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Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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In our area they are hiring only part time, and pay is $20-29/hour. They have budget issues so are using many part timers instead of new full timers with costly benefits. They do preliminary and random drug and alcohol testing, and
look for confidence, patience, and good communications skills while demonstrating consistent sound judgment and good decision making.
They require just two years customer service experience and a clean driving record, and do all the training for the commercial license. They guarantee only 12.5 hours a week.
I suspect that most other public transit systems are also having budget problems these days as most are subsidized by tax dollars which are way down.
Many school districts pay benefits for part time drivers because they have a hard time filling the positions -- perhaps you could supplement with school bus driving?
The transit bus company in San Antonio pays $13.87 an hour for part-timers with probably a dollar more for full-timers. They hire part-time first to try out the drivers and then move them to full-time if they do well. When I worked for them, we only paid $10 a month for health insurance and all benefits were available for part-time drivers. Part-time drivers can drive up to 32 hours a week and we have plenty of work.
When I applied to become a bus driver, they made me take written tests on customer service and driving situations. They look for people who can exercise common sense while driving and dealing with the public.
At least here, they train you for the Class B CDL and passenger endorsement. The school districts here will only train you for the school endorsement and maybe the passenger. The school districts can only guarantee up to 25 hours a week and they pay between $11 and $12 an hour. It's difficult to have a second job while driving a school bus because you drive 2 or 3 hours in the morning and 2 or 3 hours in the evening. It doesn't leave much time in between to do anything else unless you only work on weekends. San Antonio has a low cost of living, but Texas wages are low in general.
I just asked my local city bus driver and he said he earns 24/hr, which I thought was really good pay.
Does anyone know if it's easy to become a bus driver? What's the competition like?
This is a question I've had for a long time too. I've heard conflicting stories about the pay of KC's ATA bus drivers. One driver once told me $38K, then somewhere else I had heard $12 an hour (which full time is $25K a year). I tend to think they make more than $12 an hour, even starting out. At any rate, one thing I've heard that I believe about city transit bus drivers is that most drivers starting out full time have to work a split shift (4 hours morning rushhour, 4 hours evening rushhour), which sounds like a pain, but if the job pays excellent and you could enjoy it, it might be worth it.
most cities pay well, since its a "goverment job". even with the budget cuts, i cant believe they make what they do. in seattle king country metro pays 20 an hour to start, and this was a couple years ago. most cities, its very hard to get your foot in the door, expecially with this economy.
I drove those 15 passenger busses (not vans) for thrifty/dollar rent a car (same company) in 08 and they paid 8.50 to start an hour, no benefits, in philadelphia airport, while hertz and avis paid 10.50 an hour on those big busses with the CDL. I know, the pay sucks, maybe it was philly's bad economy plus the fact that its not a goverment job. all of my co workers whined about the pay, and we all asked to just raise our starting pay by .25 cents so we can make 44 bucks extra a month, because all of us are stuggling, and their excuse is that its a tipped job.
we averaged less than 5 bucks a day in the winter, and about 35 in summer as far as tips go... bad part is summertime when people travel, its only about 2 months, while the other 10 months we get very little tips. all of us working there is struggling! I hated it because most customers think we made around 13 an hour since its at the airport, its a big company, and were driving a bus capable of having 30 people in there if people stood (it was perfect spec that the driver didnt need a CDL, not a CM to spare at any direction.
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