MBTA so desperate for bus drivers it's now offering up to $4,500 signing bonuses

im pretty sure these are split shifts. 6am-10am then back at 5pm-9pm or something close to that. brutal shifts. most people only drive the busses to get their foot in the door and after a couple of years maybe something better comes along you can apply for.

I'm guessing that the union-negotiated benefits are pretty good. But still, that ain't a lot to put up with what bus drivers face every day.

The only people we have to blame is ourselves for this one.

Remember folks, when people come out and use the T as their punching bag, this is the outcome.

I remember a time not that all long ago where people were up in arms about the T's Union and Retirement Benefits and such. So much so, politicians have tried to do their best to dismantle these benefits and high pay scales.

cuz 'those damn T drivers can't make more than me'. Cuz you know the minute the T wants to pay people more to make the job more attractive..the

"ZOMG THE T WORKERS CANNOT MAKE MORE THAN MY PRIVATE SECTOR JOB. THEY DON'T DESERVE IT AND ARE FAT AND LAZY" people come out of the woodwork to protest these rate hikes.

(come on folks, we all know people who've said similar)

So we've had years of this. Dr Scott warned us this wouldn't be a good thing, especially in a few years (which is now) where drivers are retiring and there is no one to replace them.

And I can't say I blame people, having people pitch folk your job b/c of some sick obsession with T workers and how awful they are, microscopic micro managing, unruly passengers, and more. Who would want this job?

People love to bitch about the T. But they also love to bitch when people try to make it better. But then still complain how crappy the T is, and deny any sort of fixing that would actually fix the system.

This is the outcome of this. Decades of this. Its now coming home to roost in a RTS bus.

Public sector jobs usually have a grade/step salary chart. New hires start with a low salary at step 1, and every year get a step increase plus an annual raise. After 5 years on the job salaries are pretty respectable. After 10 or 15 years they reach the top step and then just get annual cost of living raises.

That appears to be the case for the MBTA bus driver salaries. First year might be $41k but after five years it's $76k which is reasonable for a job requiring a high school degree.

Of course today it's all messed up because of sudden inflation. Public sector pay schedules will be the slowest to catch up. There will be a lot of unfilled vacancies through the next fiscal year.

With rare exceptions, I have really meant it pretty much every time since I started that habit, and especially during the past two years.

What surprised me when I started thanking bus drivers was that it dramatically improved my own experience of the ride.

I always mean it. It's a tough job.