RUNNING ON EMPTY? OT COSTS SURGE AMID MTA DRIVER SHORTAGE.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

The MTA has run short of bus drivers and can't hire them fast enough, so it is spending as much as $45,000 a week on overtime and keeping drivers behind the wheel so long it may be violating regulations, according to interviews and documents.

The driver shortage has been worsening for months but reached a crisis in December when more than 100 new drivers were suddenly needed for buses mandated by a court order to reduce passenger overcrowding. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority had 145 vacancies, but last week it got the number down to 106 through promotions and other changes.

Experienced bus drivers earn a base salary of about $50,000 a year, plus benefits, but officials said the starting pay of $11 an hour isn't enough to attract recruits who are being lost to airport and security jobs in a post-9-11 labor market.

``We're operating the service on overtime and it's costing us more money,'' said Deputy CEO John Catoe. Costs are now $33,000 a week.

``We recruited. The problem was, we had the jobs and not enough people came. We couldn't get them hired fast enough because they weren't there.''

And having to pay $1 million in overtime this year is bad news for the agency, which already is $40 million over budget due to higher costs and lower-than-expected revenues. It is poised to cut administrative jobs and could consider fare hikes to bring its $3 billion budget back into balance.

The problem was spelled out in an internal draft audit conducted last year, and is still being reviewed for release to management. It identified at least $93,000 in potential overtime abuse in the San Fernando Valley alone and said some operators were working more than regulations allow.

MTA Chairman Frank Roberts had not yet read the audit, but was concerned about its preliminary findings.

``I think we need to get our act in order and begin to straighten out these problems,'' said Roberts, who also is the Lancaster mayor.

Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich also wants the issues resolved.

``These issues need to be included in a healthy discussion about the agency, to find out what the root problems are and reshape the agency to respond to the problems better,'' said Antonovich's transportation deputy, Michael Cano. ``Let's analyze it and have a mature discussion about it.''

The MTA employs 4,400 bus drivers, who can earn as much as $23 an hour - nearly $50,000 a year - as they gain experience and reach full-time status.

Drivers also get full medical benefits for a $50-a-month premium, and can retire after 23 years with an array of options, including a lump sum as high as $250,000.

But for entry-level drivers, who are hired for $11 an hour with more modest health benefits and no retirement package, it takes two to three years to reach full-time status, and even longer to get the seniority to be assigned to day shifts.

And the top scale is now $19 an hour, not the $23 rate for those hired years ago.

Although a candidate doesn't need a high school diploma to drive a bus, the MTA said it only hires about 10 percent of applicants. From July 1 to Jan. 31, it hired 355 new drivers from 3,565 applicants.

It posts job openings at employment offices and community college campuses, and conducts quarterly job fairs.

The United Transportation Union, which represents the drivers, declined to comment.

Without enough drivers, MTA is increasingly leaning on operator overtime to staff the routes.

The draft internal audit reviewed San Fernando Valley bus yards, where 660 drivers are employed, but the auditors expected similar findings in the MTA's four other service areas.

It found that drivers claimed 61 hours of overtime in excess of MTA operation records during a one-week period in early 2004. That could amount to $93,000 a year, the report said.

``Certainly we're concerned about that,'' Roberts said. ``We have to watch every penny.''

It also found that 13 percent of 160 drivers claiming overtime during the 10 weeks sampled had violated a regulation that limits them to driving no more than 80 hours over eight consecutive days.

Managers told the auditors they used to get reports that helped rein in costs, but those were halted in 2000 when computers were altered to handle Y2K upgrades.

Managers also said they requested new reports and ways to flag drivers who were approaching regulatory limits, but the staff said there were other priorities in the 20-year-old computer system, the audit said.

``We found that Metro Operations does not have adequate systems reports.... to monitor operators' overtime,'' said the audit. ``Without summary data to monitor overtime, division transportation managers may not detect abuses of overtime.''

The audit was overseen by former chief auditor William Bernsdorf shortly before he retired from the MTA last month in what he has said was his forced ouster.

MTA spokesman Ed Scannell said the audit was still in draft form, and would be released to MTA management after final review.

Catoe said he had allocated $560,000 for new software this summer to fix the computers, but was concerned if drivers are working more than allowed.

He's put in manual steps in the meantime to prevent drivers from working too much.

``It's a small portion, but I don't even want it to be one person,'' he said. ``I don't believe it's any intention on the operators' part or any intention on the MTA's part. It brought to light an issue we have to deal with.

``You need an automated system to be able to do that. You make mistakes when you're trying to do that manually.''

He added, ``We are aware of this. We are taking every step we can without the ability to use all the automated tools that are out there to be able to cross-check and back-check and make sure this doesn't happen.''

The California Highway Patrol, which monitors MTA's drivers for adherence to regulations about their time behind the wheel, could not immediately say if violations occurred.

CHP's Mike Kelley, who supervises the Motor Carrier Unit in the Los Angeles area, said agencies are notified if more than 5 percent of the sampled drivers violated the rules. If more than 10 percent were in violation, agencies face an injunction by the state Attorney General's Office.

Kelley said that MTA hasn't faced an injunction for at least 20 years, nor had the agency even failed an inspection in the past few years.

As the MTA bus system grows, the agency fears it may be spending resources to train new drivers only to lose them to other bus agencies with better working conditions and higher pay.

The MTA has been under court orders to put more buses on the streets to reduce overcrowding as part of a federal consent decree reached in 1996 after a lawsuit filed by the parent group of the Bus Riders Union.

The suit claimed civil rights violations, saying the MTA was building rail lines while its mostly minority and working class riders saw little improvements to the bus system.

The MTA has requested an internal audit to assess the costs in training new drivers - who are paid $10 an hour for the six weeks of training - and if the entry-level pay rate rate is deterring new hires.

``There comes a point in time when you have exceeded the availability of people in the work force who wish to be a bus driver and who could pass all the testing,'' said Catoe. ``We're there.''

Lisa Mascaro, [phone]

lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com

QUALIFICATIONS

The MTA will hold a job fair from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on April 2 at its headquarters, One Gateway Plaza, Los Angeles. For information, call [phone] or see www.metro.net.

Here are the basic qualifications for a bus driver:

--At least 21 years old.

--Valid driver's license for at least two years, plus a good record.

--Able to read, speak and write in English.

--Must pass a drug and alcohol test and background check.

--Experience: Six months full-time or one year part-time experience with the public. Six months on-the-job driving (requirement can be waived). Satisfactory job attendance and performance record.

--No high school diploma required

--Must undergo six-week paid training program.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1) Angel Nunez, a bus operator trainee, learns to drive an MTA vehicle in a simulator downtown. The MTA has been hard-pressed to find new drivers recently.

(2) Instructor Vince Wilkes monitors a driving trainee's activities in a simulator at the MTA training facility in downtown Los Angeles.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer

Box:

QUALIFICATIONS (see text)