Metro is facing a bus driver shortage after a hiring screw-up depleted the transit agency’s reserves of properly trained and professionally qualified candidates.
Gary Baldwin, Metro’s human resources chief, told the transit agency’s board of directors the personnel shortage was a “huge problem” that stemmed from a hiring freeze last year.
“There was a period between December 2008 and early May 2009 when we were not hiring bus operators, and we were not conducting classes for bus operators,” Baldwin said. “That put us at a hiring deficit.”
Baldwin said the hiring freeze, with the implementation of “more stringent” hiring requirements for drivers, has led to a major shortage of bus operators. He said Metro had 100 operator vacancies as of last week.
When asked by
board of directors member Jeff McKay if the hiring freeze was intended to include bus drivers, Metro Chief Financial Officer Carol Kissal said it was not.
Kissal told the board she was not prepared to explain why the agency had stopped hiring and training bus drivers, and subsequent calls to Metro for more information were not returned.
Metro interim General Manager Richard Sarles told the board that unless it allowed the agency’s human resources department to spend $750,000 on a private recruiting service, Metro would not be able to find enough drivers to fill what Sarles called a candidate “bubble,” or hiring gap.
“If we don’t take care of this [recruiting] bubble, we’re not going to have the bus drivers we need to drive our buses,” he said.
The Metro board voiced incredulity at the idea that the transit agency needed help with its recruitment process.
“Hiring a bus operator ought to be a fundamental and straightforward operation of this agency,” said board member and D.C. Councilman Jim Graham. “With the economy that we have, and with so many people seeking jobs, why is it so difficult for us to locate and hire competent bus drivers?”
Baldwin said the problem was not finding applicants — Metro has more than 1,000 bus driver applications. He said the problem was sifting through those applications to identify qualified candidates.
Although Baldwin and Kissal said Metro would not be able to fill the hiring deficit without help, the board voted 4-3 against spending $750,000 on bus driver recruiting services.
Calls to Metro about the possibility of service cuts as a result of the driver shortage were not immediately returned.
