When Bo C. Bou decided to apply to become a Rhode Island Public Transit Authority driver during the pandemic, she already had a leg up on many of the other candidates.

At the time, Bou drove a school bus, which meant she already had her commercial driver’s license (CDL), and maybe even more importantly, she knew how to wrangle a bunch of school children while operating a huge vehicle.

With her experience, Bou wanted the chance to move into a job that was full-time with benefits that could help support her as a mother of two.

“RIPTA was the next step up for me,” she said, during a recent interview with ecoRI News.

But the path wouldn’t necessarily be easy.

On top of the special license, becoming a bus driver requires weeks of training, and if a driver wants to move onto fixed-route service — which requires bigger buses that carry more passengers — and better wages, sometimes years of waiting to get called up to the big buses.

Earlier this year, RIPTA saw a driver shortage, like many other transit authorities around the country, that threatened service and nearly led to major service cuts.

But with a few improvements, including increased wages and paid CDL permit training, agency staff have been able to reverse course; more applicants are walking through the door and RIPTA has canceled its proposed service cuts.

Becoming a RIPTA driver

Although drivers can work their way up to the fixed-routes service, everyone starts with RIPTA’s RIde program, a door-to-door service for people with disabilities, even if they already have their CDL, according to the agency’s head of human resources, Kathy Nadeau.

Before they are hired, RIPTA checks all applicants’ driving records and disqualifies anyone who has a serious driving infraction.

Previously, any infraction in the past three years would disqualify a candidate, she said, “but we realized that that’s not sustainable anymore with cameras out there. If we have some folks come in and apply and they might have two or three infractions, and it might be like speeding over 10 miles an hour, something of that nature, I’m not going to turn those folks away.”

If offered employment, candidates have to pass a background check. Then, those with CDLs can start training, but those without have to get the special license.

Federal law requires that CDL holders be at least 21 years old, another challenge to getting people on board, Nadeau said. For potential employees interested in working for RIPTA, they can’t sign up to be a driver right out of school.

RIPTA does have a program to hire mechanics younger than 21, on the condition that as soon as they are of age, they have to get their CDL.

(Mechanics also need CDLs, even though they are not driving paratransit or fixed-route vehicles. “If you’re a mechanic and you’re fixing the bus, how do you test the buses? You take them on the road,” Nadeau said.)

For those who are 21, have passed through the background and driving record checks, and are offered a conditional position, they have to begin the CDL permit process.

Previously, those conditional hires had a month to take the CDL permit test on their own. But this year, RIPTA started offering a paid CDL permit prep class in collaboration with the Institute for Labor Studies and Research.

Earlier this year RIPTA’s board voted to raise starting wages for drivers from just shy of $22 an hour up to more than $25 — a move that helped boost the number of drivers applying — and trainees in the CDL program are also paid that rate.

The pay increase, coupled with the new 10-hour-long paid program, had people lining up at RIPTA job fairs earlier this summer.

Before the program, Nadeau said some conditional hires dropped out of the process while trying to study and pass the permit test on their own.

Now, although conditional hires aren’t on the road as a driver, “you’re an employee, you have benefits, you’re earning your salary,” Nadeau said.

Once a hire gets the permit, they have to complete RIPTA’s CDL training, which is also paid, and takes about three weeks.

If a trainee passes the CDL written and driving test — and Nadeau said almost everyone does — they can start the four-week paratransit driver training.

‘Now I drive’

After applying, Bou went through several weeks of training to start on paratransit service for RIPTA in 2021, receiving less than $22 an hour at the time.

“Wages were so low,” said Bou, which she noted probably contributed to fewer people applying. “People weren’t going to leave their day jobs.”

But Bou saw a bigger picture, with her ultimate goal to get to the big buses that take passengers on RIPTA’s fixed routes.

At RIPTA, where drivers are a part of a union, workers get moved up from the paratransit side to fixed routes by seniority.

“It’s a domino effect, everything we do,” said Nadeau of filling roles from the bottom up.

Earlier this year, after a delay in part due to the large shortage of drivers, Bou finally got her chance. After five weeks of additional training, she became a fixed-route driver.

“I made it,” she said. “It was so rewarding.”

Working for RIPTA, and especially with the pay bump and the move up, Bou said she is much more comfortable financially than she’s ever been, and life with a little one and a college-aged child isn’t cheap, she said. For the first time, she can take little trips with her family.

“I feel so proud about what I do,” she said. “Not so long ago, that was me with my toddler on the city bus.”

“That was the only transport we had,” Bou added, “and now I drive.”

Continued challenges

Although RIPTA is turning around its shortage, Nadeau said there are still some aspects of becoming and being a driver that she said pose challenges — many of them out of her and RIPTA’s control.

The CDL test hasn’t changed much, and modernizing it could help those trying to take it, especially bus drivers, who don’t need the agricultural know-how the test requires from the days when most of its takers were farm workers operating heavy machinery.

“Could they add another letter to the CDL process that would be just bus drivers, and make the general knowledge, kind of tune it into just bus driving?” Nadeau wondered.

Nadeau said many RIPTA employees are also subject to random drug and alcohol testing, per federal law. That sometimes poses a challenge for people interested in the job who also use marijuana recreationally now that it is legal in Rhode Island.

Both of those problems are in the hands of federal regulators, and who knows when or if they’ll change, she said.

Part of the challenge is convincing people to think long term, like Bou did. Although some driving jobs might offer a higher hourly rate, she said working at RIPTA offers longer-term gains.

“RIPTA staff work unbelievably hard at getting people in the door,” Nadeau said. “Once they get here, I have to say, it’s a great job, it’s great benefits … you can climb up.”

Bou said she recommends the job to anyone who is interested and that now is the perfect time to apply.

“I’ve never had so many people who want to see you do so well,” she said.