FROM: Mary Lou Kuschatka, Transportation Director
SUBJECT: Report on Need for Additional Drivers
DATE: April 2, 2003
This report responds to a Council question raised at the February 28 Budget Work Session regarding the need to provide additional drivers at the Town Transportation Department.
The number of bus drivers at the Town Transportation Department has not kept pace with the growth of the services we provide, particularly since the start of Fare-Free Transit. The percentage of overtime paid in the Operations divisionis a prime indicator of whether there are enough drivers to efficiently operate the service.
The following table illustrates the Operations overtime rate for the last 4 years.
|
Year |
Operations Wages |
Overtime Paid |
Overtime Percentage |
|
1998-1999 |
$2,769,899 |
$325,322 |
12% |
|
1999-2000 |
$2,776,580 |
$479,286 |
17% |
|
2000-01 |
$3,002,774 |
$519,270 |
17% |
|
2001-02 |
$3,372951 |
$574,098 |
17% |
The increased service, combined with the recurring need of regular drivers to take vacations or sick leave, has meant increased overtime costs for the Department.
Mr. Arthur Gaudet, who provides operations, scheduling, and safety consulting to the transit industry, has studied our system, including an evaluation of the hours needed to cover vacation, sick, and other leave for our drivers (please see the attached report). Mr. Gaudet’s study concludes that we need a full-time relief staff of between 10 and 13 drivers.
CONCLUSION
Increased service demands and the desire to run the system as efficiently as possible necessitate an increase in the number of drivers. We estimate this need to be between 10 and 13 additional drivers to cover the Department’s relief needs as described in the operations study done by Mr. Gaudet. We request that the number of drivers budgeted change from 77 to 87 full time Transit Operator II’s. We propose to cover the cost of the additional drivers by reducing the overtime to 5% or less. This reduction will result in $309,000 less in the overtime budget and will cover the cost of the 10 additional drivers plus benefits ($245,650 +$62,960).
ATTACHMENTS
1. March 13, 2003 Study by Arthur N. Gaudet & Associates (p. 3).