Municipal Railway transit service schedules are changed periodically, and on a quarterly basis each platform operator signs-up for a run [1] based on his or her union seniority. Each run may require the operator to drive during the AM peak service period, the PM peak service period, or both (split runs). Runs may also include scheduled time-off during the day. Full-time platform operators are paid overtime for all hours required to be on-duty in excess of 10 hours (split time), even if total driving time is 8 hours or less.

Because of the unique character of transit service scheduling, the number of platform operators who are available to operate transit vehicles can have considerable impact on an agency"s ability to provide scheduled service in an economical manner. By having fewer available platform operators than are required to provide policy levels of service:

• MUNI management cannot economically schedule some runs because an insufficient number of part-time operators are available. Instead, full-time operators are paid for greater amounts of nonproductive split time than would otherwise be necessary to operate the system with more part-time workers.

• MUNI must pay a greater amount of overtime than would otherwise be necessary if a sufficient number of operators were available. Some operators are required to work overtime shifts which otherwise would be paid at straight time to full-time and/or part-time operators.

Scheduled overtime, which includes split time and all other work time in excess of eight hours per day for platform operators, is currently averaging approximately $10.0 million annually, or 11.92 percent of current platform operator salary expenditures. This scheduled overtime includes all platform operator pay which is built into individual runs, paid at a premium time and one-half rate. An additional $7.4 million, or 8.4 percent of current expenditures, is currently paid for unscheduled overtime for platform operators. This unscheduled overtime is required to cover scheduled runs when regularly scheduled operators are in training, performing special duty assignments or on leaves of absence. In total, over 20 percent of Platform Operator salaries expenditures are for overtime.

In addition, discussions with representatives from the Municipal Railway indicate that working additional hours and days in order to provide scheduled service can contribute to operator fatigue.

Current Numbers of Platform Operators

MUNI currently maintains three independent sets of records on platform operators. (1) MUNI has a Personnel Department within its Finance, Administration and Personnel Division which processes paperwork for all new employees, and paperwork for each change of status for existing employees until separation from MUNI service. (2) The MUNI Payroll Section maintains a separate set of records on all employees on MUNI"s active payroll. (3) The MUNI Operations Division maintains a set of records which contains data on operators who participate in the quarterly sign-up for runs. This data is updated each week between sign-ups.

Changes in individual operator employment status and assignment status are numerous and are made separately in each system as written documentation is received. These systems are not interactive, and the information is not shared or routinely reconciled either electronically or manually. None of the three systems contain comprehensive data on all MUNI operators. As shown below:

• The Personnel Department has minimal information on all employees from the date of hire to the date of separation.

• The Payroll Section has complete information on employees who are receiving pay, but does not have complete information on employees who are on unpaid status (e.g., leave without pay).

• The Operations Division has complete information on employees who are eligible to participate in the quarterly sign-ups, but does not have complete information on operators who may be in training, on long-term leave, on special duty assignment, or in the process of separation from MUNI service.

We researched the number of platform operators known to MUNI management using information available from these sources. A description of the results of this research is provided below.

As a first step, we made an inquiry to the Personnel Department on April 18, 1996, and were provided the following information on the employment status of platform operators:

Table 1.2.1
Salary Ordinance and Summary Personnel Records on the
Number of Full-Time and Part-Time Transit Operators
San Francisco Municipal Railway-April 1996

We then obtained a listing of the platform operators who had participated in the most recent April 7, 1996 sign-up in order to compare available operators with authorized and filled positions which were reported to us by the Personnel Department. "Participation" in the sign-up is defined by MUNI to include any Platform Operator who is eligible to operate a transit vehicle (e.g., excludes trainees, long-term industrial injury, etc.), whether or not the operator actually signed-up for a run. Based on analysis of this Operations Division listing, 2,204 platform operators, or 171 more than the 2,033 identified by the Personnel Department had participated in the April 7 sign-up.

Because of these significant discrepancies, we then went back to the Personnel Department, and requested and received a detailed listing of all active and inactive platform operators. We compared this detailed listing with the listing of operators participating in the most recent sign-up. Again major differences were identified since this detailed Personnel Department listing contained additional employees who had not participated in the April 7, 1996 sign-up.

While some of these operators were in the process of being separated from MUNI service due to resignation or retirement, 37 were considered active employees. Of these 37 employees, 32 were enrolled in new operator training, two were on industrial injury, and three were reportedly active and assigned to divisions, but did not participate in the April 7, 1996 sign-up. Therefore, after reviewing our analysis with Department staff, we were able to determine that a total of 2,241 full-time and part-time employees either participated in the April 7, 1996 sign-up, or were actively employed by the MUNI. The full results of our analysis are presented below.

Table 1.2.2
Comparison of Department Records on Numbers of
Full-Time and Part-Time Transit Operators
San Francisco Municipal Railway-April 1996

The discrepancies discovered during this analysis demonstrate that MUNI"s records are inconsistent and do not present a clear picture of the platform operator work force. Once a more representative staffing profile is developed, it becomes clear that MUNI:

• Employs many more operators than are authorized by the Board of Supervisors, included in the MOU, or agreed to by the Mayor and the Controller to replace employees of long-term industrial injury leave. During the period of our study, the Department employed 138 Platform Operators more than are authorized in the Salary Ordinance.

• Despite this "over-employment" of personnel, the Department is still unable to meet its vehicle scheduling needs with regularly scheduled personnel, requiring the use of excessive overtime averaging over 20 percent of all paid time in FY 1995-96. In the first half of FY 1995-96, over 15,000 hours of service were missed due to "No Operator." This equates to a rate of 6.9 percent of all service, or more than 30,000 hours of missed service per year.

Based on the detailed staffing analysis conducted in this Section and in Section 2.1 on the use of Special Duty Operators, many Platform Operators are "passing" during the sign-up due to their status on long-term industrial injury or sick leave, or because they have been administratively reassigned to non-driving duties within the Department. These issues are discussed more fully below.

Clearly a centralized position control system is needed as a first step for providing MUNI management with comprehensive and accurate information on the number of platform operators available for scheduling purposes, for use in developing and monitoring the budget to insure that salary accounts are not over-expended, and for ensuring compliance with the City"s salary ordinance. While in recent years, MUNI has not exceeded the budgeted appropriation for operator salaries, the FY 1995-96 amount is currently projected to be over expended by approximately $1.3 million. It should be noted that the Mayor"s budget fiscal year 1995-96 budget included a budgetary reduction in the Platform Salaries appropriation in amount of $2.5 million which was identified as "Object 9995 Positions Not Detailed." This budgeted salary reduction has been eliminated in the FY 1996-97 Budget.

Platform Operators In Inactive Status

Although MUNI has over 100 more operators on its payroll than have been authorized--and more than are required to meet scheduled service--in practice, so many operators are not on active, driving duty that MUNI actually has a serious shortage of operators.

In addition to platform operators who are on active status and ready to work as assigned (termed "driving drivers" by MUNI management), at any time there is a large number of operators that are still in training; on extended sick leave, leave without pay, industrial injury, or workers compensation; assigned to non-driving special duties; or on suspension.

Operators who are still in training are ineligible to participate in the sign-up. Other operators who are on extended leave, light duty or suspended, are temporarily ineligible to sign-up for a run and therefore participate, but must pass until a future sign-up (an exception is made for operators with medical conditions which the operator"s doctor expects to be cleared by the effective date of the sign-up). Still other operators may "pass" on the sign-up because they have been administratively reassigned to non-driving duties within the Department.

Therefore, although we identified 2,241 operators on the detailed employee listing who should have been available for the April 6, 1996 sign-up, only 1,882 platform operators actually signed-up for a run. This was 359 fewer than the approximate number who were employed by MUNI at the time. Thus over 350 platform operators were either ineligible for the sign-up due to training or suspension status, or were on long-term leave which prevented their availability for the sign-up. A summary of the 1,882 platform operators who participated in the sign-up is provided below: Table 1.2.3
Number of Full-Time and Part-Time Transit Operators
Participating in the April 6, 1996 Sign-up
San Francisco Municipal Railway

Accordingly, we were able to identify only 1,696 trained and available full-time platform operators for the sign-up, which is 84 less than the 1,780 full-time operators specified in the MOU as being necessary to provide scheduled service. The number of part-time operators was 186, or 34 less than the 220 part-time operators currently permitted by the MOU to supplement full-time operator work hours.

Impact of Insufficient Driving Drivers on MUNI Scheduling and Costs

An analysis of the sign-up data available for recent years shows that the number of full-time operators available for sign-up has decreased by 25 from 1,404 to 1,379; and the number of part-time operators available for sign-up has decreased by 25 from 184 to 159 from October 1988 to April 1996 (excludes Extra Board operators). During this same time period, the ratio of scheduled weekly vehicle hours to weekly pay hours has increased from 1.203 to 1.214 as follows (an increase of 0.9 percent):

Table 1.2.4
Growth in the Ratio of Pay Weekly Pay Hours to
Weekly Vehicle Hours - 10/1/88 through 4/6/96
San Francisco Municipal Railway