SAN ANGELO, Texas — Driver shortages are now affecting local transit services.
Concho Valley Transit needs to fill the spots of 20-23 drivers. Current drivers are now working extra hours to fill the gap. In an effort to ease the workload on current bus drivers, Concho Valley Transit is hosting a job fair Tuesday.
“Like everybody else in the nation right now, we’re struggling to fill spots. There’s more jobs right now than there are people available,” Concho Valley Council of Governments Human Resources Director, Felicitee Jones, said. “We’re trying to keep all of our services running as much as we can but we are desperately needing those drivers so that we can have that continuity of service."
She said many workers left at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic for a variety of reasons. The transit service saw losses despite being able to keep everyone employed. Jones said it’s been difficult filling those spots.
“So during COVID we didn't have to do any lay-offs and we are very proud of that but what happened was that people just with natural turnover people left,” Jones said.
In an effort to attract drivers, the Concho Valley Council of Governments recently increased starting wages to between $14 and $16 per hour. Jones said the increase came in conjunction with the CVCOG board effort to be a little more competitive, help maintain retention and increase application pools.
“The current drivers are seeing a lot of overtime so it’s great for them you know certainly people do love overtime but then it also puts a little bit of a strain on them because they are working overtime so people need that off time as well so it down create a little bit of a need for them or a lot of need for them,” Concho Valley Transit General Manager, Jeff York, said.
The job fair will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 19, at the Concho Valley Transit Annex, 510 N. Chadbourne St.