Passenger Trains > Worker Shortages Hindering Public Transit

 Nearly all North American public transit agencies have worker shortages the American Public Transportation Association said this week.
The trade group said 96 percent of North American transit agencies responding to a survey it conducted do not have enough staff.
Eighty-four percent of agencies indicated the worker shortage is affecting their ability to provide regular service. The shortages are occurring at agencies in communities of all sizes.

“This shortage is complex, multifaceted, and connected to changes in the broader culture and economy,” said APTA President and CEO Paul Skoutelas. “This workforce shortage is the confluence of multiple factors and successfully responding to it will involve a comprehensive approach.”
APTA's recommended steps to help ease the shortage in the short term includes increasing compensation, improving worker schedules, creating a positive work environment, and ensuring worker safety.
The APTA study also recommends building a resilient workforce development program. From the akronrrblog

One can make very good money driving a bus. Most transit agencies will train you for your CDL and have top pay in the 29 to 35 dollar per hour range. And you don't need to get hundreds of thousands of dollars in student load debt to obtain that kind of job. Overtime opportunities abound.

Posted from Android

so, why the shortage of workers?

66

goneon66 Wrote:
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> so, why the shortage of workers?
>
> 66
UM lets see Biden has free money still flowing for one another think some now live with parents again so why work?  Know that its very hard to find mechanics for there coaches know two properties that have trouble finding anyone qualified enough for that job. It has good benifits and pay for one the other is great working conditions as there shops are well equiped and heated. I worked for a system for 25yrs mostly on coaches did major over hauls on trasmissions and engines among other things.

My county's tiny rural-like bus system is critically short drivers and can't get any. One died of Covid, as did several para-transit drivers, and an office worker. They had quite a few retirements. NJT pays better. Some quit to work for furniture truck companies like Hoffman & Koos who pay better too. 

Utah Transit Authority (UTA) was in the news a few days ago for a similar issue. Ski buses run from the Salt Lake valley up Big and Little Cottonwood canyons to serve the ski resorts at the top during the winter, and it helps because there isn’t a lot of parking up the canyons. The news is that UTA will only be running half of the normal service this winter (every 30 mins vs every 15 mins) because of a shortage of drivers. And there are additional routes that are being cut, suspended, or having service curtailed next month as part of the thrice annual “service change day”. Frankly, it’s not unexpected as UTA has been talking about the staffing issues for a while. Traffic in the canyons will probably be worse because of this, but I don’t ski so I probably won’t notice. As for the other routes, those who actually depend on the buses will be affected, and I wonder what it will do to the overall ridership numbers.

As for why finding employees is hard, a factor around here is a super low unemployment rate - jobs are a dime a dozen instead of job seekers. But that’s just one of many factors, and UTA will have to figure out how to make their jobs attractive in a competitive environment.

https://www.ksl.com/article/50521796/uta-ski-bus-service-cut-in-half-for-the-season

Posted from iPhone

Don't you just love the news releases by transportation operators, which say absolutely nothing and use all the correct buzz words:

"worker shortages" (In spite of good union wages we cannot keep workers because no one wants to drive a bus or operate a subway train)  

"complex, multi-faceted and connected to changes in the broader culture and economy"   (we have so elevated the expectations of this younger generation that working in a job they do not like is sometihing they will not do.  Wages are good, but I really do not want to work every day.........)

"increasing compensation, improving worker schedules, creating a positive work environment and ensuring worker safety"   (You mean I have to come to work every day for eight hours?  I really need Thanksgiving Day off.  I am so stressed with the demands of this job)

"resilient work force"  (I will have to move in with my mom & dad, but at least I will have some down time)

There's also a problem with drug use.  Bus operators, dispatchers and others are subject to unannounced drug testing.

norm1153 Wrote:
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> There's also a problem with drug use.  Bus
> operators, dispatchers and others are subject to
> unannounced drug testing.

That ain't nothing new. CDL drivers have always been subject to these requirements.

norm1153 Wrote:
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> There's also a problem with drug use.  Bus
> operators, dispatchers and others are subject to
> unannounced drug testing.

pre-employment drug screens could be also be a factor in reducing the pool of qualified candidates too in this day and age.......

66

I am having a similar issue with up in NJ getting truck and paratransit drivers for a county agency.   Our pay isn't competitive with private companies and benefits for the new hires have been whittled down a lot.

Add in the new requirement to go to school for the CDL license.   This took our staff out of training new hires to obtain the CDL.   We have to send them to school or hire with a CDL.

The drug testing has always occured but with NJ now allowing recreational use of cannibas it is getting very difficult to hire new drivers that can pass the test.   They don't relaize it isn't legal for truck, bus, or paratransit drivers. 

The younger generation in my area doesn't want this kind of job.   They want to be able to work from home, have some week-days off and expect to get paid 6 figures.

SpringedSwitch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> norm1153 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > There's also a problem with drug use.  Bus
> > operators, dispatchers and others are subject
> to
> > unannounced drug testing.
>
> That ain't nothing new. CDL drivers have always
> been subject to these requirements.

Not always, only since the early 90s.
We are on a site that everyone complains about rails not getting paid enough, crappy schedules and a company that doesnt care. The bus would is no party. Work schedules are just as bad, pay is a lot worse and benifits suck. Most come without coveted railroad retirement or anything else. On top of that you have to put up with bitchy people that dont want you to do your job, they want you to cater to them. If they feel you haven't then the phone calls start. As a driver, right or wrong you are the guilty party regardless since someone complained. And then you deal with other cars on the road that complain just because your a bus an in their way or the lane they think you shouldn't be in.

You are constantly told there are plenty of people willing to do your job with little to no support. If your lucky to have benifits and a union, I went from good insurance 30 years ago to next to nothing and still having 400 dollars a month removed for those and 1400 if you want decent benifits. As far as A\C controlled, our shop had no A\C and temps from th 20s to 115. Admin would sit in a air conditioned office and tell you to get back out and work if you sat down to do paperwork.

After I retired they advertised my job for 15 an hour and since there were no takers, the answer is lazy people just don't want to work. Since retirement I have thought about working a little, all jobs in my county are the same,15 per hour most no benefits. A driver in the county I reside make the same as someone at KFC in Redding. The jobs are there because they still won't pay a decent wage.

cjvrr Wrote:
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> The younger generation in my area doesn't want
> this kind of job.   They want to be able to work
> from home, have some week-days off and expect to
> get paid 6 figures.

It's not just your area. Don't want to dwell on the millennial stereotype as I know plenty of younger people willing to do real work, but what you mention is a growing problem. Seen too many workers whine about lack of hours (want money) but call in sick because they can't handle the 40 hour work week.

"Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times."

MEKoch Wrote:
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> Don't you just love the news releases by
> transportation operators, which say absolutely
> nothing and use all the correct buzz words:
>
> (snip) no need to requote the rest, unless people are too unmotivated to scroll up and read your post. :-)

Spot on. I'd be laughing if your proper rephrasing wasn't so sadly true.
 

Competitive wage is a moving target when the unemployment rate is 3% or 3.5%.

Posted from Android

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> Competitive wage is a moving target when the
> unemployment rate is 3% or 3.5%.

Before the pandemic, there were talks of "working class retaliation" where they felt the need to backlash against employers taking advantage of worker glut, for example "ghosting" prospective employees after interviews.

So that's what might be happening now, where the unemployment rate is "low" so the workers are trying to "pwn" the employers... and I use that (video) gamer term on purpose. Seems it's more about ideological mind games, taking for granted that we don't have to rain dance so our food can grow, or go hunting for food, come back empty, and starve.

Whatever the case, from a famous quote I borrowed above, weak men create hard times.

pt199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> “This shortage is complex, multifaceted, and
> connected to changes in the broader culture and
> economy,” said APTA President and CEO Paul
> Skoutelas. “This workforce shortage is the
> confluence of multiple factors and successfully
> responding to it will involve a comprehensive
> approach.”


This sounds suspiciously like MBA-speak.  The fluent use of multiple 12+ letter adjectives is a characteristic of today's management, indicating a far better ability to memorize big words than solve problems.  Back in the day when management worked its way up from the bottom, the higher you got, the more experience you had with everything under you. And they tended to use the simpler language they had learned at the bottom.   Like.........need more employees?  Raise the pay.  Or improve the working conditions.  Be competitive or pay the price.  These days, the high-pay management is asked for a solution and all you get is useless, MBABS.  The meaningless, useless drivel I hear coming out of management in government, corporations, etc. these days makes me want to step out on the porch and p*ke.

If you need people to perform your company's service, you have two choices.

Pay more, and provide better working conditions, or reduce your business.

If the going rate for clean ticket CDL drivers is $30, that's where you start. Not $20 and complain about lazy workers.

Posted from Android

so, how many transit agencies in this day and age that have worker shortages also have current or imminent funding problems?

i would not expect them to be offering industry leading pay to attract more workers UNTIL those funding problems are resolved............

66















 

This is pretty much spot-on for many of the jobs offered in transportation.

Add to that the insult of drug testing (guilty until proven innocent) and its no wonder these jobs are unfilled.

Local bus operations here are offering about $18 an hour to deal with being a homeless rest stop, cleaning up all sorts of nastiness from the bus, and working alone with no protection of any kind in all hours and often in the worst areas.

Every time you hear "No one wants to work" add on the words "for your lousy job". Also most of those saying that would NEVER take that job themselves and are usually the ones with benefits and a decent position.

Michael

TomG Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> Not always, only since the early 90s.
> We are on a site that everyone complains about
> rails not getting paid enough, crappy schedules
> and a company that doesnt care. The bus would is
> no party. Work schedules are just as bad, pay is a
> lot worse and benifits suck. Most come without
> coveted railroad retirement or anything else. On
> top of that you have to put up with bitchy people
> that dont want you to do your job, they want you
> to cater to them. If they feel you haven't then
> the phone calls start. As a driver, right or wrong
> you are the guilty party regardless since someone
> complained. And then you deal with other cars on
> the road that complain just because your a bus an
> in their way or the lane they think you shouldn't
> be in.
>
> You are constantly told there are plenty of people
> willing to do your job with little to no support.
> If your lucky to have benifits and a union, I went
> from good insurance 30 years ago to next to
> nothing and still having 400 dollars a month
> removed for those and 1400 if you want decent
> benifits. As far as A\C controlled, our shop had
> no A\C and temps from th 20s to 115. Admin would
> sit in a air conditioned office and tell you to
> get back out and work if you sat down to do
> paperwork.
>
> After I retired they advertised my job for 15 an
> hour and since there were no takers, the answer is
> lazy people just don't want to work. Since
> retirement I have thought about working a little,
> all jobs in my county are the same,15 per hour
> most no benefits. A driver in the county I reside
> make the same as someone at KFC in Redding. The
> jobs are there because they still won't pay a
> decent wage.