Amtran to require employees to ride as customers

All administrators, mechanics, operators must travel by bus

In each of the past five years, one of the goals Amtran has listed in its annual enumeration of goals for the coming year has been for all employees to ride the bus periodically, to get a feel for what customers of the transit authority experience.

A requirement for those periodic employee rides has never ended up on the authority's companion enumeration of accomplishments for the prior year.

Next year will be different: As of Jan. 1, all administrators must ride as if they were customers at least once a month, while operators and mechanics must ride like customers once per year.

CEO Josh Baker calls it the Ride Our Way (ROW) program.

"I think it will bring a different perspective," said Baker, who first thought of such an initiative six years ago.

It's happening now because "I have the authority to make it happen," Baker said after a board meeting Wednesday where he announced the plan.

"Pretty cool," board member Larry Bilotto said of the effort.

One driver laughed when Baker broached the requirement recently, as if the CEO wasn't serious.

That driver ended up first on the list to go -- and not by accident, Baker said.

"She had a great time," Baker said of her subsequent ride.

The program will enable operators to see how other operators perform, Baker said.

It will also enable employees to see the "positive impact" the authority has for customers, he said.

And it will enable employees to see the kinds of everyday anxieties customers may endure, like waiting at a stop and worrying whether they'll make it to work on time, Baker said.

Becoming aware of those "complications" should help employees deliver a better "product," Bilotto said.

In potentially helping employees see things from a customer perspective, the program aligns with the Biblical injunction "Do unto others," Bilotto and Baker agreed.

So far, the response from employees has been universally positive, according to Baker.

Participants have been especially impressed by how well drivers relate to their customers, he said.

Many drivers know their customers by name, he said.

A potential risk when administrators ride is that drivers will feel they're being judged -- a perception Baker has worked to dispel.

"We're not evaluating -- just riding," he said.

The ROW program is being done in a similar vein as initiatives in PennDOT that got employees out of the office to see firsthand the challenges that field workers faced, said Bilotto, who retired from the department as a maintenance programs engineer.

All the Amtran administrators took their monthly rides for January and most have also done it for February, Baker said.

Four operators have taken their 2024 ride so far.

The employees take the rides during one of their regular shifts.

They get a card, like the ones that customers use to pay.

The rides should not be confused with the orientation ride-alongs that newly hired operators take, according to Baker.

The new practice may be especially valuable for the newer operators, said Dave James, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union local.

"They can see how the older operators handle it," he said.

Likewise, it's good for the administrators, who can get a feel for what drivers go through, he said.

It might be especially worthwhile for administrators to ride along early in each month, when ridership is higher, James said.

He said it might make sense even for board members to ride along sometimes.

He hasn't had his own "customer" ride for 2024 yet, James said.

The drivers don't plan for them, as Baker determines when they go, without much notice, James said.

"It's a surprise kind of thing," he said.