After data analysis and expert interviews, GAO published this report which describes: (1) the status of transit agencies’ transition to zero-emission bus fleets and any challenges they may face meeting transition goals; (2) skill- and workforce-development needs of transit agencies and actions selected agencies are taking to address any workforce gaps; and (3) recommended FTA actions to assist transit agencies in preparing their workforces for zero-emission buses.
It is increasingly difficult to recruit and retain rural and tribal transit drivers. This National RTAP Best Practices Spotlight Article provides practical and easy-to-implement strategies from transit leaders that agencies can use to create a workplace that drivers will want to remain in and thrive in. This article includes advice from Eastern Sierra Transit Authority (ESTA), Redding Area Bus Authority (RABA), Heart of Iowa Regional Transit Agency (HIRTA), and Big Woods Transit (BWT).
Making Connections 2024 – Outreach and Retention for Under-Represented and Underserved Communities
This session about recruitment initiatives for underserved populations was presented as part of TWC’s Making Connections 2024 transit workforce conference in November, 2024.
Session Description: This session dove deeper into targeted recruitment strategies for frontline transit careers. While the general outreach techniques covered in other Making Connections sessions work well across populations, some groups that have historically been underrepresented in transit may need to be recruited through intentional, specific approaches. This session featured industry experts who have been involved with thoughtful, creative recruitment methods targeting groups of people not often considered in recruitment efforts, including veterans, individuals returning to the community after incarceration, people with disabilities, and those experiencing homelessness. Participants gained new ideas for innovative recruitment techniques that can bolster the inclusiveness of transit workplaces and identify qualified candidates.
Moderator:
Dr. Shayna Gleason: Senior Researcher – International Transportation Learning Center / Transit Workforce Center
Speakers:
Dominique Bolton: Homeless Case Manager – Community Development Inc. (MS)
Dr. Charles Husband: Program Specialist Team Leader – Mississippi Department of Transportation
Bianca W. Phillips: Community Recruitment Manager – IndyGo
Lora Posey: DSA Director – Community Development Inc. (MS)
Adam Rosenfield: Program Manager, Workforce Outreach – CapMetro
Judy Shanley: Assistant Vice President & National Director, Transportation & Mobility – Easterseals
This Workforce Development Playbook – a menu of malleable strategies and tactics that can be applied in different situational contexts – is meant to serve two purposes:
To document best practices in workforce development focusing on California but with applicability nationally and sources.
To set the first “Gold Standard” guiding owners who want to incorporate workforce development goals into their infrastructure projects.
To develop the Playbook, WSP and Accelerator for America (AFA) supported by The James Irvine Foundation, gathered information on current standards, practices, and barriers to workforce development efforts through interviews with key stakeholders across the industry in California, including project owners, community benefit organizations (CBOs), and government leaders.
This webinar covers strategies for advancing equity through the use of data. The event is co-hosted by the Department of Labor’s Chief Evaluation Office and the Employment and Training Administration’s Office of Workforce Investment and shares DOL issued guidance on increasing equitable service access and outcomes for job seekers in WIOA Adult and Dislocated Worker programs. Speakers share experiences and resources that cover principles and frameworks for collecting and using data to examine issues of equity; leveraging data collaboratives; and using data in research and service delivery. State and local workforce representatives share their efforts to advance equity by: enhancing data quality; building capacity to use data; and developing and using data dashboards, data collaboratives, and other tools.
MODERATOR(S)
Megan Lizik, Senior Evaluation Specialist, U.S. Department of Labor
Kim Vitelli, Administrator, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Office of Workforce Investment
PRESENTER(S)
Kristin Wolff, Senior Associate, Social Policy Research Associates
Ellie Hartman, Chief Evaluation Officer, WI Department of Workforce Development
Zen Van Loan, Senior Program Specialist, Texas Workforce Commission; Adjunct Professor, Texas State University
Angelina Tram Nguyen, Research Director at Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development
Bringing services to rural workers and employers has long been a challenge in the workforce development system. This webinar features two real-world solutions: the use of mobile units, and the use of virtual job fairs.
Hear from South Carolina and Massachusetts about their successful implementation of their unique strategies.
MODERATOR(S)
Tim Theberge, Division Director, Office of Trade Adjustment Assistance
PRESENTER(S)
Adam Wagoner, Deputy Director, South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce
Chris Mills, Program Coordinator, MassHire Department of Career Services
The goal of this research is to provide transit industry executives and transportation professionals with awareness of the many tools that are available to help attract more qualified candidates to the transit industry, as well as ways to advance the development
of the transit workforce. This research highlights social media recruiting; online hiring platform improvements; and partnerships with career centers, universities, and recruitment centers to attract new employees to the transit workforce. In addition, increases in pay, benefits, bonuses, providing flexible schedule options, and some other atypical ideas have successfully been used to retain workers in the transit workforce. This research focuses on ways in which all transit stakeholders can invest in all aspects of industry workforce development to ensure qualified employees choose the transit industry and that they are subsequently trained to be the most beneficial assets to the organization and remain there via effective retention strategies.
Administering Agency: Employment and Training Administration
Closing Date for Applications: Sep 16, 2024 Applications must be submitted electronically no later than 11:59 pm Eastern Time.
Estimated Total Program Funding: $99,000,000
Geographic Scope: National
Description: Under this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), DOL will award grants through a competitive process to organizations providing pre-apprenticeship services that support education, occupational skills training, and employment services to opportunity youth, ages 16 to 24, who are performing meaningful work and service to their communities. The YouthBuild program model prepares participants for quality jobs in a variety of careers, in diverse industry sectors, particularly in infrastructure sectors, and includes wrap-around services such as mentoring, trauma-informed care, personal counseling, transportation supports, and employment preparation – all key strategies for addressing violence in communities. YouthBuild applicants must include construction skills training and may include occupational skills training in other in-demand industries. This expansion into additional in-demand industries is the Construction Plus component. Eligible applicants for these grants are public or private non-profit agencies or organizations, including consortia of such agencies or organizations. These organizations include rural, urban, or Native American/Tribal entities that have previously served opportunity youth in a YouthBuild or other similar program. DOL will fund approximately 75 projects across the country. Individual grants will range from $700,000 to $1.5 million and require a 25 percent match from applicants, using sources other than federal funding. This FOA features a matching waiver for Tribal entities and U.S. insular areas which allows these entities to not include a match commitment in their applications. The grant period of performance for this FOA is 40 months, including a four-month planning period and a twelve-month follow-up period.
Shifting demographics in the U.S. workforce indicate that businesses are probably going to need to recruit, train, and retain older workers to ensure their companies remain competitive. However, workplace surveys indicate that most firms are currently not prepared to find and welcome workers who are 50 years of age or older.
Fortunately, a broad array of evidence-based hiring and talent development strategies are at the ready for U.S. employers. These strategies draw from a recent and comprehensive review of employer practices and their influence on economic security and mobility for U.S. workers who experience structural disadvantages and exclusion from opportunity in the labor market.
Three key connected takeaways for employers to consider as they plan for ways to leverage this segment of the workforce are as follows:
• Engage directly with older employees in developing their digital skills.
• Seek out the social networks in which older workers operate to find the best recruiting matches.
• Lean into current or former employees and their online connections to identify these social networks.
TransitCenter’s report explores the workforce challenges of transit bus mechanics and maintenance workers, which are essential for transitioning to zero-emissions buses and restoring pre-pandemic service. Agencies are struggling to maintain a steady pipeline for these positions due to retirements, attrition, and a changing labor market. The report determines that agencies should engage more actively with potential workers and encourage them to join the transit workforce, as well as finding new ways to prepare new workers and retrain current workers to meet current and future needs, particularly as technology for zero-emission buses continues to change and grow more widespread. The report recommends greater investment from transit agencies, state and federal government, and philanthropy to support transit jobs.
In this webinar, panelists explore crucial strategies for not only attracting but also retaining Latino demographics within your organization. The session delves into the latest industry trends, innovative development approaches, recruitment incentives, and cultural insights for engaging with all demographics effectively. Hear directly from the experts at Latinos In Transit as they discuss the opportunities available for employers seeking to tap into this rapidly growing demographic.
Mississippi’s Developing Responsible Individuals with Valuable Education (DRIVE) Program
This TWC case study is about the Mississippi Developing Responsible Individuals with Valuable Education (DRIVE) Program, which uses Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, distributed by the Mississippi Home Corporation (MHC), to partners such as Grace House, Inc. and Community Development, Inc. (CDI). These partners use the funding in a variety of creative ways to provide housing and other supportive services to DRIVE participants while they complete training and certification for a commercial driver’s license (CDL). Partners also provide job assistance to participants, placing them and helping them succeed in local transit jobs. Learn more about the program, services offered, and how stakeholders leverage funding in the full case study.
This report presents bus operator wages as compared with Area Median Income in 30 cities across the U.S., pointing out that in the last two decades, starting wages for our nation’s bus operators have fallen seriously behind the cost of living. In the face of a workforce shortage, the report makes the case for decision makers to ensure higher wages for frontline transit workers.
This report highlights ways that bus driving can be improved for workers to help increase retention and recruitment. The report explains three specific ways: redesigning the job for health and success, raising pay and creating opportunities for advancement, and making a more flexible schedule.
Joint Office of Energy and Transportation Workforce Development Resources
The Joint Office of Energy and Transportation (Joint Office) supports the deployment of zero-emission, convenient, accessible, and equitable transportation infrastructure. In addition to providing direct funding support for workforce development, the Joint Office has collated example resources to support workforce development activities for an electrified transportation system.
Transit Workforce Data Dashboard Webinar: Harnessing the Power of Data for Transit Workforce Development
TWC hosted a webinar titled “Transit Workforce Data Dashboard Webinar: Harnessing the Power of Data for Transit Workforce Development” on February 28, 2024. The Dashboard features innovative visualizations of transit and transportation workforce statistics and demographics from the National Transit Database (NTD) and Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). It can be used to highlight key issues, like the high proportion of transit workers nearing retirement age, the potential for greater participation of women in key transportation occupations, and the need to hire extensively in the coming decade. A new interactive page launched in February, allowing users to filter NTD employment data by agency.
TWC demonstrated the full dashboard, discussed lessons learned from working with NTD and BLS data, and opened up a Q&A for participants to ask questions or share their unique data needs.
At the end of the webinar, TWC shared a survey to collect unique transit workforce data needs and feedback for potential additions to the Data Dashboard. The survey continues to accept responses and can be found below.
Transit, Belabored: Issues and Futures for California’s Frontline Transit Workforce
This report focuses on frontline transit workforce issues, including employee pay, issues before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and the workforce shortage. The report is mainly about transit operators, but also touches on mechanics. It draws on quantitative and qualitative data, including wage data by agency and sector, contracts and agency documents, and interviews with union leaders, agency managers, and operators themselves.
How to Deal with the Worker Shortage and Evolving Skill Requirements of the Public Transport Sector
This report provides a European counterpart to those produced within the United States on the transit workforce shortage. It gives an overview of the workforce shortage’s causes, as well as recommendations for addressing evolving skill requirements, diversifying the workforce, and more.
Expert Group on Urban Mobility, European Commission
Case Study: Golden Gate Transit & Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1575
Marin County, California-based Golden Gate Transit (GGT) operates commuter bus lines in four Bay Area counties, including San Francisco. Like many agencies, GGT has struggled with operator recruitment and retention. To address these challenges, the agency and the union representing operators, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1575, formed a labor-management partnership, the Workforce Investment Network (WIN). The WIN partnership has implemented bus operator mentorship, apprenticeship, and pre-apprenticeship programs; formed partnerships with educational institutions and community groups; made policy changes to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion; and identified opportunities to remove particular barriers to entry for job seekers.
Approaches to Childcare Support in the Transit Industry
Across the nation, the lack of access to affordable and accessible childcare is often a major employment barrier for workers in the transit industry. TWC hosted a pivotal discussion on this issue in the webinar, “Approaches to Childcare Support in the Transit Industry”.
Hear from Barb Cline, Executive Director of Prairie Hills Transit (Spearfish, South Dakota), and Charles Jenkins, Director of the Transport Workers Union Local 100 – New York City Transit Training & Upgrading Fund, who share their approaches to creating childcare solutions tailored for their transit employees. They will delve into the inception of their programs, their ongoing hurdles, and the successes that have marked their journey.
Peer Mentoring Program Increases Retention and Decreases Absences of New Drivers
This case study from APTA’s Passenger Transport presents findings from the mentorship program at Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA). GCRTA and ATU local 268 launched their Positive Impact Program, a peer mentoring program that has seen impacts on retention and absenteeism within its first nine months.
Bus Operator Workforce Management: Practitioner’s Guide
This report, produced by the Eno Center for Transportation, International Transportation Learning Center (ITLC), and Huber & Associates, is a practitioner’s guide that provides recommendations and resources enabling transit agencies to better assess, plan, and implement their operator workforce management programs. A link to a related TRB webinar is also included.
Contributor(s): National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Transportation Research Board; Transit Cooperative Research Program; Robert Puentes; Philip Plotch; Brianne Eby; Paul Lewis; Karitsa Holdzkom; Xinge Wang; Douglas Nevins; Kenyon Corbett; Melissa Huber
In the transportation industry, individuals with disabilities should comprise part of a diverse workforce and can be included in recruitment and retention initiatives. “Opening Doors: Including People with Disabilities in the Transit Workforce” offers an overview of strategies and is one of the feature articles in the July-August 2023 edition (Issue 346) of TR News, TRB’s magazine.
Authors: Judy Shanley (National Center for Mobility Management), Shayna Gleason (Transit Workforce Center), and Patricia Greenfield (Transit Workforce Center)
This report from TransitCenter describes the current transit industry workforce shortage and provides recommendations for agency leadership, policy makers, and community advocates to help address the issue, including creating a robust human resources department, as well as strategies to address recruitment, training, and retention.
This blog post from the National Aging and Disability Transportation Center discusses recruitment and retention strategies for transit agencies, particularly in regard to older and disabled workers in the face of industry-wide labor shortages. It includes examples of successful partnerships and effective mentoring programs.
National Aging and Disability Transportation Center
After Everything: Projections of Jobs, Education, and Training Requirements through 2031
By 2031, 72 percent of jobs in the US will require postsecondary education and/or training. Between 2021 and 2031, there will be 18.5 million job openings per year on average, and some 12.5 million of these annualized openings will require at least some college education. After Everything: Projections of Jobs, Education, and Training Requirements through 2031 includes a national overview of job projections and their educational requirements across industries, occupational clusters, and detailed occupational groups. These latest projections demonstrate the central role postsecondary education plays in preparing the workforce of the future.
Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce
Procedures for Transportation Workplace Drug and Alcohol Testing Programs: Addition of Oral Fluid Specimen Testing for Drugs
This rule amends the U.S. Department of Transportation’s regulated industry drug testing program to include oral fluid testing. This additional methodology for drug testing will give employers a choice that will help combat employee cheating on urine drug tests and provide a less intrusive means of achieving the safety goals of the program.
Engaging Frontline Employees in Adopting New Transit Technologies
The purpose of this guidebook, made in collaboration with the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), is to help management staff in the US transit industry engage frontline employees as they transition into a new era of transit technologies. The guidebook considers broader issues such as workforce shortages, provides advice and information on training frontline employees on new transit technologies, and discusses the usefulness of apprenticeships.
These six workforce development mini-guides are designed to help develop and implement successful strategies to address the critical workforce shortages seen across the public transportation industry. They cover these topics: advancing awareness of transit careers; creating internships and apprenticeships; recruiting and hiring transit workers; serving the underserved in the workforce; onboarding, training, and retaining workers; and building a transit curriculum.
An October 2022 survey conducted by APTA revealed that 96 percent of transit agencies of all sizes are experiencing workforce challenges, and 84 percent said these shortages are impacting their ability to provide service. APTA developed these mini-guides building on their 2021 Transit Workforce Readiness Guide and combining industry insights and stories, case studies, lessons learned, and best practices.
Bus Operators—New Strategies for Maintaining the Workforce
This webinar discusses the ideas, best practices, and resources that will enable transit agencies to better plan, implement, and assess their operator workforce management programs as described in the Bus Operator Workforce Management: Practitioner’s Guide. Presenters discussed workforce needs assessment, recruitment, selection and on-boarding, training, mentoring, and retention and motivation.
Transit Workforce Shortage: Synthesis Report and Toolkit
The Transit Workforce Shortage Study builds a framework for APTA, its members, and its partner organizations to better understand the workforce shortage’s causes and provides best practices for recruiting, hiring, and retaining transit operations workers.
APTA’s Transit Workforce Shortage Study combines information from a survey of public transit workers and interviews with public transportation agencies to provide insight into ways to address the national shortage of transit workers. The report provides information on actions agencies have taken to address the workforce shortage, and the toolkit provides step-by-step answers to workforce shortage scenarios agencies are facing every day.
Workforce Development and Driver Shortages in Small Urban and Rural Transit
This report presents a national survey of small urban and rural transit managers to determine current workforce development practices. The survey results outline driver shortages and related issues, including an aging workforce, disruptions in service, and methods of alleviating the shortage.
How Neutral Third-Party Intervention Can Improve Retention in the Transit Industry
This study proposes methods that follow transformative mediation in order to improve hiring and retention at transit agencies and other companies by providing an organizational culture that respects each person’s dignity, identity, and opinions.
Mary Leary: Acting Associate Administrator for Research, Demonstration and Innovation – Federal Transit Administration
This handout was shared with participants in a feedback session held during TWC’s Making Connections 2022 transit workforce conference in December, 2022.
Public transit providers across North America face a shortage of operators and mechanics during a period of economic instability and reshuffling exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, agencies’ ability to respond to the worker shortage has been hampered by inadequate information about its causes and effects. The Transit Workforce Shortage Study builds a framework for APTA, its members, and its partner organizations to better understand the workforce shortage’s causes and provides best practices for recruiting, hiring, and retaining transit operations workers. The study is comprised of two phases. This document, the Interim Findings Report, synthesizes the findings from Phase 1, which included a survey of transit agencies and background research into the macro causes of the shortage.
Recruiting and Retaining the Best: Transit Workforce Best Practices
This blog post from Transportation for America details successful strategies and best practices employed by transit agencies to empower their operator and maintenance workforces.
Strategic Workforce Planning in Transit: Recruiting and Developing Today’s Transit Workforce
This is the second in the Transit Workforce Center’s webinar series on strategic workforce development planning in transit. TWC’s first webinar examined workforce development for the incumbent workforce. This second webinar focuses on how transit agencies and partner organizations are working to meet the significant recruitment challenges across the country and how to best turn these challenges into opportunities to reach, attract, and retain a diverse workforce. Two transit agencies and their labor partners discuss their innovative outreach and recruitment programs, including mentoring, pre-apprenticeships, and community college partnerships, followed by a presentation from a national organization leader who has coordinated cross-sectoral recruitment initiatives with agencies across the U.S.
While the U.S. public transportation industry has long had a significant bus operator shortage, it has been magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 has not only exacerbated existing trends, but also introduced new labor market dynamics. This brief describes overall workforce trends for bus operators, obstacles to recruitment, and challenges for workforce retention, to help inform efforts to recruit more drivers nationwide.
Overall workforce trends
According to 2020 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, there are 162,850 bus operators nationally. Federal government projections indicate strong growth for bus operators; BLS estimates the occupation will grow “much faster than average (15 percent or higher).”[1] To keep up with growth and make up for retirements and turnover, the industry will need to recruit scores of new workers. BLS reported an annual average of 24,600 projected bus operator job openings for 2020 to 2030.[2]
According to BLS, annual wages for the occupation were $45,900 in 2020, which was higher than the national median of $41,950.[3] Despite having a reputation for paying relatively well and providing robust benefits,[4], [5] transit agencies have faced significant challenges to recruit workers in sufficient numbers to meet the growing demand. The rise of COVID and the omicron variant have created a “labor crisis” in transit, leading Houston Metro to offer bonuses of $4,000 for new drivers, and NYC to try to lure workers out of retirement, for example.[6]
Demographic challenges
One major demographic challenge contributing to the current operator shortage is the disproportionately older bus operator workforce. As Figure 1 on the next page shows, the median age of U.S. workers was 42.2 years in 2021, and 42.8 years in transportation and warehousing. For the bus service and urban transit industry, it was 52.7, which is substantially higher than both the nationwide median age for workers and the median age for other subsectors within transportation and warehousing, such as air or rail transportation.[7] The higher median age of urban transit workers is largely attributable to the older age of bus drivers (median 53.3 years)[8], who constitute 60 percent of the workforce[9]. A large percentage of workers are expected to retire in the coming years.[10], [11]
COVID-related health and safety issues
Figure 1. 2021 Median Age of Workers for Selected Transportation Sectors
As frontline workers, bus operators risk exposure to COVID-19, and serious health consequences, even death. For example, in New York City, 136 MTA operators died around the start of the pandemic.[12] As of December 2021, more than 2,000 COVID cases have been reported among WMATA workers since the pandemic began; seven of the workers died. According to CTAA, some member agencies have experienced as many as 40 percent of their operators absent from work due to sickness.[13] COVID-related factors have resulted in bus operator shortages and service cuts,[14] a trend which has occurred in transit systems nationwide. In addition, some drivers have quit due to fears about the virus or been terminated due to failure to comply with vaccination and testing policies.[15]
Pre-existing labor market dynamics
The pandemic has also exacerbated existing workforce challenges, such as competition for pay. Stakeholders interviewed for a GAO study reported that other industries which hire workers with similar levels of education, including fast food, may attract workers instead of transit, especially in rural areas or areas with low unemployment.[16] When the economy is strong, construction also tends to attract workers who might otherwise work in transit. Furthermore, some workers leave the transit industry once they have earned their CDL.[17]
CDL and new requirements
Transit bus drivers are generally required to hold Class B Commercial Drivers’ Licenses and passenger (P) endorsements. Due to the high cost of self-funding CDL training, employer-sponsored training programs in which costs are covered, such as those run by transit agencies, are an attractive option for job seekers. However, the potential exists for trainees to pursue employment in commercial driving or another sector after completing a transit-oriented training program.[18] This dynamic is particularly challenging given concurrent shortages of truck and school bus drivers.[19]
Individuals are required to hold a standard driver’s license to qualify for a commercial learners’ permit, which in turn is needed to pursue CDL training.[20] These requirements may impact recruitment of young people, as rates of driver’s license attainment for 18–24 year-olds have decreased slightly in recent decades and may be lower during recessionary periods and among minority populations and residents of cities.[21]
Regulatory changes impacting entry level driver training (ELDT) may also affect agencies’ ability to fill positions. As of February 7, 2022, the FMCSA has started enforcing universal training standards for entry level driver training and maintaining a database of qualified providers (the Training Provider Registry).[22] Professional organizations representing transit agencies such as APTA and CTAA have expressed concern about these additional regulatory requirements. Agency contacts have also identified challenges related to requirements around license renewal, medical fitness testing, the availability of training during the pandemic and delays with local DMVs processing CDL application due to pandemic staff shortages. FMCSA has granted waivers around certain other CDL requirements during the pandemic, and recently announced a grant to support state capacity for CDL licensing, though the emphasis appears to be on commercial trucking. [23], [24]
Assaults against drivers
Driver safety has been a persistent problem. Assaults against drivers and altercations with passengers have been well-publicized in communities that transit serves.[25], [26]A 2015 Monthly Labor Review article identified violence as a key challenge facing drivers, with examples including a 2012 attack with rocks in Washington, DC and a 2013 shooting in Seattle.[27] More recently, drivers have reported increased stress during the pandemic and face threats including violence related to passenger non-compliance with mask mandates, among other issues. Such incidents have deterred potential applicants from considering a transit driving career and contributed to early retirements.[28]
Lack of interest from younger generations
Younger workers have different expectations about the workplace, which has made it challenging for agencies to recruit them. Younger workers tend to value flexible schedules, yet operators must often work on holidays and weekends, especially when they first start in the field. New hires in general may not find this attractive.[29]
Advances in technology
Advances in technology present challenges to recruitment and retention. The rise of automation and apps requires drivers to possess technical knowledge to operate newer buses and assist customers; this means there is a relatively small pool of qualified workers. Additional and new types of training are needed for both incumbent and new workers to adapt. Furthermore, drivers report feeling stress from being monitored more often by cameras and tracking technology.[30], [31]
Stress and burn-out
Finally, being a bus operator is a highly stressful occupation. Drivers must operate large vehicles on congested city streets on tight time schedules.[32] They work relatively long hours with infrequent breaks.[33] As discussed earlier, technological advances have contributed to worker stress as well. Operators also experience burn-out due to the stress of dealing with passengers, who may ignore COVID safety rules,[34] or be unruly or violent.
Conclusion
Bus operators have been in short supply for years, and this problem has been magnified by COVID-19. An aging workforce and labor exits related to COVID have largely contributed to the shortage. Top obstacles to recruitment and retention include pandemic-related health and safety issues, pre-existing labor market dynamics including competition over pay, CDL requirements, assaults against drivers, and lack of interest from younger generations. Other contributing factors include advances in technology, perceptions of inflexibility, and stress. To address these workforce recruitment and retention issues for bus operators, key stakeholders from management and labor should keep these data and trends in mind.
Bus Operator Recruitment Campaign
The Transit Workforce Center (TWC) is currently developing a national campaign in coordination with the FTA, along with key labor and industry partners, to effectively address the national bus operator shortage. The TWC is preparing to create a toolkit of materials designed to be adapted by agencies and labor union locals that will consist of templates for commercial scripts, postcard mailers, exhibit banners, talking points for public meetings, social media postings, informational video scripts, and letters of introduction. If any organization has existing models that should be incorporated into these plans, please contact Senior Communications Specialist David Stephen at dstephen@transportcenter.org.
Contributing Authors: Benjamin Kreider (Consultant); Xinge Wang; Douglas Nevins
[11] Robert Puentes et al. “Practitioner’s Guide to Bus Operator Workforce Management.” Transportation Research Board of The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. November, 2021. Unpublished interim report.
[16] US Government Accountability Office. “Transit Workforce Development – Improved Strategic Planning Practices Could Enhance FTA Efforts.” GAO-19-2090. March 2019. https://www.gao.gov/assets/700/697562.pdf. P. 15.
Statewide Bus Operator Attraction, Hiring, & Retention Research
These slides were used in a presentation outlining research conducted to better understand the shape and scale of the bus operator shortage in Massachusetts public transit and the adjustments agencies are making to confront these challenges.
Workforce Shortages Impacting Public Transportation Recovery
This policy brief summarizes results from a survey the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) conducted with transit agencies in early 2022. The majority of responding agencies reported difficulties with hiring, with bus operator recruitment being the biggest challenge.
This article examines labor shortages in the public transit industry. It focuses on the following points:
Transit agencies across the United States are experiencing a significant shortage in labor, that the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened. This shortage is negatively impacting the services they provide to the public.
Employees at transit agencies have a significantly higher median age than employees in other industries.
Transit agencies should use data and information to consider recruiting and retaining employees for the long term.
This webinar identifies critical labor market benchmarks and addresses ways to cultivate a more resilient and empowered transit workforce, particularly in the post-COVID world. The speakers delve into resiliency challenges and education and training solutions.
A Guide for the Development of Career Pathways in Transportation
This guide outlines the steps that transportation industry stakeholders can take to develop or expand Career Pathways to focus on the skills, competencies, and credentials needed for high-demand jobs in the transportation industry and its subsectors.
U.S. Department of Education; Jobs for the Future; International Transportation Learning Center
Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems
TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 139: Guidebook for Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transit Managers for Fixed-Route Bus and Paratransit Systems explores resources for fixed-route bus, general public demand response, and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) paratransit systems resources to assist in the recruitment, development, and retention of managers.
1-855-888-NTWC (6892)
twc@transportcenter.org
