Chapel Hill Transit bus drivers explain grievances

A group of six high-seniority Chapel Hill Transit drivers said their complaints for the past five years have not been sufficiently answered.

The main complaint: a lack of sufficient time to take restroom and lunch breaks.

Wilbert Mason has driven for Chapel Hill Transit for nearly 18 years. He said getting a chance to eat while driving the HU route has been impossible.

“I got up this morning at 3 a.m., I started at 5 a.m. and ended at 2 p.m., and there’s no break,” Mason said. “There is no lunch break at all. I don’t eat lunch any day.”

Three other drivers — Annie Sharpe, Wallace Alston and Nancy Hayes — all said on Oct. 13 they were not given sufficient time to leave their seat and eat lunch during their eight-hour shifts due to tight schedules and heavy passenger loads.

“With drivers out there driving eight hours, they’re going to be tired, and they’re not going to be in tune to everything after they’ve not been able to get out of that seat,” said Hayes, a driver of 23 years.

In an e-mail, Chapel Hill Transit Director Steve Spade said drivers are able to stop along the route at the authorized restroom stops as long as they notify the dispatcher and properly secure the bus.

Spade admitted that some of the eight-hour runs do not have lunch breaks built into the route, but drivers are able to pick their runs based on their seniority and preference.

“In the runs that do not have a built-in break, we include sufficient time on route for the operators to get an adequate break,” said Spade, who added the current format was introduced in 2007 after drivers indicated they preferred straight runs with no breaks in order to have shorter days.

“All runs have recovery time at the end of every trip to assure timely operations.”

Beverly Baldwin, who has driven for 28 years, said she now drives a route that allows her to take breaks but empathizes with her co-workers. During the summer, Baldwin said she drove a heavily populated route that didn’t allow her to take breaks.

“Especially if you have a run that serves the campus, you’re always loaded so you’re never able to get off to use the bathroom or to get anything to eat,” Baldwin said. “It may be good for the people riding, but it’s not good for the driver.”

Driver Stan Norwood said he and other drivers went to the Chapel Hill Town Council in 2005 voicing some of the same concerns they have five years later. A forum arranged with the council to discuss issues dispersed in 2007, he said.

Norwood said he’s been on the transit system’s employee forum for the past 10 to 15 years, and many of the complaints raised don’t make it outside the group.

But Spade said the issues raised by the employee forum are evaluated and incorporated into changes.

“In addition, Chapel Hill Transit staff has an open door policy for employees … to share thoughts and concerns at any point in time,” he said in the e-mail.

Norwood said he’s addressed the specific topics of lunch and restroom breaks, but the drivers agreed that in recent years, things have gotten worse.

“It’s more or less become like a prison camp where you march to a drum,” Mason said. “The job has gotten more stressful than it ever has been.

“None of this is new. We’ve brought it up, and it’s all fallen on deaf ears. Even if Steve Spade is listening, it’s either his way, or no way.”

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.