The Duluth Transit Authority's third annual " Your Turn To Drive" recruitment event returned on Sept. 26, with a new spin as local "celebrities" took to the wheel of a public transit bus.
"This year was the first year that we added the celebrity component to really magnify the reach of the event and let decision-makers in the community get the perspective of the bus drivers," DTA Director of Marketing Dave Clark said.
The event opened to the public the following day, giving roughly 20 more people the chance at the experience.
In Duluth, up to 10,000 people ride the bus each day, according to the DTA. With 92 drivers currently on staff, the organization is looking to onboard about 10 more.
"You really bring people to key vital destinations, appointments, jobs, interviews, school, work," Clark said. "There's really a huge community need."
The stakes were high as the two Duluth News Tribune contestants, photographer Clint Austin and I, wagered a little friendly competition via fist bump for some sushi.
Upon arrival, we were notified that Superior Mayor Jim Paine held the fastest time so far among 16 overall contestants.
"We've had a lot of a great cast of characters — you know, a lot of good personalities and driving styles," Clark said.
In my competitive nature, I bellied, "Bring it on!" to organizers, who responded with a good chuckle.
The front bus door opened and the hydraulics lowered it to the ground as I boarded the driver's seat. It was surprisingly comfortable and easy to adjust. An abundance of buttons, levers and switches decorated the dashboard and overwhelmed my senses.
A mixture of excitement and nervousness was quelled with the personal reassurance that in my experience I've driven a snowmobile, ATV, side-by-side, dirt bike, go-cart, Argo, 1934 Taylor aircraft (briefly) and my husband crazy.
How difficult could it be to navigate a 40-foot-long bus around the Heritage Center parking lot?
Most of the fleets are standard, automatic diesel buses.
DTA Director of Scheduling Nick Ackman gave me the rundown and instructed me to release the parking brake. The bus lurched as I put it into drive, and the brakes were a little touchy.
Rounding the first hard left and immediate hard right of the course, I must have taken out a poor cone given the "Ope!" escaping Ackman's mouth as he eyed the rearview mirror and held on for dear life.
Sensing I got a slow start due to the reversing portion of the track, I gunned it around the wide turn to make up for lost time, costing a few more cones.
A final and seventh cone was a casualty as I pulled away from the mock bus stop. I blame it on the length of the bus. It can be a bit deceiving.
Crossing over the finish line, DTA staff announced I'd taken second place for the day, still not surpassing Paine's record speed. However, it should be noted that he hit four cones while navigating the test course.
After plucking a cone from the undercarriage, Austin was up next. In his stealth, he snuck into the No. 2 spot — but just barely, according to the DTA employee in charge of keeping time. I guess I owe him sushi.
"Based on your observation, should I drive a bus?" I asked Clark, to which he responded there are three components the DTA is looking for when onboarding new drivers.
The first is a general ability to operate a vehicle safely," he said. The second component is reliability to attending a job. The third is being able to navigate the vibrant personalities and situations encountered on the road.
"I mean, I think there's potential there if you ever decide to hang up the pen and paper," Clark said.
The DTA holds fully paid driver training classes four times a year, and each round of training lasts five to six weeks for drivers to obtain the necessary Class B license with a passenger endorsement.
"Post-COVID world, we've been lucky to have five to seven applicants that make it through to the class," Clark said. "There's a lot of folks that were here for 30 years who retired. It's more difficult to find people willing and able to step into a role like a bus driver these days, and that's not just in Duluth. It's across the transit industry, and the transportation industry nationally as well."
Starting pay for a bus operator on the DTA's fixed route is just under $27 per hour.
"Certainly other places might have a better dollar per hour, but they don't really see the big picture of this being a union Teamsters job and how incredible the benefit package is, this day and age," Ackman said.
Drivers receive a fully paid family medical premium, fully paid family dental, vision coverage and pension through Teamsters, as well as competitive vacation and sick time.
Ackman began driving seven and a half years ago and has taken on an array of positions with the company ranging from dispatcher to supervisor. There are various opportunities for growth within the company's departments in addition to bus operator openings, including administrative, communications and garage positions.
"We're trying to compete for the same job pool as everybody else," Ackman said. "We, unfortunately, sometimes lose some folks to other places that have similar skill sets required."
With a lack of drivers, the DTA has had to cut back its level of service and require mandatory overtime of its existing drivers, Ackman said.
"It's really hard every time we have to go to the community and say that we're going to have to cut this portion of the service out because we're leaving people with less options," Ackman said.
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