"Helping Disabled Commuters" SK Telecom Launches 'Kind Shuttle' Dedicated to Transportation-Vulnerable Users

[Asia Economy Reporter Seol Gina Jo] A (38), a person with severe developmental disabilities living in Seongnam City, is no longer afraid of the commute. With just one reservation through a dedicated app, comfortable transportation from home to the workplace, a sheltered workshop for people with disabilities, is possible. A professional boarding and alighting assistant accompanies from bus boarding to alighting, and the GPS-based 'Smart Jikimi' worn on A’s wrist provides real-time location information, giving families peace of mind.

SK Telecom is launching a mobility service to support workers with severe disabilities who face difficulties due to poor commuting environments.

On the 6th, SK Telecom announced that it signed a 'Joint Cooperation Agreement for the Promotion of Mobility Rights and Employment Welfare for Persons with Severe Disabilities' with the Korea Employment Agency for Persons with Disabilities, Seongnam City, and Modu Shuttle. Accordingly, starting at the end of this month, a pilot project called ‘Good Shuttle Mobility’ will begin operating, supporting door-to-door commuting from home to workplace for about 70 persons with severe disabilities working at vocational rehabilitation facilities for the disabled in Seongnam City. This is the first time that regular shuttle services dedicated to transportation-vulnerable groups are provided by local governments.

The ‘Good Shuttle Mobility’ pilot project will officially start with nine 25-seat minibuses operating on nine routes. Professional ‘boarding and alighting assistants’ will board the vehicles first to help persons with disabilities get on and off, and a hotline will be established with guardians and sheltered workshops to respond quickly to emergencies. Considering the COVID-19 situation, the number of passengers is limited to a maximum of 14, and safety partitions are installed at each seat.

SK Telecom will incorporate the latest ICT solutions for safer and more convenient service operation in this pilot project. By analyzing T map data, optimal safe routes for each operating line will be provided, and the GPS-based real-time location tracking service ‘Smart Jikimi’ will be offered to customers so that guardians can check the wearer’s location information in real time.

Additionally, to reduce the cost burden for customers using ‘Good Shuttle Mobility,’ service fees will be subsidized. As a result, the average monthly cost burden for the 70 pilot project participants will decrease from 32,380 KRW to 21,520 KRW, saving more than 10,000 KRW. The average travel time per user will also be reduced by about 30%, from approximately 50 minutes.

The Korea Employment Agency for Persons with Disabilities and Seongnam City will provide practical operational management and institutional support. In particular, the agency will designate SKT’s ‘Smart Jikimi’ as an assistive technology device and provide it free of charge to ‘Good Shuttle Mobility’ users, while Seongnam City will manage and supervise the service and support the labor costs of boarding and alighting assistants. Modu Shuttle will operate the actual vehicle based on its know-how in running shared commuting shuttles.

Starting with this public-private cooperation, it is expected that if mobility rights and work environments enabling persons with severe disabilities to work stably are established, opportunities for social participation for persons with disabilities will naturally expand. The Korea Employment Agency for Persons with Disabilities analyzed that if commuting issues for persons with disabilities improve through ‘Good Shuttle Mobility,’ about 500 additional persons with disabilities could be employed in Seongnam City alone.

‘Good Shuttle Mobility’ will operate the pilot project until March next year and plans to consider expanding the service target from persons with severe disabilities to all socially vulnerable groups such as the elderly and pregnant women. If the service expands and the number of users increases, new job creation for shuttle drivers, boarding and alighting assistants for persons with disabilities, and other service operations is also expected.

Woo-ung Hwan, Head of SK Telecom SV Innovation Center, said, "'Good Shuttle Mobility' is expected to play a significant role as a bridge connecting vulnerable groups across our society using 5G era technology," adding, "We will continue efforts to solve various social problems by building an ICT-based social safety net even in the post-COVID-19 era."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.