Howard County Executive Calvin Ball yesterday announced new efforts to hire and retain bus drivers for the Regional Transportation Agency.
The RTA has struggled to maintain the level of drivers needed to operate routes, particularly those with a commercial driver’s license.
The new measures include increasing salaries for all fixed-route drivers, starting at $20 per hour.
The boost will raise the entry level salary to $40,000 per year, an increase of $5,000 a year.
“Throughout this pandemic, businesses and organizations have faced challenges with employee turnover and recruitment,” Ball said in a statement.
“To continue ensuring excellent service to our community – so that many of our residents can get to work, to the grocery store, and to their doctor’s appointment, we must recruit and retain drivers,” he said.
The incentives also include recruitment bonuses of $3,000 – paid in quarterly increments for the first year of employment – and retention bonuses of $1,500 to existing employees, paid in quarterly increments.
The county will also lower the age eligibility of RTA driver employment from 21 to 19 on a pilot basis over the next year, provide in-house training and assistance with getting a commercial driver’s license, and provide $250 referral bonuses for employees who successfully refer someone.
In recent months, the Howard County Public School system has been facing a similar shortage.
Since the start of the school year, the school system has experienced a shortage of roughly 95 drivers.
In November, the Howard school board approved incentive pay and signing bonuses amid bus driver call-outs and shortages.
The RTA has made similar efforts to recruit drivers, including paid training, job fairs, signing bonuses, and immediate offers.
Currently, the RTA needs to immediately recruit 31 out of a total need of 85 drivers.
Due to the shortage, the RTA has already planned to institute a service reduction from February to April, or until enough drivers are hired.
“We are hopeful that the RTA, in close coordination with our partners in Laurel and the adjacent counties, can work quickly to hire the necessary drivers and return our transit operation to pre-pandemic levels,” said Allen Cornell, chairman and Howard County representative of the Central Maryland Transportation and Mobility Commission, in a statement.
“Thank you also to the dedicated staff of the RTA who have worked on the front line of the pandemic for the past 18 months and who deserve the recognition for the essential service that they provide to our residents” he said.
