"Sick Calls" Driving Up Muni Costs
No driver on your ride? Must be Monday or Friday
Charles Haynes
Muni says absentee drivers are driving up costs.
There is a good chance your usual Muni bus driver or train operator is calling in sick Monday.
On Mondays and Fridays, more San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency drivers call in sick or simply do not show up for work than any other day during the week, the Examiner reports.
On the first day of may, a Friday, 112 drivers called in sick and on the same day, 132 transit operators called in sick.
Muni officials say the sick calls put a drain on finances and hamper efforts to improve reliability.
"We’d like to get a lot closer to no unplanned absences,” spokesman Judson True told the paper. “We are well aware that maximizing the number of available operators is key to providing service."
The agency is now cracking down on drivers who take unnecessary sick days.
Of the more than 1,600 operators, nearly 22 percent were unavailable that day.
Posted Friday, Jul 17, 2009 - 12:44 PM PST
