WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — As fuel frustration sets in, Contact 5 has discovered there is a shortage of drivers at Palm Tran, the public transit system that serves Palm Beach County.
That translates into delayed buses and riders being left in a lurch.
The rising gas prices could increase demand on an already stressed transportation system.
"They'll be like, 'Your pickup is in six minutes.' And then the next thing you know, you're stuck there waiting an hour and half for the bus," a Palm Tran passenger named Joe said.
Riders like Joe said, at times, they're feeling the effects of what Palm Tran's executive director Clinton Forbes calls a workforce crisis.
"You need the warm bodies actually driving the buses and when you're down 30 operators, that does create some operational challenges," Forbes said.
Those challenges have impacted service more than 300 times on 48 days in January and February, according to information provided by Palm Tran to Contact 5.
Palm Tran moves more than 25,000 passengers a day.
"Depending on the workforce challenge of that particular day, it's a possibility that a route can actually go longer — maybe two hours, two and a half hours without having service," Forbes said. "We are definitely asking for our customers to be patient and to be understanding. But we are also working every day to make sure their service is there."
It's slowing down riders like Christina Hicks.
"On the weekend, it runs late, and I got to be at work at a certain time, and I'll be late going to work because of how the bus is," Hicks said.
Forbes shared a plan with Contact 5 to help fill the vacancies and put more operators back behind the wheel to help some drivers that are working 70 hours a week.
"We are calling our retired operators to come out of retirement temporarily to work part-time time to help us fill some of these vacancies," Forbes said.
The call for backup comes as drivers face record gas prices.
Forbes believes that will translate into more passengers on buses.
"We are definitely prepared to handle the influx, considering our ridership is still 30% down from pre-pandemic levels, so we could easily take 10% to 20% additional riders as a result of this gas spike," Forbes said. "I can expect as a result of the gas, more people will be taking more trips using transit. and so we will be looking at those numbers very closely almost on a daily basis."
Forbes tells Contact 5 that the county is paying $1 more a gallon for diesel than what had been budgeted for.