Aging workforce a concern for Pierce Transit

Pierce Transit has grand plans for the future, including one scenario that would see service doubled by the year 2040.

But a shrinking pool of “human capital” could hinder expansion efforts.

An aging workforce, especially among bus drivers, has Pierce Transit pushing to recruit, hire and train workers as fast as possible.

The average age of all Pierce Transit employees is 52.5 years, according to agency records. The average age of a Pierce Transit driver is 54 years.

Almost 30 percent of Pierce Transit drivers – 156 people – are eligible for retirement by 2020.

Not all of them will retire then, but some will, as will other employees through normal attrition.

“We must replace those folks,” Pierce Transit spokeswoman Rebecca Japhet said recently. “In addition, the agency is planning to expand service later this year and in future years, so we need to hire for expansion as well.”

Pierce Transit has responded by increasing the number of training slots available this year to 100 from the usual 60, as well as expanding recruiting efforts to social media such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Last year the agency hired 61 drivers. This year, it hopes to hire 100.

“We are also developing partnerships with technical schools, especially ones that train mechanics — another job that important at PT but sometimes hard to fill,” Japhet said.

The agency also has been notifying local leaders and riders that a shortage of workers might mean trouble in the future.

“Human capital and the ‘aging out’ of the current Pierce Transit workforce” are internal challenges or obstacles to the agency’s goals of increased service,” according to a presentation Pierce Transit officials recently gave to the Tacoma City Council.

The agency is studying a variety of services expansions, including modest ones that would increase the frequency of buses using mostly current transit routes to a more aggressive growth scenario that could see service hours increase from the current 454,000 per year to about 928,000.

The aggressive scheme would include a yet-to-be-funded bus rapid transit line into Spanaway.

Challenges for replacing the workforce abound.

Pierce Transit is competing for drivers with King County’s Metro Transit, which is aggressively pursuing new blood to fulfill its plan to increase service by 10 percent by the end of this year.

Metro has hired and promoted from part- to full-time nearly 350 drivers since fall 2014, according to a September 2015 agency memorandum.

“We are continuing to aggressively hire and train new operators to meet current service needs through March 2016,” the Metro memorandum says.

The Puget Sound region’s booming economy also might crimp hiring efforts, as workers seek more lucrative jobs elsewhere.

It’s a problem affecting transit agencies across the nation.

“The industry faces a severe shortage of skilled and seasoned employees as thousands of workers from the baby-boom generation approach retirement over the next five to 10 years,” the American Public Transit Association said on its website.

“Other significant workforce challenges facing the public transportation industry include a generally tight labor market, an increase in technological requirements across job functions, and the growing diversity of the workforce.”

People are applying, though.

“In November, we held a hiring event for people interested in being an operator,” Japhet said. “About 60 people attended, and we hired several operators.”

Starting pay for a relief driver, which is the first step, is $18.42 per hour. Senior drivers make $28.42 per hour, agency records show.

There is the potential for some cost savings if the agency replaces retiring workers with newbies.

“Of course, we would love to keep the experienced workers here with us as long as possible,” Japhet said. “There is immense value in the knowledge they bring to the job.

“That said, people will of course retire at some point, and it’s great to be able to provide that same career opportunity to another person who is interested in serving their community this way.”

Colette Galeai, 25 of Lakewood, recently hired on at the agency. She previously worked in retail, warehousing and telemarketing before hearing of openings at Pierce Transit through a relative.

She’d never driven a bus before or even considered a career in the transit industry, but she decided to try it out.

“I knew the money was good, the benefits were good and it’s a good company,” Galeai said. “There’s stability here. It is a life-changing opportunity for me.”

One morning earlier this month, she practiced backing up a bus on a course set up in the Pierce Transit yard in Lakewood as part of her training to get a commercial driver’s license, a prerequisite for the job.

Cheers erupted from her trainers when she successfully negotiated a 90-degree turn in reverse and stopped with the bus’s rear bumper between two target cones.

“Oh, yeah, I nailed it,” Galeai said. “It’s easier than you think.”

Mike Severino is Pierce Transit’s bus safety and training supervisor.

He said prospective drivers undergo weeks of training, including a section called “self-defense from the seated position,” and then are paired with experienced drivers for a time before being given the go-ahead to drive solo.

“We want to make sure they’re not driving on the sidewalk before we turn them loose,” he said.

Severino said about 9 percent of applicants wash out of the training process. with many of them unable to secure the mandatory commercial driver’s license.

Rob Allen also is in Pierce Transit’s training program. The Olympia resident is 52 and previously managed the transportation program for a local casino, which provides shuttle service and long-range customer pickup.

He said he was looking for a more stable job as he heads toward retirement.

“Nobody leaves here,” Allen said. “It gave me a great sense of this is where I want to be for my last hurrah.”

Allen spent a recent morning driving a training bus through Lakewood under the watchful eye of Mark Veach, a 35-year veteran of Pierce Transit, 18 of them as a driver, who now works as an instructor.

“Our workforce has been aging so much,” said Veach, who joined the agency when it was still known as Tacoma Transit.

Veach said he supports the agency’s efforts to recruit new drivers, especially younger ones such as Galeai.

“We could use more,” he said.

This story was originally published February 11, 2016 at 2:38 AM with the headline "Aging workforce a concern for Pierce Transit."