Metro is looking for more than just a few good men and women. The agency says it has 214 openings for bus drivers, train operators and station managers. “The number is higher than we would like it to be,” said Metro spokesman Reggie Woodruff.
Earlier this fall, Metro acknowledged it had a bus driver shortage, which the human resources chief called a “huge problem” stemming from a six-month hiring freeze. Typically, Metro loses about 10 bus operators per month, Woodruff said, through retirements or firings such as a bus driver who crashed into another bus in September, injuring 27 passengers. The freeze created a backlog as drivers left and their positions stayed unfilled.
That shortage of bus drivers has created a ripple effect, causing an even bigger problem, proportionately, among train operators and station managers. Under an agreement between their union and Metro, operators must start as bus drivers before becoming train operators, said Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 President Jackie Jeter.
| 61 of 501 station managers positions |
| 62 of 559 train operator positions |
| 91 of 2,436 bus operator positions |
Though Metro has 91 vacancies for bus operators, those represent just 3.7 percent of all bus driver positions. Meanwhile, the agency is short 11 percent of its train operators with 62 openings, Woodruff said. It also is missing 61 station managers. That means a vacancy in one out of every eight slots.
The existing workforce must fill the void with overtime shifts, but even those are limited as drivers cannot work more than 16 hours in a 24-hour period.
Such a problem sounds like it would be easy to fix. The District’s unemployment rate was 9.7 percent in October, according to the latest statistics available, making it higher than the 9.6 percent national average for the month. “We’re doing our part to help the region,” Woodruff said.
Yet it’s not a question of having enough job aspirants. In October, Metro’s human resources staff had more than 1,000 applicants for bus operator slots. But the agency is looking for people who already have their commercial drivers’ licenses, Woodruff said. Furthermore, the agency tightened its employment standards last year after several drivers with criminal records got into trouble.
“We’re not relaxing standards to have people fill the holes left by all the vacancies,” Woodruff said.
In October, Metro board members rejected a staff proposal to spend $750,000 on a private recruiting company to hire bus drivers to fix the backlog. Now the transit agency is trying to increase the size of its training classes, Woodruff said.
