A bus driver scarcity on the MBTA led the company to include a business driver’s license allow program into new rent onboarding, a transfer the authority’s high hiring official stated helped enhance recruitment efforts and produce in additional candidates.
The workforce problem has plagued the MBTA since final yr, the place officers have turned to sign-on bonuses and hiked pay for operators in an try to draw extra individuals. But even when candidates made all of it the best way to a job supply, the business driver’s license requirement was nonetheless a “barrier to entry,” stated Gil Alzate, director of expertise acquisition on the MBTA.
The MBTA began by providing a “CDL familiarization course” hosted twice a month on Tuesdays earlier than providing a chance to acquire a business learner’s allow program as a part of new-hire coaching, Alzate stated.
“So now we hire folks, clean driving record, they meet all our policy requirements, and we embed them into the program. The first two weeks are targeted around getting your permit. So again, the takeaway for us there was showing that we have skin in the game. We understand that again, it’s a difficult job but what do we bring … to the table?”
The MBTA would usually interview bus driver candidates, supply them the job, and inform them to “come back when you have your permit,” Alzate stated. Recruiters would lose candidates because of this, Alzate stated.
“The moment we started to incorporate the permit piece into our training program, we saw our classes double,” Alzate stated. “A year ago, we were starting classes of nine, 10, 12 individuals. We started a class this past Monday, 34 individuals. The bulk of them, those that don’t have a permit, are going to be going through our permit program.”
The bus driver scarcity was so dangerous on the MBTA that the company reduce service on 43 bus routes in August 2022. The reductions are nonetheless in impact at present, MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo stated.
Pesaturo stated there have been 1,611 lively bus operators as of June 29, a rise from late May, when there have been 1,536 lively bus drivers.
The MBTA will not be the one transit company experiencing workforce challenges.
Regional transportation authority officers stated Wednesday they’re additionally discovering it laborious to rent employees, a difficulty that may end up in much less service for residents throughout the state.
Transportation Secretary Gina Fiandaca stated the state understands “how critical [RTA] workforce challenges are” and contracted with the advertising and marketing agency ASG to assist hiring efforts.
“They’ve already helped you develop some digital billboards along our highways and getting the word out on radio about public transit and posting advertisements in other places so that we can get some folks enthusiastic about working in this sector,” Fiandaca advised RTA directors.
The state inked an almost $636,000 contract with ASG for a “RTA recruitment employee campaign,” based on a replica offered to the Herald on Thursday.
MetroWest Regional Transit Authority Administrator Jim Nee stated a number of RTA officers have been working with ASG to give you unified messaging that may be broadcasted throughout the state in numerous codecs.
“We want to make sure that that messaging is very representative of the communities that we serve and the people that we’re trying to recruit,” Nee stated. “So proper now we’re simply finalizing the final bits of the artistic and the final bits of the advert purchase with them. That’s most likely getting finalized within the subsequent couple of days or hours truly.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”