Dozens of Chatham Area Transit (CAT) passengers milled about the Joe Murray Rivers, Jr. Intermodal Transit Center Friday morning. Some waited for a bus to arrive, others stepped off a bus to start their day downtown. While they were headed to various parts of the county, many shared similar frustrations with service.
“I’ve waited on (route) 25 for over an hour and a half and then it never showed up,” said passenger Lindsey Jones.
“They don’t post (the times) on Google anymore, so I had to spend $20 on a Lyft now.”
Route 25 is one of nine recently modified by Chatham Area Transit as the agency works through an operator shortage. Jones' frustration was echoed by fellow passenger Michelle Grant, who shared a bench as they waited for the bus.
“Some can’t even afford (a $20 Lyft ride). I can’t afford that, not every day,” Grant said.
Several other riders, who declined to give their names, also brought up similar issues.
CAT passengers aren't alone when it comes to dealing with service disruptions. According to a report conducted by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), which surveyed nearly 120 transit agencies, more than 90% reported difficulties hiring new employees, with bus operators being the most difficult positions to fill.
CAT is down more than 40 drivers between its fixed route and paratransit operations, according to Courtney Johnson, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1324.
“I think people are just looking for different avenues to make income,” said Johnson, who has been with CAT for 17 years. “Some people are opening up their own businesses or finding other jobs that may pay more because not everybody is at the top rate of pay, especially in the bus operator section.”
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Nearly 70% of the agencies surveyed by APTA reported having difficulties retaining employees and reported that they have either had to cut service or delay service increases because of worker shortages.
Johnson said the shortage has been building for some time, but the pandemic added fuel to the fire.
“We're not losing 10 or 15 people at a time, but maybe every month or maybe every other month you have a few people who fall off, whether it's from termination, resignation or retirement,” she said.
Chatham Area Transit CEO and Executive Director Faye DiMassimo said the shortage is still somewhat related to COVID-19, but different than it was in the early days of the pandemic.
“COVID was not just with us for a few months, COVID was with us for two-plus years and in that period of time we've seen a number of industries where the labor supply has changed, people's interests have changed, people have made life changes,” she said.
“So building back from that is a little bit of a different market now.”
Brett Dykes, who like Jones relies on CAT to get to work, would like to see better communication when it comes to service changes. Dykes said he’s often had to leave for work an hour early to make sure he catches his bus.
“The biggest thing I want CAT to do is post service alerts to their social media when routes are down so riders can plan accordingly without having to call customer service and wait for them to tell you it is running,” he said.
Recruitment and retention
Like so many other agencies across the county, CAT recently modified nine fixed-routes in an effort to provide more reliable schedules for riders. Changes to the routes, which went into effect on March 14, include frequency and modified operating hours.
“If we can sort of match our schedule to the availability of operators in a reliable way, then we can make sure that we are always meeting the schedule reliably, which especially with paratransit riders is critically important,” DiMassimo said.
Johnson said the modifications were also done to help alleviate burnout among drivers who are working overtime.
“A lot of operators are extending themselves and not so much for the company, but because they love the passengers and they hate to see the passengers stranded," she said.
The changes are temporary and service will be restored as vacancies are filled.
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
In an effort to get back to regular service the CAT Board of Directors approved a $1,000 bonus for new and existing employees in late January as part of a retention and recruitment program.
New employees will receive the bonus in four payments of $250 at the completion of 60-day, 90-day, 180-day and 365-day intervals. Existing employees will be paid the $250 amount on a quarterly basis.
Last week the board approved a $500 referral bonus incentive for any existing driver who recruits a new operator that stays on for at least six months.
“We think there's no more important recruitment tool than a peer,” DiMassimo said.
Other recruitment and retention efforts include increasing the base pay rate of existing and new CAT paratransit operators earlier this year from $12.45 to $14.25 per hour for full and part-time workers.
The agency is also exploring potentially lowering the age requirement for drivers after Georgia lowered the age to obtain a commercial drivers license to 18 earlier this year. Currently to drive for CAT you must be at least 23 years old to be a fixed-route operator and 21 years old to be a paratransit operator.
“We've got bonuses, we've got pay increases, we've got job fairs, and we've got some creative things that we're looking at and thinking about around that opportunity to lower our age. So lots of things are in store to help us fill those vacancies,” DiMassimo said.
DiMassimo said a performance measurement system will be put in place to determine how much the increases and bonuses are impacting the growth of CAT’s labor pool as well as impacts on retention.
Making progress
Another CAT service that has been impacted is the Savannah Belles Ferry. Service has been suspended twice this month due to staffing shortages. Typically the ferry makes its final departure from the Savannah Convention Center at 12:10 a.m., docking on River Street for the night at 12:20 a.m.
In both cases of service disruption the ferry ceased operations at 6:30 p.m. and resumed as normal the next day. DiMassimo said the shortage extends to ferry operators, mechanics and deckhands, but progress is being made.
“There was a successful recruitment for a couple of positions with the ferry service that just happened in the last couple of days,” she said.
"John Allen (assistant director of marine operations), and the staff have been doing an absolutely extraordinary job under these difficult circumstances."
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
DiMassimo said CAT deeply appreciates its passengers and she feels the impacts of the service changes.
“We understand it and we are working as quickly as we can to get service levels back to what they were used to and what is expected,” she said.
“And in the meantime, we so appreciate their continued patronage of CAT and their continued support of us as we all work together to get back to much more normal times.”
Katie Nussbaum is the city and county government reporter for the Savannah Morning News. Contact her at knussbaum@savannahnow.com. Twitter: KnussSMN
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Still waiting for a bus? Driver shortage leads to service interruptions, modified routes
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