Wheels Bus Operator Recruitment - Print Media

Target Audience: Like transit agencies everywhere, Wheels has been experiencing a shortage of bus operators during the pandemic and as we began to ramp-up service to closer to pre-COVID levels. The target audience for this entry is anyone who might be looking for a new career as a Wheels bus operator.

Strategy Objective:Our bus operator recruitment effort contained many elements, including online ads, Open Houses, bus exterior display ads, in-vehicle ads, flyers, employee referral bonuses, a recruitment video and three radio spots. This entry focuses on the print elements of the campaign. Those elements included: -Bus exterior display advertisements -Interior Car Cards -Open House Flyers that were posted on interior windows of our buses and inside our passenger shelters. They contained a QR code that led directly to the recruitment page of our website -We implemented a $3,000 Referral Bonus program for employees and designed and printed postcards to be handed out by our employees to encourage employees and their families to help us recruit

Situation Challenge: Prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wheels had 84 bus operators, and even that number was not sufficient to fill all runs, including standby and extra board. Through attrition and operators finding other employment opportunities, we hit a low of 62 available operators. It was important to increase that number quickly because full time in-person education at area school districts had resumed and we needed a minimum of 20 more drivers to meet that demand and to resume some other services that had continued to be run at a reduced level as a result of the driver shortage.

Results Impact: Pre-pandemic, Wheels had 84 bus operators. In late 2021, the number of operators on payroll was 72, but 10 of those were on Leaves of Absence (LOA), leaving 62 able to operate a vehicle on any given day. We had 6 drivers in various stages of the training process, but the number of drivers successfully completing training was barely enough to keep up with attrition. As a result of this aggressive hiring campaign, we now have 82 operators on payroll, with only 4 on LOA, leaving 78 available to drive, a net increase of 26%. We now consistently have 10-15 drivers in the training pipeline and are showing net increases over attrition. At times when we were short of operators, road supervisors and other management personnel were needed to drive in revenue service. That is no longer the case.

Why Submit: This campaign resulted in a 26% increase in driver headcount, enabling us to resume some service that had been reduced during the pandemic and to meet the needs of students returning to in-person instruction. Many of the print elements focused on individuals who were riding our buses and thus familiar with our operation, and the postcard promoting the referral bonus engaged our employees and their families as recruiters. When applicants came in to apply, we asked where they had heard about the opening. Most named multiple elements of the campaign. Some even mentioned another low cost element of the print component of our campaign. We have programmed the destination signs on our buses to scroll the message "Bus Drivers Needed " then "Go to wheelsbus.com" when the bus is in deadhead mode.