Bus driver shortages here to stay for at least the near future

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The question is, why are people not signing up for those jobs? Everyone talks about Disney being able to underpay because everyone wants to work there but that is clearly not the case now. Time for Disney to react to the market by making the job more favorable to applicants, which means doing at least one or a combination of this list:
-Raise Pay
-Raise Benifits
-Make scheduling more favorable

they don’t pay enough to meet their demand. Capitalism 101

It’s not been the case for years now.

At least 20 years and it will continue to get worse as prices (not Disney...consumer goods and living expenses) continue to try and “outrun” Wall Street

the reputation that Disney was a “great place to work” was born from the 50s-80s...and bouyed a little when their healthcare costs were manageable afterward.

that’s not the world we live in. Starbucks is better...you lose more skin...but better

 

[JIMINYCR]

How problem can be solved....
New Disney experience announced.... Bus Driving. For one day of your trip, you can drive guests around Disney property. For a nominal fee, even you can be a Disney Bus Driver. A 1 hour tour of an actual bus, a 1 hour History of the Disney Bus, and a talk from Joey the Bus Driver who will tell stories and tales of his time driving Disney guests around. Then after the thrilling tour, you will receive this...

And one of these....

And a collectable Disney Bus pin.

Yes... YOU can be a Disney bus driver... **** Routes and hours may not always be those you desire.

 

[Thelazer]

The story's I've heard of bus drivers being mandated to stay 3 hours past end of shift.. making it impossible to do the job and have a family / quality life, would sure seem to indicate why they have a tough time hiring for those positions, who wants to go into work not knowing if you'll have to stay 3 hours late every night?

Monorails on the other hand COULD be automated to work with ZERO human interaction.. More upfront cost yes, but for gods sake the long term return on investment is nuts. Just look at the Orlando airports shuttles, zero human operator's and more passenger's carried than Disney's.

 

[cranbiz]

The story's I've heard of bus drivers being mandated to stay 3 hours past end of shift.. making it impossible to do the job and have a family / quality life, would sure seem to indicate why they have a tough time hiring for those positions, who wants to go into work not knowing if you'll have to stay 3 hours late every night?

Monorails on the other hand COULD be automated to work with ZERO human interaction.. More upfront cost yes, but for gods sake the long term return on investment is nuts. Just look at the Orlando airports shuttles, zero human operator's and more passenger's carried than Disney's.

Huh?

DOT regulations for CDL passenger drivers have a 10 hour max time and then must have 8 hours off and no more than 60 hours in an consecutive 7 day period if you don't drive a bus every day or 70 hours in a consecutive 8 day period if you do drive a bus every day.

So, no. Disney can't make a driver that just worked an 8 hour shift stay 3 hours past shift, and yes, the bus ops compliance office knows how many hours you worked.

DOT inspectors do visit Disney frequently for inspections and compliance checks. Fun times when we had things like NOJ with many bused in groups. I saw a lot of buses shut down by the DOT for violations.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Yes, I had many 1900-0330 shifts in the beginning. The tough one was Sunday night and I then had to be at my full time job at 0800. Slept in my truck in the cast lot many times after that shift as I worked in downtown Orlando. Like I said earlier, in a couple years, I was not getting those closing shifts and actually had, what I considered a prime shift, 0530-1430 at DTD. I was CR except for a short time after I got laid off from my FT job. Disney was very accommodating in this situation, transitioning me to FT and then when I then found another FT jog about 6 months later, back to CR.

It is union, Teamsters. You bid on park and shifts based on seniority. Obviously, the FT SR guys got what they wanted. Even as CR you could bid parks and shifts. I never did and still ended up with better shifts as I got more seniority.

I don't know what starting pay is now but when I started in 2006, it was $12.96 an hour, which was a good $5 an hour more than attractions cast. When I left due to a new FT job which transferred me to NC, I was a bit over $15 an hour. That really was decent money back then.

I'm trying to remember what year that was that I went to "casting", maybe around 2009 or 2010. After I left Casting I went to DTD and just randomly rode the buses around for a while, switching at every stop. I talked to a lot of the drivers. I think at the time it was still around $15. per hour but I'm not absolutely sure of that. Anyway, municipal drivers in Vermont (also Teamsters) was nearly $25. per hour. About $19 per hour to start. Same set up. All by seniority.

If I were still there right now I would be #2 man on the list. We all bid every 3 months but by the time the lowest seniority was eligible to bid you pretty much had whatever one was left. Just as in life, the old eventually make way for the young when it comes to seniority. In three years I went from 4 up from the bottom (they hired 4 people on the same day and I was first) to 26th out of 55 total drivers. At that point I applied for a supervisor job in the company and stay there until I retired in 2010. At that point I had to apply to go into hold on my teamsters membership. I'm not sure why the teamsters aren't a little stronger down here in NC, but there doesn't seem to be any real benefit in belonging for the most part.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Huh?

DOT regulations for CDL passenger drivers have a 10 hour max time and then must have 8 hours off and no more than 60 hours in an consecutive 7 day period if you don't drive a bus every day or 70 hours in a consecutive 8 day period if you do drive a bus every day.

So, no. Disney can't make a driver that just worked an 8 hour shift stay 3 hours past shift, and yes, the bus ops compliance office knows how many hours you worked.

DOT inspectors do visit Disney frequently for inspections and compliance checks. Fun times when we had things like NOJ with many bused in groups. I saw a lot of buses shut down by the DOT for violations.

The agreement and system that we had was if there came a need for someone to stay later they started at the top of the seniority list. Most of the time it meant overtime. Everyone had the option to say no. and they would just keep going down the list until someone said yes or whomever was available at the end of the list would be required to do the hours. But, they still had to stay within the CDL hour parameters. One of the bidding positions that I avoided like the plague was dispatcher. What a pain that was but thankfully the top guys took that job because they never had to get off their butts. They just talked on the radio and answered and made calls on the phone.

 

[BaconPancakes]

Maybe opening back up the Epcot monorail would help...

 

[PG 134]

Disney can be such and slow at having/maintaining a proper level of staff sometimes. I think the record I've seen is around 3 months of CMs getting scheduled without a single day off. Every "off" day is a mandatory shift for 3 months. That was for 1/4 to 1/2 of the department.

 

[TransportationGuy]

On the transportation front, we’ll start seeing a bit of emergency relief this week. WDW has called up 60 buses from a Miami based bus company to help with capacity as the increases in park capacity continue. As a part of the deal, the company has bought out an entire hotel on 192 for 90 days and Disney will provide access to parking and cleaning facilities. Ideally this will be more of a stopgap measure with Disney hires more drivers, but only time will tell.

 

[Unbanshee]

On the transportation front, we’ll start seeing a bit of emergency relief this week. WDW has called up 60 buses from a Miami based bus company to help with capacity as the increases in park capacity continue. As a part of the deal, the company has bought out an entire hotel on 192 for 90 days and Disney will provide access to parking and cleaning facilities. Ideally this will be more of a stopgap measure with Disney hires more drivers, but only time will tell.

Is that what all those Academy buses are doing on property?

 

[Thelazer]

Disney should just scrap the bus system as is. They've tinkered with it for like 8 years now and its only gotten worse year after year. This last go around with the automated dispatch and removing the radio's from the bus drivers was an outright failure.

 

[Touchdown]

Disney should just scrap the bus system as is. They've tinkered with it for like 8 years now and its only gotten worse year after year. This last go around with the automated dispatch and removing the radio's from the bus drivers was an outright failure.

I wish they would build a more robust system. Peoplemovers, light rail, monorail, skyway whatever. They should have made Epcot’s main enterance the hub of the resort with loops originating there to DS and surrounding hotels, AK BB and surrounding hotels, DHS and Crescent Lake and MK and surrounding resorts (which would need to expand to include WL and Ft Wilderness.

 

[TransportationGuy]

Is that what all those Academy buses are doing on property?

Yes indeed

 

[FutureCEO]

I hate driving a car never mind a bus

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Just look at the Orlando airports shuttles, zero human operator's and more passenger's carried than Disney's.

For an even closer comparison look at the fully automated Las Vegas Monrail System.

 

[NelsonRD]

I have a more negative opinion on this. I would conclude people do not 'want' to work, do not 'want' to be a bus driver, or have created a reckless history that prevents them from working as a bus driver, ie, DUIs, criminal history.

This is more depressing from an employment point of view to me, opposed to an economic one.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I wish they would build a more robust system. Peoplemovers, light rail, monorail, skyway whatever. They should have made Epcot’s main enterance the hub of the resort with loops originating there to DS and surrounding hotels, AK BB and surrounding hotels, DHS and Crescent Lake and MK and surrounding resorts (which would need to expand to include WL and Ft Wilderness.

all that stuff costs money with zero direct profit on the ledger.

we know the problem there.

and before anyone says: “don’t we pay enough?!?”

nope...unfortunately.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

I have a more negative opinion on this. I would conclude people do not 'want' to work, do not 'want' to be a bus driver, or have created a reckless history that prevents them from working as a bus driver, ie, DUIs, criminal history.

This is more depressing from an employment point of view to me, opposed to an economic one.

You’re depressed that people don’t want to be a bus driver for a living?

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I have a more negative opinion on this. I would conclude people do not 'want' to work, do not 'want' to be a bus driver, or have created a reckless history that prevents them from working as a bus driver, ie, DUIs, criminal history.

This is more depressing from an employment point of view to me, opposed to an economic one.

it’s possible...but there could be something much deeper - and far more lasting than that.

what if - under all the bluster and nonsense last year - that a large amount of “have nots” got a taste of what it’s like to not accept it...saw the path to affect it...and they’re not willing to go back??

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

You’re depressed that people don’t want to be a bus driver for a living?

bingo...exactly...

where’s stamps when you need her?

“how dare these peasants not line up to help me strut around on vacation?!?”