lets you drop off a rider you lawfully picked up in Martin and bring that rider home on a prearranged trip without a Palm Beach permit, with proof of the booking on hand. Its code lists Martin as a possible reciprocal county only if Martin adopts matching vehicle for hire permits, which it has not. The [Palm Beach County](https://nemtguide.com/states/florida/palm-beach-county/) page covers that permit.

## Medicaid rides in Martin County

Martin is in Medicaid Region G under section 409.966 of the Florida Statutes. Members outside a health plan book with Modivcare at 1-866-726-1457, but the 2025 capacity tables in the state's NEMT waiver list no Modivcare vehicles based in Martin County. The [Modivcare in Florida](https://nemtguide.com/brokers/modivcare/florida/) page covers how to join that network.

Most members are in a plan, and Sunshine Health holds more than half of them. As of August 31, 2026:

| Plan | Members in Martin, main plan | Ride broker |
|---|---|---|
| [Sunshine Health](https://nemtguide.com/health-plans/sunshine-health-florida/) | 6,926 | [Alivi](https://nemtguide.com/brokers/alivi/) |
| [Humana](https://nemtguide.com/health-plans/humana-healthy-horizons-florida/) | 2,809 | [Modivcare](https://nemtguide.com/brokers/modivcare/) |
| [Simply Healthcare](https://nemtguide.com/health-plans/simply-healthcare-florida/) | 1,487 | Ride2MD |
| [Community Care Plan](https://nemtguide.com/health-plans/community-care-plan-florida/) | 573 | Modivcare |
| [Florida Community Care](https://nemtguide.com/health-plans/florida-community-care/) | 180 | Ride2MD |

The county has 11,980 main-plan members in all. Long-term care adds 698, led by Florida Community Care (227), Humana (217), Sunshine (185), and Simply (67).

## What to do first in Martin County

1. **Call the coordinator's office at 772-569-0760.** Ask whether it is adding vendors or cutting trips for 2026-27, what it pays per trip, and how it sends runs and cancellations.
2. **Get your paperwork into the shape it checks.** Insurance at $200,000 and $300,000 or more, Level 2 checks, a drug and alcohol program on federal transit rules, a written driver training policy, and wheelchair tie-down training records. [Subcontracting NEMT trips](https://nemtguide.com/guides/subcontract-nemt-trips/) covers how these deals work.
3. **Pay the $26.25 county business tax** and any city receipt.
4. **Go to the December 7, 2026 board meeting.** Service cuts and the next rate model come through the Local Coordinating Board. The MPO answers at 772-221-1498.
5. **Enroll with Florida Medicaid, then apply to the brokers.** Alivi, Modivcare, and Ride2MD carry Martin's plan members, and Modivcare listed no Martin-based vehicles in 2025.

Region G continues south into [Palm Beach County](https://nemtguide.com/states/florida/palm-beach-county/) and north into St. Lucie County, where the county itself is the coordinator.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is the Marty bus in Martin County free?

Yes. Marty, the county's fixed-route bus, went fare free in November 2025, and the coordinator's report for July 2025 to June 2026 counted 143,393 rides, up 24% on the year before. Its northernmost stop is the Walmart on Lennard Road in Port St. Lucie, where riders transfer to St. Lucie County's Area Regional Transit. Martin Community Coach, the door-to-door service, charges $1 each way.

### Who runs Martin Community Coach?

The Senior Resource Association, the Vero Beach nonprofit that is also Indian River County's coordinator, has coordinated Martin's Transportation Disadvantaged program since October 1, 2018. Since July 1, 2025 it operates here as Martin County Transit, a Division of Senior Resource Association. It won the 2025 selection under RFP 2025-3660 over one other proposer, and the state approved its new term on June 26, 2025.

### How do I become a Martin Community Coach transportation provider?

Call the coordinator's office at 772-569-0760 and ask to be considered as a transportation vendor. Every vendor signs the state commission's standard contract before it runs a trip, and the current operators were chosen through requests for qualifications. Expect a Level 2 check on each driver, $200,000 and $300,000 liability limits, training within 90 days of hire, and a review every December.

### Does Martin County require a license for wheelchair transportation?

No. Article 4 of chapter 87 of the Martin County Code sets four certificates of public convenience and necessity, and all four cover ambulance and other life support services. The code has no vehicle for hire or wheelchair van chapter. You still need the county business tax receipt, $26.25 a year, and any city receipt where you are based.

### Why is Martin Community Coach limiting trips in 2026-27?

A $750,000 state innovation grant, awarded June 26, 2025, paid for 15,731 of the 29,208 Community Coach trips in 2025-26. A July 27, 2026 memo to the Local Coordinating Board says the Governor vetoed the next year's grant money the state commission had approved, and that current service levels cannot last through the year without changes. The coordinator logged 18 complaints about trip limits in the last two days of June 2026.

### Who arranges Medicaid rides in Stuart and Hobe Sound?

Martin is in Medicaid Region G. Members outside a health plan book with Modivcare at 1-866-726-1457. Plan members book through their plan's broker: Alivi for Sunshine Health, Modivcare for Humana and Community Care Plan, and Ride2MD for Simply Healthcare and Florida Community Care. The county service plan tells Medicaid-eligible riders to use Medicaid transportation for medical trips.

## Official resources

- [Martin Community Coach](https://www.martincommunitycoach.com/)
- [Martin MPO: Local Coordinating Board for the Transportation Disadvantaged](https://martinmpo.com/our-boards/local-coordinating-board-for-the-transportation-disadvantaged/)
- [Martin County: Transit (Marty)](https://www.martin.fl.us/transit)
- [Florida Administrative Code: Rule 41-2.006, insurance and service standards for coordinated trips](https://www.flrules.org/gateway/ruleNo.asp?id=41-2.006)
- [Florida CTD: Community Transportation Coordinators](https://www.fdot.gov/ctd/community-transportation-coordinators)
- [Modivcare: Transportation Providers, Contact Us](https://www.modivcare.com/transportation-providers-contact-us/)