Fatigue Management Ongoing Problem in Transportation

Some CN railroad workers in Edmonton say they are fed up with a “culture of fear and intimidation” that keeps them working longer hours than they can handle.

Workers rallied near Grand Trunk Park on the city’s north side last Wednesday to push their employer to take workplace fatigue seriously.

“They’re forcing us to come to work when we’re tired and to remain at work tired, despite provisions in our collective agreement that allow for us to be the judges of our own condition while we’re at work,” said a locomotive engineer, who has worked with CN for 10 years.

The workers' union, Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Division 796, claims CN train crews are commonly forced to work beyond the time their rest periods are scheduled to begin.

The engineer who spoke to Metro said employees have been ignored, and in some cases disciplined, for raising concerns about fatigue to their supervisors.

He said CN’s failure to deal with the problem is putting not only employees but the public at risk.

“Operating a train requires a lot of focus and attention to detail. When someone is deprived of sleep it impairs both their physical as well as their cognitive ability to do so,” he said.

Source Edmonton Metro News>>

Stagecoach Revenues Face Downward Pressure

Stagecoach said the US market remains “challenging due to the effects of sustained lower fuel prices, through heightened car and air competition” with like-for-like revenues from its megabus.com division down 10.1 per cent and revenue from its other North America businesses up 0.1 per cent.

Stagecoach said: “UK Rail industry revenue growth has slowed over the last year and the outlook for the industry remains uncertain, particularly given its sensitivity to economic conditions.”

Adding: “As previously highlighted, we believe the reduced rate of growth reflects the effects of weakening consumer and business confidence, increased terrorism concerns, sustained lower fuel prices, the related effects of car and air competition, slower UK GDP growth and slowing growth in real earnings.”

Earlier in the week the rail union RMT confirmed Virgin East Coast staff will stage a a 24-hour walkout on October 3 in a dispute over job security and working conditions.

The RMT has claimed the jobs of around 200 of its members are under threat though operator Virgin Trains has insisted compulsory job cuts are not being considered.

Stagecoach notes in the trading update: “We will continue to take steps to mitigate the effects of lower revenue growth, focussing on cost control as well as additional initiatives to grow revenue.

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Managers Minimize Employee Training and Skills

James M. Kanalley Jr. is a mechanic and a member of ATU Local 1342 representing transit workers at the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority. The members of his local have not had a raise in 8 years and and a group of them were recently at Bisons baseball game leafleting those in attendance and making the public aware of labour issues at the NFTA.

At the same time members of NAFTA management were holding a recruitment drive for new drivers and mechanics due to a shortage of each. One of the ATU members approached an upper level manager and asked some questions about the recruiting process. The manager's response was very telling, he said as much that "Well, you chose this. That's why I went to college."

Kanalley says this speaks volumes about the little regard management has towards maintenance and transportation department employees. He goes on to say:

To me, this implies that maintenance and transportation department employees are uneducated and unable to handle difficult positions and not worth paying a decent wage.

This shows the view that upper management has toward the men and women who come to work every day, despite not having had a raise in the past eight years. Many of us, myself included, do in fact have a college education.

I don’t think people realize that the skills and licenses one has to acquire to be able to properly and safely drive, diagnose, repair and maintain these increasingly complicated vehicles are very difficult and take years to acquire.

Janitorial employees willingly take health risks every time they step on a bus or railcar to thoroughly clean it so that passengers have a safe, clean and healthy ride to their destination. These workers should not be looked down upon.

As a mechanic, I would love to ask a manager how he would go about diagnosing a fuel injection issue on a diesel engine. Or how to read the schematics on a multiplexing computer system that controls the interlock and door operating system of a bus. Or how to make sure the AC system is cool enough for rider comfort, but follow the regulations for environmental safety, and diagnose an issue with said system when the defect write-up simply says, “No AC.”

“Well, you chose this.” Yes, we did choose this. I chose to go to vocational school in high school and to college in Nashville, Tenn., to get a degree in diesel and automotive technology.

I chose to be a mechanic because that’s what I’m good at and have advanced skills in. It’s how I can best make a living and contribute to the mission the NFTA has in providing transportation for our many thousands upon thousands of riders.

I didn’t, however, choose to be knocking on the door of being poor simply because I recognized that I’m not cut out for managerial office work.

We have families and homes that we are struggling to provide for and pay for.

So please take into consideration the many men and women whose lives are affected by this disregard for and disdain of employees and the system’s riders. We aren’t asking to be paid on the same level as those in upper management, but we are asking to be paid fairly for the hard work we put in every day and for the knowledge we’ve acquired to do our jobs properly and ensure that this region’s residents have safe and reliable public transportation.

Well said Mr. Kanalley. Read More>>

The MegaBus Business Model

The brand name that reinvented intercity bus travel, the home of the $1 fare and double decker buses, MegaBus, is fine tuning it's business model and adjusting its' routes and scheduling to pump up revenues in tough economic times.

Low gas prices are eating into the bus carriers preferred market demographic of the young and affluent who are more likely to own a car.

The Akron Railroad Club quotes Joseph Schwieterman, a professor at DePaul University in Chicago who studies intercity bus transportation, (and) told The Plain Dealer that the intercity bus industry is contracting after several years of rapid growth.

“Gas prices are raining on the parade of bus companies in a big way,” Schwieterman said. “It’s surprising how quickly people change their habits when fuel is cheap.” It was also surprising that Megabus passengers tend generally to be more affluent, younger and more likely to own cars.

So when gas prices drop, they are inclined to drive rather than take public transportation.

In the 1960's intercity bus travel became less and less popular with increased automobile ownership, and the post war boom in highway construction. Ridership and service to rural areas declined even further in the 1980's after deregulation of the intercity bus industry.

A 2014 paper published by the AARP cited U.S. Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation figures showing that 8.4 million rural residents lost access to intercity bus service between 2005 and 2010.

MegaBus has a business model that is not based on providing service to small towns. Here is how they do it instead according to the Akron Railroad Club article cited above.

Since starting service in April 2006, Megabus has operated much like an airline. You won’t find Megabus stopping in small towns or even small cities unless they happen to have a large state university.

MegaBus started out in 1996 as a subunit of CoachUSA/Coach Canada offering low fares and curbside pickup instead of traditional brick and mortar bus stations. In another Akron Railroad Club piece they describe how MegaBus began.

The initial route network fanned out from Chicago and included service to Cleveland. Four years later, the Megabus business model began making a transition from a hub and spoke orientation to a point-to-point model. Also like airlines, Megabus uses yield management to set fares. Although it has attracted much attention with its $1 tickets, Megabus imposes a $1.50 per transaction fee for tickets purchased online. Tickets can also be purchased by phone, but cannot be bought from bus drivers.

A review of the MegaBus website and schedules shows how its business model favors large cities with large colleges in close vicinity.

According to Schwieterman Megabus has done best in heavily urbanized areas, between cities that are between three and six hours apart, and in places where parking is scarce and expensive.

Greyhound Bus Goes Off Highway 17 Near Deep River

A Greyhound bus with 40 passengers on board went off Highway 17 near Deep River, Ont., as it headed toward Ottawa early Friday morning. The driver and a passenger were taken to hospital.

The bus, which had been heading east towards Ottawa from Sudbury, crashed down an embankment about 100 metres into a wooded area.

The man driving the bus, in his 50s, suffered serious facial injuries and was taken to hospital in Deep River. A passenger in his 60s suffered minor back injuries. The other 39 people on board were checked by paramedics, who found them rattled but otherwise fine.

Passengers said they were let back into the bus to seek shelter from the rain until another bus arrived around 8 a.m. The second bus reached Ottawa around 11:30 a.m.

The highway was temporarily closed but has since reopened. OPP and Greyhound are each investigating.

"The exact cause of the incident has not yet been determined. We are fully cooperating with the local authorities on their investigation and conducting an investigation of our own," said a Greyhound spokesperson in an email.

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Court Rules Greyhound Must Update and Enforce Fatigue Management Policies

A jury in Philadelphia has found Greyhound is liable in the amount of $5.05 million to four claimants injured when a Greyhound bus collided with a tractor trailer in central Pennsylvania. Following a six week trial the jury awarded $3.05 in compensatory damages and an additional $2 million in rarely awarded punitive damages. The award of punitive damages is to punish and serve as a deterrent to Greyhound for "outrageous" conduct that was the factual cause of the crash.

Led counsel for the plaintiffs, Jon Ostroff, said in commenting on the verdict that "Greyhound must update and enforce its driver safety rules and fatigue management policies or these preventable, catastrophic, fatigue-related crashes will continue, ... The testimony of CEO David Leach made it clear that even after 102 years as the largest and oldest interstate bus carrier in the US, Greyhound places profit above the safety of its passengers."

Due to organizational changes implemented by Leach the Safety department was essentially demoted so that its' Director no longer reported directly to him while he still continued to receive direct reports from the Directors of Greyhound's finance and marketing departments. Ostroff stated that "Until Greyhound is restructured and safety is given adequate priority and oversight, particularly with respect to fatigue management of its drivers and enforcement of its safety rules, these fatigue-related highway crashes will likely continue. Greyhound’s passengers, including our clients, deserve better. A tired driver behind the wheel of a 40-ton bus filled with 49 passengers is a recipe for this type of disaster.”

Ostroff called on the government to intervene and create regulations to prevent these fatigue related crashes from continuing to happen. He also stated that "It is clear that if safety, including proper training and management of its drivers continues to be left in the hands of Greyhound without industry oversight, passengers will continue to be at risk.”

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Ontario Liberals Moving To Deregulate Intercity Buses

It has been the worst kept secret going on several years now, but there is hardly a single bus company in the province that is in favour of the existing regulatory system for Intercity buses. Some have been quietly lobbying for years for the Ontario Government to step in and open up the intercity bus market to competition. The existing regulatory regime routinely rejected applications by other service providers and was a barrier that was impossible to challenge without incurring unsustainable legal and financial costs.

In a presentation to the City of London City Council in 2012 Coach Canada and Pacific Western argued that if there was deregulation they would bring the popular Megabus discount service and the executive-styled Red Arrow brand, currently operating in Alberta, to popular routes to and from London.

At the time, the Provincial Government was opposed to de-regulation on the grounds that competition on routes had to be limited to protect the viability of services being provided to the travelling public as there may only be sufficient ridership to support one service provider. The introduction of a second service provider would therefore jeopardize the viability of both service providers.

Fast forward 4 years to 2016, and there has been a complete change of heart by the Ontario Government on the merits of intercity bus deregulation. Based on submissions it received last year the Ontario Government has recently released its' discussion paper "Intercity Bus Modernization: Creating Opportunities and Connecting Ontario Communities."

According to the discussion paper, the regulations which govern entry into the intercity bus market now pose a challenge to the health of the intercity bus sector in today's changing market. Under the existing regulatory regime Bus companies are granted public vehicle licences which never expire and never have to be renewed. The paper goes on to say "it is this licensing system that MTO is proposing to amend, in order to better ensure that all Ontarians have access to viable modes of intercity bus transportation." The role of the government in a deregulated market will be limited to "ensure that safety and insurance remain the highest priorities for the wellbeing of passengers and operators."

The Ontario Government is hosting a series of public meetings over the summer to discuss the modernization of intercity bus regulation. The date for hearings in Toronto is August 11, Kingston on August 18 and London on August 23. If you can't make it to the hearings you can make submissions online.

Greyhound/FirstGroup have not made any public statements regarding deregulation of intercity buses in Ontario, although in 2011 following the Alberta Government's decision to deregulate intercity buses Greyhound Canada vice-president, Stuart Kendrick, was complimentary of the government's decision and said "The government of Alberta deserves credit for clearing the path to success and creating new opportunities for transportation services to the travelling public,"

In 2009, Greyhound requested annual subsidies worth $15 million from provincial governments and threatened to pull out of northern Ontario and all of Manitoba. Later that year, Greyhound backed off of its threat in Manitoba after the province agreed to pay the company a subsidy to maintain service. Other provinces have refused to pay such subsidies. Greyhound has continued to make cuts, either eliminating routes entirely or by reducing services on existing routes, with the most recent round of cuts taking place in the last quarter of 2015.

In 2006, the last year of operation while under Laidlaw ownership, Greyhound had revenues of $323 million and profits of $15.9 million. In 2007 FirstGroup purchased Laidlaw for $2.8 billion. Following the purchase Greyhound's revenues for 2007 dropped to $300 million and profits declined to $7.7 million. By 2009 Greyhound Canada revenues under FirstGroup ownership had dropped to $287 million and losses had grown to a staggering $13.4 Million.

At the same time as the loses were growing the number of drivers employed by Greyhound in its eastern operations dropped from 290 in September of 2011 to 207 in June of 2016.