Detroit area leaders need to help resolve 'no-show bus crisis', report says

Transit advocates are calling on the top leaders in the city of Detroit as well as Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties to get personally involved to resolve the region’s “no-show bus crisis.”

In a report released Thursday, the advocacy group Transportation Riders United paints a sadly familiar picture of underfunded bus services in metro Detroit that don’t meet the needs of residents and of agencies that have not managed to return to pre-pandemic service levels.

The impact of “no-show” buses, fueled in large part by an ongoing shortage of drivers, has been devastating for transit users, the group said in its draft report, which calls for a substantial increase in driver salaries. The bus driver shortage is a nationwide issue, but with both DDOT and SMART down about 100 drivers each in an area that has underinvested in public transit for years, the impact is dire.

The report highlights regular hourlong waits, missed classes and appointments and lost jobs because of scheduled buses not showing up or infrequent service.

“Public transit is a critical lifeline for tens of thousands of people throughout the Detroit region — including people who temporarily or permanently cannot drive due to physical, financial, legal or other reasons. Riders are hurt by this failure each and every day and cannot continue to wait,” the report said, noting that the region ranks at or near the bottom of similar-size areas for the proportion of prepandemic service in operation.

More: Pay, scheduling causes widespread SMART, DDOT driver shortage, missed routes

The main way to address the driver shortage and hold drivers to high standards is to increase their pay, according to the report. Both the Detroit Department of Transportation and Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation trail their counterparts in other parts of the United States on the issue of pay.

SMART has a starting pay of $16.50 per hour during eight weeks of training and $19.11 per hour afterward. DDOT is now advertising for drivers at a rate of $16.15 per hour; the rate rises to $17.23 per hour in nine months. Both systems trail the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority, known as TheRide, which has a starting salary for drivers of $28.65 per hour.

SMART is in contract negotiations with its drivers union, and salaries are believed to be a major issue. Talks were held in Detroit, too, but the situation was a bit different.

Mayor Mike Duggan met with union leaders at DDOT and "proposed reopening the contract early to give the operators substantial wage increases immediately. So far, it appears the union leaders prefer to wait until the current contract expires before negotiating a new contract," according to John Roach, a spokesman for the mayor.

Schetrone Collier, president of DDOT's drivers union, ATU Local 26, however, said that the issue for the drivers union is that the administration wanted to do more than just raise salaries, and the offer would still not have allowed the DDOT drivers to match what those at SMART make.

"They offered us a raise but wanted to ravage our contract," he said, of the current agreement that expires in 2025. "If we would be giving up anything, it would be to be on par (in terms of salary). Why would I give anything up and still be last?"

Collier suggested a way forward would be a wage reopener.

"You're negotiating for buckets of water while the house is burning down," he said of the city's approach. "You've got the water. Just put the fire out."

The report credits management with taking some steps to address the shortage — SMART, for instance, held a hiring fair in June that let interested driver candidates get behind the wheel of a bus — but notes that “too little has substantially changed over the past year” and says that the agencies need Duggan, along with Dave Coulter, Warren Evans and Mark Hackel, the executives in Oakland, Wayne and Macomb counties, respectively, to personally intervene.

The report says Duggan has described getting personally involved in negotiations that led to a $10,000 raise for Detroit police.

Officials at DDOT and SMART, which is in the process of expanding service in Oakland County after a successful vote to fund transit countywide, have been clear they want to be competitive on wages.

More: DDOT driver charged in crash that killed Grosse Pointe Park woman

During an event in April to discuss the DDOT Reimagined plan to improve service, with funding from the federal government’s American Rescue Plan of 2021, Detroit's executive director of transit, Mikel Oglesby, said a lot hinges on ongoing negotiations with DDOT drivers.

”All signs point toward the outcome of our negotiation with the union and changing the pay rate,” he said at the time, “we want to be competitive.”

Amy LeFebre, of the public relations firm Truscott Rossman, provided a statement on behalf of SMART, acknowledging that the shortage of qualified drivers has forced service reductions on some routes and that, in turn, has affected the people who rely on the system:

"That’s not acceptable, and we’re working to fix the problem. But the solution is neither simple nor singular. As we lead the change that will make SMART a national mobility leader, it’s imperative that we take a multi-faceted, strategic approach to overcome a decades-long and complex set of challenges plaguing our regional transit system. Compensation is an important first step. While we offer a generous benefits package, we recognize that the pay SMART currently offers to recruit and retain talent is not competitive. We need to pay more, and those negotiations are under way. However, to fully address the driver shortage, we are also prioritizing improvements in our work environment that will enhance the quality of life for our team members."

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the current pay being advertised for bus drivers in Detroit and the status of talks with the drivers union. It has also been updated to reflect the proper name of Transportation Riders United.

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Report: Detroit area leaders need to help resolve 'no-show bus crisis'