Bus driver shortage?

Lmichele

Mouseketeer
Joined
Dec 18, 2007
Is there a bus driver shortage or something? Transportation has been horrible. It took 40 mins to get from our campsite loop stop to the Outpost. Only to wait another 30 mins for a bus to Epcot.

Wait times at parks for a bus have been well over 20 mins as well.
 
There are 3 buses for the internal Fort loops. It would have to be a guest, mechanical or passage issue that would cause a delay. It won't be a lack of bus drivers. As far as park buses, it could be possible that there is a lack of drivers but that would be more a scheduling issue. Unfortunately, traffic and guest issues cause more delay's than lack of bus drivers.
 
I have only been to Outpost once (to go to Hoop De Doo) but I remember my bus waiting for a berth before I could get off and then I see the internal bus I needed queued up waiting for a berth.

Do the park buses and internal buses really share three berths at Outpost? After I boarded the desired internal bus, it waited, presumably for a scheduled time, to take off. This in turn would aggravate the delays other incoming buses incurred waiting for a berth. Again in turn, this increases round trip time and guest wait times.
 


I have only been to Outpost once (to go to Hoop De Doo) but I remember my bus waiting for a berth before I could get off and then I see the internal bus I needed queued up waiting for a berth.

Do the park buses and internal buses really share three berths at Outpost? After I boarded the desired internal bus, it waited, presumably for a scheduled time, to take off. This in turn would aggravate the delays other incoming buses incurred waiting for a berth. Again in turn, this increases round trip time and guest wait times.
The Outpost does have limited loading areas. At times, buses will have to queue. There is no dedicated load zones at the Outpost.
 
Wait times over 20 mins was pretty consistent for us. At one point, after waiting a half hour, we grabbed a cab back to the Fort.

Additionally, one time going from the Outpost to our loop once resulted in a trip around the campground only to return back to the Outpost....the driver had no clue what the purple/orange route was.

🤷‍♀️
 
It won't be a lack of bus drivers.

Are you sure it isn't from a lack of drivers? Even though the local transit agency pays $30+ per hour and you can request as much overtime as you are willing to handle, they still have to cancel multiple bus runs per day due to lack of drivers. You would think the ability to make $100k+ per year would attract people but not enough.
 


Are you sure it isn't from a lack of drivers? Even though the local transit agency pays $30+ per hour and you can request as much overtime as you are willing to handle, they still have to cancel multiple bus runs per day due to lack of drivers. You would think the ability to make $100k+ per year would attract people but not enough.

While it's been a few years, each hub always had ample drivers for the routes required. Disney used to be always hiring drivers, mainly due to turnover. It's a unique position and not for everybody. While the local transit system might pay better, a new driver gets crapped on there until they get some seniority. New drivers either get assigned bad routes or are subs for other drivers. No new driver is assigned a prime route to start.

At Disney, the routes are easy and none are really considered bad (Except maybe the MK cast shuttle IMHO) but until you have seniority, you get what some would think to be bad hour assignments. New drivers usually get late closings. As you gain seniority, that gets switched to early mornings and a few late closings and after a few years, then you start to see daytime and maybe early evening hours. If you want more hours, there is usually not a problem getting them either. As long as you stay under or at your DOT hours, picking up hours on the shift exchange is easy. The Fort is a choice position and usually is bid to seniority early in the process. There are 3 buses for the internal shuttle. the ability to cover The Fort requires few drivers, therefore, it's definitely not a lack of drivers.

Disney attracts drivers as they have a large group of retiree's available who want to work part time, like the benefits and want something to do. Many of Disney's drivers also drive local school buses. Disney is an ideal second job for them.
 
The Fort is a choice position and usually is bid to seniority early in the process. There are 3 buses for the internal shuttle. the ability to cover The Fort requires few drivers, therefore, it's definitely not a lack of drivers.

Disney attracts drivers as they have a large group of retiree's (sic) available who want to work part time, like the benefits and want something to do. Many of Disney's drivers also drive local school buses. Disney is an ideal second job for them.
If they drive school buses then those drivers are not available to cover the peak rope drop crowds to the theme parks. If they take the Disney evening runs instead, would they be too tired to take the school buses the next day?

Outpost at Fort Wilderness needs more bus zones, not necessarily dedicated bus zones.
Adding to the rigamarole of having to take two buses instead of one to get to the park or three buses instead of two to get to another resort, Fort Wilderness guests often have to wait for the bus they wanted to transfer to to depart without them before the bus they are on can pull in to drop them off at the platform. And often this is after they saw the bus they wanted to transfer to sitting there for five minutes plus, more than enough time to make a transfer at most other resorts.
 
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If they drive school buses then those drivers are not available to cover the peak rope drop crowds to the theme parks. If they take the Disney evening runs instead, would they be too tired to take the school buses the next day?

Outpost at Fort Wilderness needs more bus zones, not necessarily dedicated bus zones.
Adding to the rigamarole of having to take two buses instead of one to get to the park or three buses instead of two to get to another resort, Fort Wilderness guests often have to wait for the bus they wanted to transfer to to depart without them before the bus they are on can pull in to drop them off at the platform. And often this is after they saw the bus they wanted to transfer to sitting there for five minutes plus, more than enough time to make a transfer at most other resorts.

Whoa, I never said that the school bus drivers cover peak rope drop. During the school seasons, absolutely not. However, there are still plenty of drivers who are CM's and don't drive school buses. You know how CR works. You got to give them 3 days of availability. 2 of those can be weekend days if you so desire. Those are somewhat more high demand days if I remember right.

There are a lot of FT drivers, they cover the times where the CR's and CT's can't. Lack of drivers is 99.999% scheduling and not driver availability.

On the Fort, not going to argue with you on that. There needs to be more load zones. Like you said, they don't have to be dedicated but there should be the ability to load more than 3 buses at a time. Maybe add a second shelter for park buses and leave the existing shelter for the Fort shuttles. Available load zones is a completely different issue than driver availability.

On multiple buses, how do you suggest that get fixed? Fort guests are so wildly scattered about so there is no central place that is easily accessible to them. That means they need to catch the internal shuttle to the Outpost and the park bus or if going to MK, internal shuttle to the Settlement and a boat to MK. Same with hopping to a resort. The makeup of a campground means that guests are a bit more inconvenienced than a hotel guest. I guess each campsite could be required to rent a golf cart so they can drive to a bus stop but now they need a place to park said golf cart at both the Outpost and the Settlement.

Once the new DVC resort opens, I'm sure that there will be bus service to it and I guarantee that Fort guests will use that transportation.
 
I don't think it's a shortage but instead Disney being cheap. Made my mind up never to stay at AKV again based on horrid bus waits. In the morning (prior to park opening) waited 40mins and at Epcot had waited 1hr 5mins. This were just two of many. It was at least one bus per day except the days at AK since it's so close.
 
The Fort is a choice position and usually is bid to seniority early in the process. There are 3 buses for the internal shuttle. the ability to cover The Fort requires few drivers, therefore, it's definitely not a lack of drivers.
6 buses: 2 per route, and I think there was usually a spare. There were times when a run was skipped due a driver not being ready when the previous driver went off duty, resulting in a one-time half-hour headway on a specific route. But it was not normal procedure, and I don't recall it ever lasting more than a single run.
 
6 buses: 2 per route, and I think there was usually a spare. There were times when a run was skipped due a driver not being ready when the previous driver went off duty, resulting in a one-time half-hour headway on a specific route. But it was not normal procedure, and I don't recall it ever lasting more than a single run.
I thought there were 2 per route but as I was never fortunate enough to get an internal shuttle shift, I wasn't completely sure. I knew that CBR was only one as I did that shuttle many times.
 
I thought there were 2 per route but as I was never fortunate enough to get an internal shuttle shift, I wasn't completely sure. I knew that CBR was only one as I did that shuttle many times.
CBR now runs 2 buses also, to accommodate the Skyliner. Since the full loop doesn't exist any longer, they make all stops, including Skyliner, from Martinique to Aruba, then run back to Martinique stopping only at Skyliner.
 
CBR now runs 2 buses also, to accommodate the Skyliner. Since the full loop doesn't exist any longer, they make all stops, including Skyliner, from Martinique to Aruba, then run back to Martinique stopping only at Skyliner.
That makes sense.
 
While it's been a few years...

It seems fair to say your information is possibly outdated, and as Disney has striven to cut costs over the last few years at the expense of visitor satisfaction, it's entirely possible that bus service is not as frequent now as it once was.
 
It seems fair to say your information is possibly outdated, and as Disney has striven to cut costs over the last few years at the expense of visitor satisfaction, it's entirely possible that bus service is not as frequent now as it once was.
Unlikely.

It takes about 15 minutes to run each of the routes thru FtW end to end. If they cut back to one bus per route, buses would run every 30 minutes. That would not be an acceptable level of service.

As I said, there are occasions when a run is missed for various reasons, but it's an exception.
 

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