DALLAS — One in five DART bus and train operators do not come to work on an average day, the transit agency said, representing an improvement from recent years when a quarter of workers didn't show.
About 15.7 percent of bus drivers and 13.8 percent of train operators call out on the average day, a DART spokesperson said. This is in addition to about 5 percent of workers who have excused absences on any given day, the agency said.
"That is a tremendous improvement from where we was when I showed up here two and a half years ago," said DART Chief Operations Officer Bernard Jackson. "The absentee rate was close to 25 percent."
Jackson said the improvement is due to aggressive hiring and retention practices, but there are still chronically absent operators.
"If it’s starting to accumulate to the point where we’re unable to keep our service requirements then we have to take the appropriate action to either correct the behavior to bring it back to an acceptable level or maybe we’ll figure out something else for you to do with your career," Jackson said.
Certain days have more callouts than others he said. Mondays and Fridays are worse than other weekdays, for example. So is the day after the Super Bowl, the day after Christmas and Black Friday.
"You have those dates that circled on the calendar where you understand you need to beef up and have extra coverage," he said.
Donnie Jolly, the President of ATU Local 1338, which represents DART operators, said a generational shift is partially responsible for the absenteeism. Newer, younger drivers are more reluctant to work early, late and weekend shifts -- but don't yet have the seniority for the better routes, he told WFAA over the phone earlier this month.
He said the industry as a whole has a high turnover rate -- and a high absenteeism rate. The CEO of MARTA in Atlanta, for example, said earlier this year that up to 25 percent of its operators are not showing up daily.
"You have to be up early in some cases. In some cases, you have to work late. In some cases, you may have to work weekends," Jackson, a former bus operator himself, said.
Still, he aims to improve the flake rate to get it closer to a more manageable 10 percent. "If we get to 10 percent, we're shattering all trends throughout public agencies."