Besides the thousands of people who take public transit every day, students who rely on RIPTA have had trouble getting to school on time, and have occasionally been left without a ride at all. Morning Edition host Luis Hernandez spoke with Nick DeCristofaro, President of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 618, about what’s behind the issue, and how the shortage has affected drivers.
Luis Hernandez: Reports that I’ve read show you’re down at least 30 drivers. What’s behind the shortage? What’s going on right now?
Nick DeCristofaro: I believe there are more issues than just one, why we are not fully staffed. Of course, with the COVID pandemic, everyone is using that as an excuse. The other reason is, we didn’t keep up with the salaries that we should have in the past. And, of course, there are a lot of moving parts. I believe the authority has changed quite a bit.
Hernandez: You’re talking about RIPTA when you say the authority? Having this shortage, what kind of strain has that put on drivers? What have you been hearing from them?
DeCristofaro: They are feeling extremely stressful. They’re putting in all kinds of hours. Some of them are right to the limit, where we can’t let them drive any longer to cover the service. It’s a stressful job, to begin with. I tell people that don’t know what it’s like, to get into the most comfortable car that you have and drive for eight hours, not 10 hours or 12 hours, or even up to 16 hours. Just drive for eight hours and tell me what you feel like. We also have other issues, like my drivers don’t have facilities or restroom facilities at the end of the hallway, so that puts a big stress on them.
Hernandez: When trying to recruit new drivers, what do you tell them about what the job is like? What can they expect to experience? But also, what can they expect to be making in a job like this?
DeCristofaro: It’s a good-paying job. I’m not saying that it’s not a good-paying job. But for what you do, for what you have to put up with, it’s mediocre. I mean, it’s a guaranteed blue-collar life. At the same time, it’s got its drawbacks. It’s got, it’s very stressful driving out there. And you’re not driving as I said, a Cadillac, you’re driving the 40-foot vehicle, with passengers standing up and sitting down. We run by the minute and not by the 10 minutes or half hour or an hour – we run by the minute. If we have to be somewhere, we have to be punctual. If we tell you that we’re going to try and get you downtown by let’s say, 2:30, we need to be there at 2:30, not 2:35 or not 2:25. So I was trying to give the best ride and the safest ride possible.
Hernandez: What are some of the solutions? What do we need to do?
DeCristofaro: Oh, god, that’s a good question. And I don’t have all the answers, but I know that we need to change the atmosphere here. I don’t like to do my laundry in public. But yes, we need help. We need someone to come and take a look and see what’s going on.
Hernandez: And to clarify, when you talk about bringing somebody in, you’re talking about somebody at the authority of somebody at the governor’s office?
DeCristofaro: If you look at the people that are running the authority, they [used to be] people from a transit background, somewhat of transit background, or people that rose through the ranks – that no, we don’t have that now. So it’s tough to make them understand that. If the service or if the schedules aren’t correct, it makes our drivers twice as stressed.
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