Augustana College Express Service (ACES), has had to reduce its hours of operations, sometimes by a few hours, or closing the service entirely for the night due to the fluctuating weather.
ACES closed most recently on Jan. 19 due to the road conditions. However ACES co-director Daniel O’Leary says ACES doesn’t close on a regular basis.
O’Leary said if drivers don’t think the conditions outside were manageable, they would alter the service, such as not being able to go down hills or avoiding streets that were hazardous for the night, like 34th and 7th.
“We stop taking calls at 1:50 a.m. on the weekends to make sure that the employees get done on time.” said O’Leary. The wait time on the weekends also doesn’t exceed past 2 a.m. as a way to make sure that everyone gets out on time.
ACES operates on different hours as the seasons change, by extending the service one hour in the winter time, making the hours 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. During the fall and spring terms, the hours return the 7 p.m. to 2 a.m.
“ACES is a student operated, student managed service, that allows students to be transported around campus and the neighborhood in a safe manner,” said Thomas Phillis, Chief of Police, for the Augustana College Police Department. The service is free of charge and only requires a student’s ID number to get picked up and dropped off, said Phillis.
ACES does not take people to business establishments, such as HyVee or Taco Bell, said Phillis. This time of year the service gets extremely busy and is built on the foundation of the safety of students on campus. When roads icy or slippery, Phillis said that they consider the “safety of the students with the safety of driving a vehicle out on the road.”
Currently, ACES has 31 students employed. O’Leary has hired the other three current directors and gets everything set up for the night. Along with the drivers, there are directors for payroll, scheduling, personnel, and IT.
Just last year there was a total of 22,665 people using ACES, with 6,213 people just in the fall.
