SFMTA faces a current $50 million deficit with a potential rise to $320 million next fiscal year, prompting service and staffing cuts. New driver rules require employees to request supervisory permission for bathroom breaks and bar eating, smoking, or cellphone use while on duty. The agency attributes the policy to saving $1.4–$1.6 million annually and avoiding 400 hours per month of buses out of service caused by unscheduled breaks. Drivers report routinely shortened 15-minute breaks between routes and must use an Operator Personal Necessity (702) code for breaks outside scheduled time.
All SF Muni drivers must now request permission from their boss to take a bathroom break, and their union is complaining about these stricter new driver rules they say don't even allow drivers to eat or use their phone while on breaks. It is well-known that the SF Municipal Transit Agency (SFMTA) that runs the Muni system is running a giant deficit of $50 million for the current fiscal year, and that could swell to a $320 million deficit the next fiscal year.
So they've been cutting bus lines and eliminating senior staff positions in order to scrounge whatever savings they can. But the latest cost-cutting measure is infuriating Muni drivers, because the agency is. eliminating drivers' bathroom breaks? Yes, as KGO reports, a new set of SFMTA driver rules says drivers must ask their boss for permission to take a bathroom break.
KGO spoke to several angry drivers for the above report, and understandably, none of them gave their names. (But they spoke on camera, so it seems their bosses would know who they are.) The drivers are upset about this new bathroom-break request arrangement, and KGO also says the new policy allows for no smoking, eating, or use of cellphones while on duty. "I want to eat, in the eight hours I need to eat, and I need 15-20 minutes to eat, it's that simple," one Muni driver told KGO.
The way the SFMTA sees it, this policy will increase Muni's efficiency and save money. The agency says that unscheduled driver breaks are costing them $1.4 million to $1.6 million per year, and lead to 400 hours per month of buses being out of service. Drivers currently get a 15-minute break between routes, but they say that usually gets cut short. And as the SF Standard points out, that 15 minutes also gets eaten up by the time , not just using it.
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