In an era of low unemployment due to government paying people not to work, is it any wonder folks are not running to the SF Muni for jobs?
“Muni hired 36 operators in August and 35 in September, and plans to hire new classes of operators in October, November and December. That’s an improvement, though it would still ensure an operator shortage for the foreseeable future.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to add service as quickly as we had hoped because of our severe transit operator shortage and because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which we are currently recovering from,” Erica Kato, an SFMTA spokesperson, wrote in an email to The Examiner. “We are adding more service as soon as we can and are doing everything in our power to hire more transit operators and other transit staff to make that possible.”
I do not understand the rush. In fact folks are fleeing the city, businesses are leaving and almost half refuse to go to the office. Why is the Muni expanding when the number of potential riders is declining? Just another union scam to hire people that pay bribes—and then complain about the lack of riders.
Is Muni in a Catch-22 around service delays and hiring?
San Franciscans can debate whether Muni service should be expanded and extended for as long as it takes to ride the 29 bus from Bayview to the Presidio. But that discussion may be moot until there are enough people to operate, clean and repair its vast fleet.
Muni is looking to fill more than 300 operator vacancies, according to its website, more than 10% of its total driving staff.
To accomplish this hiring spree, the SFMTA says it aims to make becoming a Muni operator a faster and simpler process. The agency is hiring at a faster clip than during the depths of the pandemic. Yet, at the current rate according to data provided by SFMTA, it would still take months or even years to fill its operator vacancies.
Muni hired 36 operators in August and 35 in September, and plans to hire new classes of operators in October, November and December. That’s an improvement, though it would still ensure an operator shortage for the foreseeable future.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to add service as quickly as we had hoped because of our severe transit operator shortage and because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which we are currently recovering from,” Erica Kato, an SFMTA spokesperson, wrote in an email to The Examiner. “We are adding more service as soon as we can and are doing everything in our power to hire more transit operators and other transit staff to make that possible.”
SFMTA is hardly the only city agency to struggle with a shortage of workers. The Police Department told city leaders it is short hundreds of officers, and city leaders responded this year by including money in the budget for officer retention and hiring bonuses.
There was no such incentive funded for Muni operators, transit advocates have noted.
“SF’s mayor will use ‘operator shortage’ to dismiss questions about bus service restoration, as if it’s an immutable force,” tweeted transit advocate Chris Arvin, who published a chart of cuts to nighttime Muni service. “But for cops? Her latest update boasts funding for recruitment and retention bonuses to address a supposed officer shortage. Where is this for bus drivers?”
Incentives gap for drivers, ridersSFMTA told The Examiner it has considered offering hiring incentives for new operators, but provided no additional detail.
Transport Workers Union Local 250A, the union that represents Muni operators, alleges that the agency shot itself in the foot by not compensating for attrition — employees retiring, quitting and being fired — during the pandemic.
Kato points out that there wasn’t a hiring freeze for positions like operators and mechanics, which are critical to Muni’s basic functioning, but “There were, however, training delays and an impact on our ability to put together operator training classes during the pandemic,” Kato said.
Some transit advocates worry that failing to expand service incentivizes people to choose alternatives. If the N Owl bus is coming only every 30 minutes, why wait for it if you can afford an alternative?
“If ridership is low, it’s because the service is unfortunately not here, or if it is there, then the service is packed… It’s dirty, it’s not sanitized, it’s not reliable,” said Roger Marenco, president of the Transport Workers Union local. “The public is saying, ‘I’m just going to get in an Uber.’”
More Uber riders means less transit revenue for Muni, an agency with well-documented financial challenges.
Those dissatisfied with the service, or who choose not to use it, might also be less likely to support transit projects. That Proposition A, a $400 million bond to support Muni, narrowly failed earlier this year may not be surprising given that Muni has seen increasingly poor satisfaction from riders.
Muni’s annual customer satisfaction survey found just 57% of customers content with the service in 2021, the fifth consecutive year of flat or decreasing satisfaction.
Speed key to hiring spiral
To work its way out of this spiral, Muni has to hire more operators. It’s a process that is complicated and could take more than a year during the doldrums of the pandemic.
But to prospective candidates and Muni, speed matters. The longer a candidate has to wait to get behind the wheel, the more likely they are to take a job elsewhere.
The hiring process for an interested candidate includes taking a civil service examination, a background check, a medical exam, a drug screening, submitting proof of a clean (or clean enough) driving record, and obtaining and proving possession of a commercial learner’s permit. That permit is good only for six months, meaning a prospective operator will have to continually renew it while awaiting Muni’s call.
After those hurdles, there’s a nine-week paid training program followed by a test to become an operator.
Muni has made some adjustments. For example, it replaced an in-person multiple choice exam with a take-home training and experience exam.
The agency is now ranking candidates based on their training and experience, including the type of license they possess when they apply. Under an emergency declaration, the agency has also been able to fast-track people into operator classes who already have the necessary license.
These changes are having a noticeable effect on Muni.
“When we have new operator availability, there are fewer missed runs, and you can feel that as an operator in the most visceral way,” said MC “Mack” Allen, a relatively new operator. “When you’re driving, and you’re missing a leader, that’s a very challenging situation because you end up doing twice as much work, (and) it’s harder to stay on time.”
Muni has long scheduled more work than it can reliably fill, relying on overtime shifts to make up the difference, Allen said.
Allen decided to become an operator after spending 2018 traversing every Muni line from end to end.
“We spent a lot of time waiting for buses,” Allen said. “You don’t even have to scratch very deep in the surface at all to understand operator availability is the problem.”
The hiring process has been a bottleneck, but a significant part of the problem is simply attracting enough applicants.
“Our HR dept has launched marketing campaigns and has participated in countless recruiting fairs and hiring events to market us as an employer,” Kato said.
One way to attract operators is with money. Muni did that, to some extent, in the contract agreement it reached with the transit workers union in 2019.
Morenco noted that the wage progression was reduced from 48 months to 36 months, meaning operators receive the maximum pay of $42.31 per hour after three years of service instead of four.
But right now, Muni only has so much money to spend.
The agency is heavily reliant on the $1.3 billion in federal COVID-19 aid it received during the pandemic. There’s no guarantee it will be able to replace that money when it runs out.
Despite the potentially ominous financial forecast, there are reasons for optimism. Some of Muni’s lines, like the 22 Fillmore, are surging beyond pre-pandemic ridership. Ridership citywide is still well below pre-pandemic levels, but has steadily increased throughout 2022 aside from a two-month lull in the summer.
To match that demand, Muni will need to bring on more drivers like Allen, who says he has no regrets about joining the agency.
“When I get home at the end of the day, I’m like ‘All those people got where they were going because of me,’ and it feels just great,” Allen said.
