Transportation Assistant

Transportation Assistant

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Somerset, Kentucky

Salary Range: $44959 - $58445 Per Year

Job Summary: Veteran Transportation Service (VTS) will operate within the Service located at the VA Medical Center/Health Care System (VAMC/HCS) with several Community Based Outpatient Clinics. The Transportation Assistant works with the VTS Supervisory Mobility Manager for transportation workload forecasting, scheduling design, procedure development, and quality improvement implementation , modification of processes, evaluation and ongoing operational flow of the Veteran Transportation Services program.

Major Duties:

• This job opportunity announcement (JOA) will be used to fill three (5) full-time and permanent Transportation Assistant vacancies at the Lexington, KY Veteran Affairs Medical Center (VAMC). Veteran Transportation Service (VTS) will operate within the Service located at the VA Medical Center/Health Care System (VAMC/HCS) with several Community Based Outpatient Clinics. The incumbent reports directly to the Supervisor, Mobility Manager at the VA Medical Center. Staffing within the Veteran Transportation Service includes: Supervisory Mobility Manager, VTS Drivers (Motor Vehicle Operators WG-5703-06), Beneficiary Travel (Transportation Assistants GS-2102-06); VTS Transportation Coordinators (Transportation Assistants GS-2102-06); Fleet Manager (Transportation Assistant GS- 2102-06); and Program Support Assistant GS 0303-06 and other possible support staff. This position is a Transportation Coordinator at the facility level and acts as primary contact to Veterans for transportation needs. The incumbent works with the VTS Supervisory Mobility Manager for transportation workload forecasting, scheduling design, procedure development, and quality improvement implementation , modification of processes, evaluation and ongoing operational flow of the Veteran Transportation Services program. The coordination of transportation function is multi-faceted and diverse. The three major areas of responsibility are: Scheduling, Data Collection, & Tracking Support; Consult Management responsibilities; Program Support responsibilities. The incumbent must have knowledge of clinical services, related software and programs as they relate to clinical computing and office automation. Duties include but are not limited to: Monitors and audits all beneficiary travel accounts. Projects quarterly expenditures for beneficiary travel and must maintain accurate accounting records to support expenditures and projections. Prepares beneficiary travel vouchers for beneficiaries claiming reimbursement of their travel expenses in accordance with current Federal rates, mileage, and determining additional allowances for ferry, bridge, and road and tunnel tolls when appropriate. Provides written correspondence to Veterans and third party providers concerning beneficiary travel claims. Prepares correspondence to Veterans concerning their eligibility and counsels Veterans who do not meet criteria for travel reimbursement. Communicates in written and orally with internal and external customers. Determines beneficiaries' eligibility for travel reimbursement. Responsible for all documentation of domestic travel arrangements for beneficiaries traveling at Government expense is the most cost-efficient. Arranges and monitors transportation beneficiary travel eligible passengers by commercial means or government vehicle. Makes reservations and acquiring any tickets needed by third party carriers. Protects printed and electronic files containing sensitive data IAW Privacy Act of 1974 and any other applicable laws, Federal regulations, VA statutes, and VHA policy. Protects Veterans data from unauthorized release or from loss, alteration, or unauthorized deletion. Provides training and education in all matters under the purview of their position. Informs supervisor of backlogs or other circumstances which may have a negative effect on the medical center or beneficiary travel fund control points. Serves as a timekeeper or back-up timekeeper for Time and Leave. Manages over a million dollars Beneficiary Travel Program budget. Maintains accounting records for fund control points with sub-accounts. Maintains accounts of all VAMC obligations concerning Beneficiary Travel such as: cash, vouchers, unauthorized ambulance bills, special modes of transportation, interfacility transfers, emergent transportation, non-emergent transportation, and taxi's or any other third party vendors. Computes, records, and verifies transportation mileage cost and subsistence costs related to travel claims. Reviews requests for reimbursement in compliance with regulations and procedures, completeness, accuracy, internal consistency, and agreement with basic authorization principles. Collects data for preparation of reports for internal reviews. Responsible for receiving and completing vouchers for unauthorized claims of ambulance transportation. Other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:00am to 4:30pm Telework: Adhoc -This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Virtual: This is NOT a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Transportation Assistant/PD30320A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/24/2025. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-06 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-05. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-05 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: (1) Make sound and logical decisions by identifying and utilizing appropriate resources when dealing with problems, issues, situations, and customers. (2) Working knowledge of laws, regulations, directives, polices, procedures, performance measures and guidelines relating to VA medical benefits administration, organizational structure, VA mission/goals, Privacy Act of 1974, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and HIPPA. (3) Ability to meet and deal effectively with a wide variety of staff from many educational and skill levels to communicate clear instructions and interpretations. (4) Ability to prepare and produce written instructions and a variety of correspondence using Microsoft software and other software programs. (5) Knowledgeable of consult management/scheduling/admissions/discharge, transfer, and administration with patient processing including diagnostic tests/studies, availability of these within the medical center. (6) Working knowledge of electronic medical records. (7) Knowledge of various departments within the medical center and policies and procedures as they are related to the Veteran Transportation Service Program clinics and patient care. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Conflict Management Customer Service Financial Management Information Assurance Oral Communication Organizational Awareness Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: ncumbent will be exposed to stressful working situations that will require a professional attitude and collective reasoning. The incumbent is subject to a high volume of work, the need for accuracy, frequency of interruptions and ever changing demands due to program changes. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

How to Apply: All applicants are encouraged to apply online. To apply for this position, you must complete the questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section below. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on 11/24/2025 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12830584. To begin, click Apply Online to create a USA JOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USA JOBS resume and/or other supporting documents and complete the occupational questionnaire. Click Submit My Answers to submit your application package. NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date. Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed. Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement. Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume: Prioritize most relevant and recent experience Use concise, results focused language Align language from the job announcement Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies Remove outdated or unrelated experience Use the USAJOBS resume builder Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at: https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/merit-hiring-plan-resources/applicant-guidance-on-the-two-page-resume-limit/ Special Employment Consideration: VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply, including those eligible for hiring under 5 CFR 213.3102(u), Schedule A, Appointment of persons with disabilities [i.e., intellectual disabilities, severe physical disabilities, or psychiatric disabilities], and/or Disabled veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30% or more. Contact the Agency Contact for information on how to apply under this appointment authority via the Selective Placement Coordinator. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal/VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be well-qualified: applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in most of the required competencies of the job. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/. During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.

Application Deadline: 2025-11-24