One Door. Every Passenger.
The AbiliTrax Shift-N-Step is a dual-access lift system that moves your side-entry wheelchair lift out of the way—so ambulatory riders board through the same door, at the same curb, on the same trip.
No second entrance. No separate loading. No one waiting outside while the lift cycles.
Sales, installation and service at A&J Mobility locations across Wisconsin and northern Illinois.
THE PROBLEM
If you operate accessible vans, you already know the tradeoff.
Put a lift at the side door, and you've committed that door to wheelchair passengers. Ambulatory riders go somewhere else — a different door, a different vehicle, or a wait while the lift deploys and stows.
That costs you two things:
Time. Every mixed-load trip becomes a sequencing problem.
Fleet flexibility. Vehicles get assigned by passenger need instead of route.
WHAT IT DOES
The Shift-N-Step mounts your commercial wheelchair lift on a track at the side door.
1. Stowed and shifted. The lift sits shifted out of the doorway, leaving a clear ambulatory entrance through the factory sliding door.
2. Riders board normally. Ambulatory passengers use the step and grab handles, curbside, like any passenger van.
3. Lift shifts into position. When a wheelchair passenger needs to board, the operator moves the lift into the doorway and deploys it as usual.
Same door. Same curb. Same vehicle.
WHY OPERATORS SPECIFY IT
Everyone uses the same entrance
This is the reason most of our fleet customers call about it. Multiple passenger needs stop being a logistics exercise. For school districts, students board together. For senior living and adult day programs, no one is singled out at the curb. For paratransit and NEMT, you get true curbside service for every rider on the manifest.
One vehicle, two missions
A Shift-N-Step van doesn't have to be your "wheelchair van." It's a crossover — run it as an ambulatory passenger van in the morning and an accessible unit in the afternoon. Fewer specialized vehicles sitting idle waiting for the right trip to come along.
Van-based, not bus-based
AbiliTrax positions the system as a lower total cost of ownership than a comparable body-on-chassis bus. Staying on a van platform also tends to widen the pool of drivers an operator can hire and keep — a point transportation managers raise with us more than any spec on the sheet.
Built for public procurement
The Shift-N-Step is ADA-compliant and FTA Buy America-compliant, which matters if any part of your purchase is federally funded. AbiliTrax product has appeared on state DOT contracts, and our fleet team can help you confirm current contract vehicles and specification language for your bid.
WHO WE BUILD THESE FOR
School districts and cooperative transportation: Routes where students with multiple needs board together and configurations change. Also, schools that want one multi-use non-CDL vehicle to cover all their needs.
Paratransit and public transit agencies: Demand-response service with unpredictable ambulatory-to-wheelchair ratios.
Non-emergency medical transportation: Mixed manifests, tight turnarounds, curbside pickup at residences and clinics.
Senior living, assisted living and adult day programs: One vehicle that covers the outing, the appointment run, and the resident who uses a chair.
Counties, municipalities and human services agencies: Grant-funded vehicles that have to serve everyone in the service area.
Churches, nonprofits and community organizations: Small fleets that can't justify a dedicated accessible vehicle sitting unused.
FUNDING AND PROCUREMENT
We regularly work with:
- State DOT and state contract purchasing
- County and municipal procurement and bid processes
- School district transportation budgets and cooperative purchasing
- Foundation and community grant funding
If your purchase involves federal dollars, Buy America compliance is a threshold question — and the Shift-N-Step clears it. If you're writing a bid or a grant application, send us the draft. We'd rather help you get the specification language right the first time than watch a good application get kicked back.
WHY BUY IT FROM A&J MOBILITY
We've been a family-owned mobility company for more than 50 years. Fleet work is a different animal from retail, and we staff it that way.
Installation by our own technicians. Not brokered out.
Service after the sale. Locations across Wisconsin and northern Illinois, with technicians who know the system because they installed it.
Spec support before the sale. Bring us the routes, the passenger counts, and the constraints. We'll build the configuration around them.
Driver and staff training. Your people get hands-on time with the lift, the securement system and the seat bases before the vehicle goes into service.
Fleet service scheduling. We understand that a vehicle out of service is a route that doesn't run.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is the Shift-N-Step? A dual-access lift system from AbiliTrax that mounts a commercial wheelchair lift on a track at the side door. The lift shifts out of the doorway when it's not in use, leaving a clear entrance for ambulatory passengers through the same door.
Which vehicles does it fit? Primarily the Ford Transit in medium and extended body configurations, with availability on RAM ProMaster and Mercedes Sprinter. Contact us to confirm current model year availability for your chassis.
Is it ADA compliant? Yes. It's also FTA Buy America compliant, which matters for federally funded purchases.
Can it be added to a van we already own? Contact our fleet team with your year, make, model and current configuration. Retrofit feasibility depends on the vehicle and what's already installed.
Can we see one before we buy? Yes. Tell us where you're located and we'll arrange a demonstration.
