Columbia Public Works asks city council to hire more paratransit bus drivers

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Editor's note: this article previously contained incorrect statistics.

Columbia Public Works is asking for the city council to authorize the hire of more bus drivers for the paratransit program.

Columbia city council will meet Monday night at 7; one of the agenda items is a request from public works to fill vacant positions on the bus driver staff. Public Works is asking to hire six fulltime bus drivers that would benefit the paratransit program.

GoCOMO's paratransit program benefits ADA-eligible community members who may have difficulty riding the fixed-route buses. Paratransit services pick up and drop off qualified riders at requested locations rather than following a specific bus route.

In Columbia, there are about 400 qualified paratransit riders, and according to the memo, Public Works receives 200 ride requests a day. Paratransit takes riders to places like hospitals, work and stores.

"There is significant demand for this service and it's required as a service that gets federal grants to provide that service, so it's something that we're going to prioritize and continue to fund," said John Ogan, public information officer for Columbia Public Works.

According to the memo, GoCOMO only has 11 fulltime and seven part-time bus drivers, which is 40% of the total staff needed to be fully staffed. The need for paratransit drivers is putting a strain on fixed-route services. Bus drivers are working 12 hours of mandatory overtime, according to the city council memo.

"We've yet to have to shrink or alter the routes in any way, and we must provide the para-transit service," said Ogan. "This driver shortage, if it's not resolved, if something isn't done, we're not sure what the next step is in terms of altering fixed-route service."

Paratransit services are required by the federal government because the city provides fixed-route service on federal funds.

Taxi Terry's, a Columbia-based taxi service, is shutting its doors Thursday Angie Nickerson, vice president of Taxi Terry's, said the business is closing in part because it cannot find drivers.

"Really since COVID, you just can't find employees, and I mean we've talked to other business owners and everybody's kind of going through that," Nickerson said. "Like I don't know where all the employees have gone, but nobody can find anybody. So we've dealt with that and you know we're just one of those businesses that you have to have employees to run cause we've got to have drivers."