Steering Success: AC Transit’s Holistic Strategy for Bus Operator Shortage

Public transit agencies across the United States are experiencing a severe staffing shortage, particularly for bus operators, a critical frontline position. Worsening matters, recruitment efforts are being overwhelmed by a wave of retirements, commonly known as the "silver tsunami." Despite ongoing attempts to address recruitment and retention challenges, the demand for bus operators exceeds the available workforce. As a result, many transit agencies are now facing a looming human capital crisis.

The latest Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) perspective, Steering Success: AC Transit’s Holistic Strategy for Bus Operator Shortage, examines what one transit operator is doing differently to attract and retain qualified frontline workers.

This perspective involved a literature review and a series of interviews with Human Resources staff from California’s largest bus only transit agency, the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit). The nearly 65-year-old Oakland-based transit agency considered several factors in the implementation of its innovative recruitment practices including: 

• In a 2022 American Public Transportation Association survey of 117 transit agencies of all sizes, 71% reported that they have either had to cut service or delay service increases because of worker shortfalls. The shortage is only expected to worsen as the current workforce retires, and 43% percent of transit workers are over age 55.

• Efforts to recruit and retain diverse, talented employees are primarily affected by issues of pay, benefits, and working conditions.

When AC Transit implemented changes to its hiring and training process, including significant financial incentives and a holistic view of new hire needs, the agency experienced an improvement in hiring and retention.

“AC Transit served 39.3 million riders last fiscal year, covering 364 square miles of the East Bay, and 625 buses—including the region’s largest zero emission bus fleet—which underscores that this is not a small operation,” says the perspective’s author, Lisa Rose. “Facing a similar staffing crisis as many other agencies, AC Transit overhauled its hiring and training practices, and it worked. The agency recorded an impressive decrease in turnover from 2022 to 2023, and this positive trajectory has continued into 2024.”

"Our District wanted to tangibly demonstrate to new frontline employees what AC Transit is about and welcome them into a supportive community. However, we first needed to pause and determine what new hires in our community required,” said CEO and General Manager Michael Hursh. “When HR began conducting informal exit interviews with resigning tenured Bus Operators, our team then identified patterns leading to turnover, and quickly, New Bus Operator recruitment began changing for the better."

AC Transit’s approach—characterized by early investments in new hires, including holistic support, financial incentives, and a focus on creating community—is a viable way forward in addressing the transit workforce shortage. The success of the program has spurred AC Transit to develop plans to implement the New Bus Operator staffing model for recruitments agencywide. These changes could prove to be a model template for recruitment and retention throughout the transit industry.

ABOUT THE MINETA TRANSPORTATION INSTITUTE

At the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) at San Jose State University (SJSU) our mission is to increase mobility for all by improving the safety, efficiency, accessibility, and convenience of our nations’ transportation system. Through research, education, workforce development and technology transfer, we help create a connected world. Founded in 1991, MTI is a university transportation center funded by the US Department of Transportation, the California Department of Transportation, and public and private grants, including those made available by the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017 (SB1). MTI is affiliated with SJSU’s Lucas College and Graduate School of Business.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Lisa V. Rose has been MTI’s Editor and Writer since 2020. With an MA in English from SJSU, Lisa dedicates herself to using language to advance equity in transportation, education, and every space she can influence.

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