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FIXD REVIEW

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Prophecy (1968 )Predicts the rise of Joel Osteen and the “Prosperity Gos...

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LSU Signing Day predictions

We are merely 48 hours away from National Signing Day, and despite signing 21 players during the early signing period in December, LSU should be in store for a riveting finish the 2018 recruiting cycle.

Coach Ed Orgeron and Co. will be waiting anxiously for a quartet of blue-chip prospects to announce their intentions on Wednesday. More interesting, three of those recruits are from out of state, making Signing Day a nationwide event for the Tigers this year.

With 21 players signed, sealed and delivered, and No. 22 being recently minted verbal commitment Kelvin Joseph, that sets the stage for three more commitments on Signing Day among four targeted prospects. So, what kind of drama should we expect on Wednesday?

There will be plenty of chalk

With only four spots up for grabs since Christmas, scholarships have become very limited down the stretch of the 2018 recruiting cycle. Taking away from the regular Signing Day drama is that LSU had zeroed in on just a handful of elite prospects to fill those positions.

Joseph, Ja’Marr Chase and Patrick Surtain Jr. are three prospects that SEC Country fully expects will commit and sign their national letters of intent on Wednesday. Joseph re-committed to the Tigers back on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl, and after making an official visit to only LSU in January, there is very little cause for concern that Joseph will even have another hat on his table at his signing ceremony at Scotlandville (La.) High School.

There is plenty of anticipation about what Surtain will do. LSU has been the 5-star cornerback’s public leader since July 2016 and nothing has happened to force anyone to think otherwise. However, Alabama has worked effortlessly to try to chop into the Tigers’ lead, and if the Tide did so successfully, then Surtain has not mentioned anything leading into his announcement. Expect LSU to land this highly sought-after defensive back on Signing Day and seal the deal, thanks to Surtain’s bond with Tigers defensive backs coach Corey Raymond and his ties to the football program and the state of Louisiana.

Chase also will draw his share of attention with his announcement. LSU has always been among the 4-star wide receiver’s top schools, yet he committed to Florida and to Kansas over the in-state power and nearly did the same with TCU, if not for an NFL Network snafu back in June. However, after reopening his recruitment in the fall amid a coaching shakeup in Gainesville, Fla., LSU has put itself into strong position with the elite offensive target. His official visit to Baton Rouge in January likely sealed the deal, thanks to the presence of Steve Ensminger and Jerry Sullivan. LSU is the clear-cut favorite over Auburn.

LSU will pull off stunner with 4-star QB

It will be a coin flip for the final spot in LSU’s 2018 class between 4-star quarterback James Foster and 4-star cornerback Mario Goodrich III.

Foster and Goodrich both visited Baton Rouge — for the first time — on Jan. 12 and continued to make official visits elsewhere in the road up to their Feb. 7 decisions. Both Foster and Goodrich have hinted that the Tigers were their team to beat. The Alabama quarterback indicated that LSU’s offense, depth chart at quarerback and official visit put the Tigers in the driver’s seat. The Missouri cornerback stated that no team is recruiting him harder than LSU, and his official visit left a lasting impression.

Foster also made stops at Alabama, Texas A&M and Florida State, with the Seminoles being the biggest threat to LSU’s chance of landing a quarterback in the Class of 2018. Goodrich made his way to Georgia, and then Clemson.

Based on need, quarterback tops defensive back for the Tigers at this juncture. The staff went in-home with Foster a week before Signing Day, meanwhile Goodrich canceled his remaining visits after touching down at Clemson and a subsequent in-home with coach Dabo Swinney. Momentum-wise, LSU appears to be in a stronger position with Foster than it does with Goodrich.

Longtime DB pledge winds up in Big 12

Ar’Darius Washington was among the first to commit to LSU back in February of last year along with his Evangel Academy (La.) teammates Micah Baskerville and Davin Cotton. Unlike Baskerville and Cotton, Washington did not sign his paperwork back in December, a telltale sign that a divorce between LSU and the talented in-state defensive back verbal commit was imminent.

Washington made an official visit to TCU on Jan. 19 weekend and the Horned Frogs have been making a concerted effort to pry the 3-star defensive back out of The Boot. Come National Signing Day, expect the flip to be made official.

LSU does not have room for Washington in its 25-player class. The team has landed a commitment from Joseph and is expecting Surtain and potentially Goodrich to round out the defensive back group. That leaves Washington on the outside looking in, and most likely, a steal for TCU.

Don’t rule out a familiar boom

LSU has dialed in on Joseph, Surtain, Chase, Goodrich and Foster for four of the final remaining spots in the 2018 recruiting class. Of course, when it comes to recruiting, there are very few things to certainly rely on happening.

While Joseph, Surtain and Chase seem like sure things to fall into the Tigers’ lap come Wednesday, there is certainly much more uncertainty surrounding out-of-state targets such as Foster and Goodrich. Both have hinted that LSU is their leader at multiple occasions in their recruitment, but after officially visiting earlier in January and traveling to a handful of other schools since, there is always a chance for a surprise come crunch time.

LSU hosted 3-star Baton Rouge athlete Michael Williams for an official visit in mid-December and has remained in touch with top in-state tight end Glenn Beal. Williams has since made his way to Tennessee and Texas, where he committed on Jan. 22. Beal has officially visited Tennessee, Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Florida, but should a spot open with the hometown program, expect Williams and Beal to be the most likely secondary targets to receive a call.

Additionally, one source said that the door remains open with 4-star Florida athlete Justin Watkins III. Watkins nearly popped to LSU during the 2018 Under Armour All-America Game, but instead delayed a decision and wound up committing to the Gators. Should a spot open up late, keep tabs on one more Watkins flip.

Should Foster wind up at Florida State and Goodrich to fall to Clemson, don’t rule out Williams, Beal or even Watkins sneaking into LSU’s class.

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Recruiting Tip: The top five college recruiting tips of all time

The USA TODAY High School Sports Recruiting Tips are provided by our recruiting partner, Playced.com.

The college recruiting process is a complicated, time-consuming and sometimes confusing endeavor. The first time you go through the recruiting process is (probably) the only time you will go through the process, so you will have many questions. Everyone’s recruiting journey is different, but most recruits face similar issues and challenges. Here are my top five tips that should make the process easier.

1. Start the Recruiting Process early

If you wait to start the college recruiting process the summer after your junior year in high school, you will be in “panic mode” your entire senior year. It’s never too early to start thinking about where you would like to play, and which colleges are the most appropriate for you. In today’s competitive recruiting environment, athletes are committing to colleges as early as the seventh grade. Don’t wait until the fourth quarter to decide to kick it in gear!

2. NCAA Division I is not the only option

High school athletes need to understand that NCAA Division I is not the only or even the best option. You can find an athletic scholarship in most sports at the NCAA Division II, NAIA and junior college levels. These schools offer a quality education, an opportunity for a high school athlete to continue his or her athletic career and a scholarship to help cover the costs. Don’t rule out NCAA Division III schools, either. Although these schools don’t offer athletic scholarships, they do offer grants, loans and other financial aid, and the athletic department generally can be a big help in finding sources of money to help with the cost of tuition.

3. Don’t rely on someone else to find your scholarship

Be the driver, not the passenger in your college recruiting journey. If you rely on someone else to find your scholarship, you may not like the result. While college coaches like hearing from your current coach endorsing your abilities, ultimately, being in contact with college coaches is your responsibility. If you want that scholarship, you need to be the primary contact for the college coaches. They love to see athletes taking initiative to reach out to them.  It makes their job easier!

4. Academics Matter

Parents and students often don’t understand the importance of academics in the college recruiting process and the emphasis that college athletic programs place on grades. Good grades and high standardized test scores make a student much more attractive to a college coach. Here is a simple formula: ATHLETICS + ACADEMICS = COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIP

5. Develop a game plan and be persistent

The best advice I can give any recruit is to develop a recruiting game plan and be persistent. Developing a game plan is really not that hard: (1) identify realistic colleges, (2) get your coach involved as a reference, and (3) reach out to the schools on your list. If you follow this game plan and invest a few minutes a day, three times a week, you will find your college scholarship.

Being persistent means contacting multiple realistic schools, multiple times. You have to understand that your initial contact with a coach is an introduction and you aren’t going to land a roster spot with one email. Be prepared to hear nothing from many of the schools you contact, but don’t take it personally.

Here’s the deal

The recruiting process can be a fun, exciting and enjoyable journey as long as you are prepared, work hard and have realistic expectations.

Playced, recruiting, Recruiting Column

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Predicting the final commitments for Nebraska’s 2018 recruiting class

The final days of the 2018 recruiting cycle have arrived. Scott Frost and his staff have been at Nebraska for more than two months now and are hoping to close out the class in a big way. Several top targets will be announcing their decisions soon.

Here’s a primer of who those prospects are, a synopsis of their recruitment and a prediction of where the target will wind up.

4-star RB Maurice Washington (Cedar Hill, Texas) — Arizona State, Nebraska

Maurice Washington reemerged as a national prospect after his breakout performance at the Under Armour All-America Game on Jan. 4. There were concerns over his ability to qualify academically, which spooked several schools and opened the door for Nebraska to take a front seat in his recruiting. The coaching staff is confident he will qualify, hence the continued interest. Washington took his first official visit to Arizona State in mid-January, and the Sun Devils captured much of the momentum in his recruitment. There is also the fact Washington may want to play cornerback instead of running back. However, a string of visits from the Nebraska staff and an official visit to Lincoln this past weekend puts Nebraska back in the lead.

Prediction: Nebraska

3-star OL Jarrett Bell (Norco, Calif.) — Arizona State, Nebraska

Nebraska was the favorite for Jarrett Bell for most of January, especially leading into and out of his official visit the weekend of Jan. 12. The next week, he took an official to Arizona State. Nebraska made an effort to close out his recruitment, since he occupied the top spot on Nebraska’s board among offensive linemen. But as time went on, the Huskers’ grasp on Bell slipped away.

Prediction: Arizona State

4-star OLB Javontae Jean-Baptiste (Oradell, N.J) — Ohio State, Nebraska, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech

One recruitment Nebraska has held onto despite the prospect taking more official visits is that of Javontae Jean-Baptiste. Following his official visit to Nebraska, he saw Ohio State the next weekend and Texas A&M this past weekend. Virginia Tech led for Jean-Baptiste leading into the early signing period, but he did not sign in December. Frost recruited him to UCF, and Jean-Baptiste values relationships with his potential future coaches. The Huskers have a need for pass rusher and have pursued him hard. It would be a pretty big blow for Nebraska if Jean-Baptiste went elsewhere on Signing Day.

Prediction: Nebraska

4-star OLB Caleb Tannor (Lithonia, Ga.) — Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Nebraska

Nebraska really surprised Caleb Tannor with a strong official visit the weekend of Jan. 12. It was his first official visit, though, and the former Georgia commit went on to see Auburn and Florida. The Huskers made a strong play here, but with a lean from a pass rusher (Jean-Baptiste) already in this class, that may encourage Tannor to head elsewhere. Plus, Tannor has always seemed inclined to play his college ball in the South. Nebraska offered the one-time Georgia commit right after Christmas, when he was reconsidering all of his options. That helped, but it probably won’t be enough.

Prediction: Florida

4-star CB Taiyon Palmer (Lawrenceville, Ga.) — N.C. State, Nebraska, Tennessee

Taiyon Palmer is another prospect whose regional ties may be too much for Nebraska to overcome, despite making a strong push and impressing him during his official visit and in-school visits. It looks like the former Duke commit is headed to N.C. State, but it was a close race. Once again, Nebraska’s effort in recruiting Palmer was commendable, especially since he likely occupied the top spot on the Huskers cornerback board.

Prediction: N.C. State

4-star CB Ken Montgomery (Tampa, Fla.) — Louisville, Maryland, Tennessee

Ken Montgomery’s connection to Nebraska had not been widely known until the last week or so, when he decided to use his final official visit with the Huskers and narrow his top 3 to include Nebraska, Louisville and Maryland. The Terrapins are the strong favorite among recruiting analysts, but word also includes that his recruitment is wide open. The question is whether Nebraska has enough room to bring in another defensive back prospect with a couple of other needs remaining. For now, we’ll stick with what we know regarding Montgomery, a former UCLA commit.

Prediction: Maryland

3-star ATH Cam Taylor (Montgomery, Ala.) — Missouri, Nebraska

Fans should not expect too many surprises for Cam Taylor’s Signing Day announcement. Taylor, who is expected to play cornerback, said he would be between Missouri and Nebraska following his official visit with the Huskers, but ultimately did not take the visit to Missouri. That puts the Huskers in the driver’s seat. Auburn wound up not offering him, which was the only possibility that could have thrown a wrench in Taylor’s status with Nebraska.

Prediction: Nebraska

3-star OL Willie Canty (Belle Glade, Fla.) — Louisville, Nebraska

Willie Canty did not take an official visit throughout the recruiting cycle until the final two weekends, when Louisville and Nebraska, respectively, hosted him. Canty has a solid relationship with offensive line coach Greg Austin. Nebraska’s interest in him had been since the early signing period, but things didn’t really heat up until the last couple of weeks. He will announce his decision on Signing Day.

Prediction: Nebraska

3-star WR Andre Hunt (Lancaster, Calif.) — Oregon State, Nebraska, San Diego State

Offensive coordinator Troy Walters has recruited Andre Hunt hard following the early signing period. Hunt de-committed from USC after he did not feel like a priority for the Trojans anymore, but Walters and Frost have been in consistent contact with Hunt for the last month or so. His official visit this past weekend ultimately determined how he feels about Nebraska; he’ll announce his decision on Signing Day.

Prediction: Nebraska

3-star DL Otito Ogbonnia (Katy, Texas) — Nebraska, Tennessee, Texas Tech, UCLA

Otito Ogbonnia’s recruitment took off after a strong senior season, with several top-tier schools vying for the defensive lineman with nose tackle potential. Nebraska has a clear need for him in this class. Will the allure of playing time be enough to sway him? Ogbonnia also may be interested in pursuing track and field, so whichever school can provide a clear plan for him to achieve his goals in both likely has the upper hand. His official visit to Nebraska was this past weekend, and the momentum built during it can possibly last until he makes his decision.

Prediction: Nebraska

3-star OL Jalan Robinson (Lawrence, Kan.) — Mississippi State, Nebraska

An assist to Jalan Robinson’s recruitment can be his inner circle of family and coaches who are Nebraska fans. After receiving a late offer from Nebraska (just last week), he was on campus for a brief unofficial visit before an official visit to Mississippi State over the weekend. Nebraska should be in good enough position and have the numbers work where it can take Robinson. However, should one of the prospects on this list be encouraged to not commit to Nebraska, it would be Robinson. In that event, Mississippi State is the likely destination.

Prediction: Nebraska

NEXT A Nebraska-filled Super Bowl Sunday; final weekend of recruiting official visits

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North Wales logistics firm recruiting for its innovative training programme

A leading logistics company is recruiting for more people to join its innovative training scheme, as it seeks to tackle a skills gap in the industry.

Ningbo Palletised Distribution has enjoyed a period of significant growth in recent years, and has identified a lack of high-quality HGV drivers could be a stumbling block in future success.

So Chris Stockton, managing director of Ningbo, has created the company’s own training programme to attract, develop and retain drivers. It offers forklift truck, HGV, warehouse, and ADR (drivers who transport dangerous goods) training.

Ningbo, which has bases in Wrexham, Overton, and Shocklach, fully funds the training, pays for the licences, and offers a higher salary than other schemes.

Following initial success of the programme, which has already seen three employees progress from warehouse to HGV driver, the firm is keen to recruit apprentices as well as quality experienced workers and drivers.

One of the first members of staff on the scheme, Steve Lee, joined the company in March 2016 as a warehouse operative. Ningbo paid for all Steve’s training and licences, and he is now a full-time HGV driver.

The promotions and associated increases in pay have enabled Steve to buy his first property – a three-bed house in Ellesmere, North Shropshire.

The 47-year-old said: “I wouldn’t have been able to get my various licences without Ningbo funding the training and related costs. And without the increases in pay, I wouldn’t have been able to get on the property ladder.

“Ningbo hasn’t just given me a career, it’s given me the opportunity to own my own home.

“I jumped at the chance to go through the training and the team have been incredibly supportive. I really enjoy the job as I like being out on the road and I get to see and meet a lot of different places and people.”

The national minimum wage for an apprentice under 19 years old or in their first year is £3.50 per hour. However, Ningbo is offering £5 per hour with all training paid for year one, potentially rising to £13 per hour for ADR night drivers.

Chris Stockton said: “Our training programme is open to apprentices and experienced workers. Pay is dependent upon experience. It allows young and older people to go from the warehouse to HGV driver in a planned and comprehensive training scheme with a pay grade to suit their age and experience.

“We are keen to develop a strong team of high-quality drivers to support our growth plans. An apprenticeship isn’t the only pathway and I urge anyone interested to get in touch to find out more.

“The three drivers we have initially trained started on the warehouse pay grade at £8.50 per hour. I’d like to start some younger people in principal to offer careers in our logistics industry. “We are thrilled we have been able to support Steve in his quest to not only secure a career he enjoys, but to get on the property ladder.”

Ningbo Palletised Distribution is expanding and set up an additional 25,000 sq ft warehouse in Wrexham in November as part of its growth plans.

It is part of the Ningbo Group. Sister business Ningbo Furniture, is a supplier of contract furniture.

For further information visit http://ift.tt/2nKzuNb or http://ift.tt/2E2cfsB.

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Workforce NY Career Center Helps Business Keep On Trucking

OSWEGO COUNTY – Commercial truck drivers are in urgent demand in Oswego County.

Because of the shortage of qualified licensed commercial drivers, the Oswego County Workforce New York office is working closely with local companies to recruit and help train people to fill vacant positions.

The Oswego County Workforce New York office is looking for people who would like to train to become commercial truck drivers. Penske is one of several local transportation companies that are recruiting professional truck drivers. Some trucking companies offer $60,000 annually and full benefit packages. For information on training opportunities, call 315-591-9000 or stop by the One-Stop Career Center in the County Branch Office Building, 200 N. Second St., Fulton.

Although some drivers still spend “six days on the road” as described in the classic song, working conditions for commercial truck drivers have improved significantly over the past several years.

Some local companies offer drivers the chance to earn from $50,000 to $80,000 a year.

They strive to provide a driver-friendly work environment, a sharp contrast to the truck driver stereotype often portrayed in movies.

Transport company owners predict nothing but growth in the industry.

“Drivers are in high demand,” said Robin Hansen, human resources on-site liaison and operations supervisor of Penske Logistics in Oswego. “Most all products in the United States are moved from one point or another via a truck. Products to stores, hospitals, warehouses etc. move via the black ribbon of highway!”

Christine Weaver, director of client services for Oswego County Workforce New York, said that several local companies – Penske Logistics, Laser Transit, and Dreamweaver Trans –have routes that allow some drivers to be home daily.

Penske and Laser Transit both offer medical, dental and vision insurance, vacation and holiday pay, and retirement plans.

Depending on the route, drivers typically earn between $40,000 and $65,000 annually.

A Commercial Driver’s License (CDL – A) is required for a person to work as a truck driver hauling more than 26,000 pounds.

Drivers are required by federal law to be at least 21 years old.

Many drivers get their training through adult training classes at CiTi (Oswego County BOCES) or a commercial driving school such as National Tractor Trailer School in Syracuse or Sage Driving School in Rome.

The county Workforce New York office can provide tuition assistance and helps to train and place students.

Students complete classroom and road training and must pass a road test.

Some employers, such as Dreamweaver Transport, provide additional one-on-one training to make sure students are ready to take their road test.

There are many options available to professional truck drivers. Length of driving route, time spent away from home, and salaries vary, depending on the type of operation.

“Even though basic skills make the job highly transferable to any part of the U.S., the trucking industry is definitely not ‘one size fits all’ in terms of work environment, specialized experience and skills, length of day or miles, equipment types, and customer requirements,” said George Joyce, CEO of Laser Transit. “At Laser Transit, we have a variety of jobs that allow some drivers to be home every night while others have longer trips that get them home no less than every weekend. In addition, there are night shifts, dedicated runs and a variety of work that really allows us to find a fit to driver preference and skills. There are very few jobs in the truckload sector that are normal eight-hour days.“

Drivers who work for Penske Logistics out of Oswego can expect to be home daily, said Hansen.

They typically haul aluminum coils from the Novelis plant in Scriba, drive to a relay location in Hamilton, Ontario, about 4 ½ hours away, exchange their equipment with a driver coming from Flat Rock, MI, and bring scrap aluminum back to the Novelis plant.

The driver must take a 30-minue rest break.

Depending on traffic and border delays, drivers can expect to work a 10- to 12-hour day.

Elbridge Cleveland, owner of Dreamweaver Trans company, is looking for full-time and part-time drivers.

Some “long-haul” drivers work as a team driving from Buffalo to New Jersey, while others do local night runs from 7 p.m. to 4 or 5 a.m.

Dreamweaver runs 10 trucks that are leased with FedEx Ground to deliver packages.

Laser Trans is primarily a full truckload carrier with both vans and flat beds.

“Our trucks carry a variety of products servicing local manufacturing and distribution centers,” said Joyce. “Our typical operations are concentrated within the greater New England area, but many moves are wholly within New York State. We also perform cross-border moves into Canada.”

Although the three companies have seen immense changes in the industry, all agree that the focus on training and safety remains a priority.

“I’m an old-school trucker,” said Cleveland, who has 33 years’ experience in the industry. He started his own company two years ago with the goal of offering a family-friendly and driver-friendly experience to his employees.

“We make sure they are well-trained,” he said. “That truck has to be their second home, so they need to learn basic maintenance of the vehicle.”

Hansen said tighter federal rules and regulations help keep the highways safer. “The Department of Transportation wants to make sure that drivers are not fatigued behind the wheel, in an effort to keep the general and motoring public safe,” she said.

“Like most industries, the pace of change is unrelenting,” said Joyce. “Expansion of regulatory enforcement externally and safety management internally have been significant in the last decade. Technology adoption, equipment capabilities, tighter integration with supply chain partners, and customer emphasis with on-time deliveries and reliability” are the most notable changes in the industry.”

Joyce said research shows the nationwide shortage of qualified drivers will continue to be an issue for many years to come.

In 2017 the shortage was estimated to be 50,000.

By 2026 the shortage is expected to grow to 174,000 drivers.

“Drivers entering the profession will need a variety of skills — including more familiarity with technology, an emphasis on safety management, and interpersonal skills,” he said.

Oswego County is working closely with local companies to train people who want to become licensed commercial truck drivers and fill positions in local companies.

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Drivers don’t trust Uber. This is how it’s trying to win them back.

On a busy evening in February 2017, while America watched the New England Patriots face off against the Atlanta Falcons in the Superbowl, Uber’s former CEO Travis Kalanick was having his own sort of showdown.

It started off as a friendly UberBlack ride. Kalanick, who sat between two women in an SUV, shimmied to Maroon 5 as the driver, Fawzi Kamel, brought them to their destination.

It ended, however, with Kalanick and Kamel in a heated debate over pay. Kamel claimed the company lowered the fares on its premium black car service. Kalanick denied it.

“You know what,” Kalanick said to Kamel before he abruptly exited the car. “Some people don’t like to take responsibility for their own shit. They blame everything in their life on somebody else.”

The now infamous encounter, which was caught on video, validated the primary concern of Uber’s three million drivers: Kalanick — and, by extension, Uber — wasn’t listening to them.

Screengrab from Bloomberg video

“Uber, can you hear me?”

“Driver partners.” That was, and still often is, what the combative CEO and Uber called the contractors operating on the $69 billion ride-hail company’s platform across the world.

To many of those drivers, however, after years of undercutting fares, raising commissions and refusing to listen to their demands, Uber was seen as less a partner and more a shadowy, money-hungry entity that fettered them to the company because of its hold on the market.

In spite of drivers’ many attempts to effect change through protests and sometimes lawsuits, the ride-hail company was rarely amenable to their requests or demands, often vehemently opposing some of the most-requested features from drivers, such as tipping.

Still, Uber insisted it cared about the drivers.

This year, however, circumstances forced Uber’s hand. Improving driver relations became more crucial than ever as competition grew and the supply of new drivers Uber could recruit or poach dwindled. Uber could no longer simply replace with new ones the sometimes dissatisfied drivers who left the platform. Maintaining its supply of existing drivers was an even more important factor in hitting profitability for a company that still loses $1.46 billion a quarter.

That was compounded by the series of scandals Uber faced in 2017 — from executive turnover to allegations of stolen trade secrets, all of which ultimately led to a drop in marketshare.

The company is in the midst up of an upheaval under the tutelage of its new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. With an eye on taking the company public in 2019, Khosrowshahi is attempting to atone for the sins of Uber’s past.

But the effort to rehabilitate the relationship with drivers started under Kalanick and buoyed the faltering employee morale following his ouster. There is no clearer illustration of Uber’s shift toward drivers than the introduction of tipping.

Kalanick, who focused much of his leadership on creating a top-of-the-line service for passengers, had long been concerned that riders would feel pressured into tipping their drivers and that it would result in a deterioration of the rider experience.

But in April 2017, a little more than a month after the video surfaced, Kalanick joined a dozen or so of his executives — including the company’s newly minted head of product, Daniel Graf, and the head of driver product, Aaron Schildkrout — to discuss adding tipping to the app. The meeting, which Schildkrout spearheaded, was a culmination of years of internal pressure on Kalanick to allow riders to have the option to tip their drivers.

By berating Kamel, the Uber driver, Kalanick had painted himself into a corner, and those staffers who had long fought for tipping seized on the opportunity. Schildkrout and his team of researchers, designers and product managers presented him with a series of charts and research that showed that the vast majority of riders and drivers wanted this feature, and that it could be done in a way that didn’t pressure riders.

“Travis and other people’s resistance to tipping was very much that they didn’t want it to become a sort of meaningless obligation where the platform … passes costs to the … purchasing customer,” Schildkrout told Recode in August.

More than that, it would show drivers that the company finally heard them. One-on-one meetings Kalanick had with the company’s chief economist John List and later with Schildkrout also served to convince the notoriously competitive CEO that tipping was a good idea.

With Kalanick’s blessing, Uber launched its tipping feature two months later.

In doing so, the company marked the beginning of a 180-day driver improvement campaign — a cross-company effort that Schildkrout, as well as Uber’s regional general manager of the U.S. and Canada, Rachel Holt, had been working on since the winter of 2016.

While that tipping conversation happened months into the company’s work on the driver improvement campaign, it’s emblematic of how people within the company leveraged Uber’s reputation issues to create a sense of urgency and fervency around making Uber for the first time ever a better opportunity for drivers.

Interviews with executives Uber made available as well as several former and current employees suggest this is a major shift within the company that had traditionally been primarily concerned with the rider experience.

The campaign was not without its missteps, and some drivers are still left wanting, but this was the first clear move by Uber to change not only the narrative but the actual workings of its driver operations.

The Year of the Driver

It wasn’t the first year the company tried to focus on the driver, but given the myriad scandals and an increasingly menacing business problem, 2017 had to be the year of the driver.

As they did before the start of every year, Uber executives, including Kalanick, began discussing what the priorities should be for 2017 toward the end of fall 2016.

To Holt and Schildkrout, focusing on driver retention was no longer just a moral obligation to treat drivers better, nor was it just about fixing the company’s image. It was a business problem and it was pressing.

As many of its markets, namely the U.S., matured, the ride-hail company came up against a huge challenge: There were fewer pools of people who were qualified and needed or wanted to drive for Uber that it hadn’t already contacted. Of those who did try driving for Uber, about 30 percent churned — stopped driving for the company — every quarter, several sources told Recode.

The company’s years of focusing primarily on new driver acquisition had caught up to it. Uber needed to figure out not just how to get new drivers, but how to keep them.

That problem was exacerbated by last year’s #deleteUber campaign that caused the ride-hail behemoth to cede considerable marketshare to its rival, Lyft. (Lyft, too, rolled out new driver features in lockstep with Uber.)

Richard Levine/Corbis via Getty Images

So Uber began introducing new features aimed at making drivers’ experience easier and more seamless. In the first few months of the improvement campaign, the company attempted to answer drivers’ most frequent complaints: Tipping, pay transparency and customer support. The company also attempted to enhance its biggest value proposition for drivers: Flexibility.

And here’s what drivers got. As of December 2017, drivers received $200 million in tips. Compare that to Lyft, which has offered a tipping option since it was founded about six years ago and only just paid out $250 million in tips as of June 2017.

Drivers would be paid extra for long trips, they’d get an additional flat fee for every new pickup on an UberPool ride, be paid for every minute they waited for a passenger over two minutes and they’d have 24/7 phone support.

Other features were more about the process of driving and the kind of information drivers were getting.

“Most drivers don’t feel the system is fair.”

By the company’s own admission, the specifics of what drivers were taking home versus what Uber was making was a black box. For instance, drivers have often complained about not knowing what their passengers paid and, at times, being paid less than what their riders tell them they’ve been charged.

So the company started offering some basic information drivers didn’t have before, specifically, the price of each fare (what the rider pays), how much they earned from each ride and any discounts or subsidies that may have been applied to each trip.

Astoundingly, prior to this change drivers had little idea what anyone was paying on each ride unless they asked the passenger.

According to the company, the volume of complaints or questions drivers have about pay and other features have decreased over the course of the campaign. However, the company would not disclose the difference between ticket volume before and after the campaign.

While some drivers recognized the effort the company was putting into making the experience better, others felt it was too little too late.

“Most drivers don’t feel the system is fair,” Cameron Kruger, who had been driving for Uber in New York City for more than a year and a half, told Recode in the days after the campaign first launched. “I’ll put it like this. You’re going to take away my three-bedroom house and you’re going to give me back planks of wood, and you’re going to build me little shacks and say, ‘See, here’s a little of this back.’”

There was always a question of whether the company was genuine in its efforts. To some, both internally and externally, it didn’t matter, so long as it made some improvements. But to Holt and Schildkrout, trust was a key factor in ensuring the campaign would be successful.

“Absolutely it needs to be genuine,” Holt told Recode. “I think it is. I really believe it is. I think we need drivers to feel that and our teams need to feel that.”

That wasn’t always an easy feat to accomplish under Kalanick, who was forced out of Uber in June. For years, he thought of the rider as Uber’s primary customer. Though many felt the driver video was a moment that humbled the pugnacious CEO more than any other — leading to his first public admission that he needed to grow up — the incident with the Uber driver indicated otherwise.

In the hours after the video was released, Kalanick and a few other executives broached the idea of apologizing and buying the driver’s cars to make it up to him.

Less than than 48 hours later, Kalanick faced the driver again. The executive got into a long debate with Kamel in a subsequent meeting set up for him to apologize, as Recode first reported.

Ahead of the meeting, Kalanick had intended to reach a rapprochement with the driver, these sources say. He and other executives — including Uber’s now Senior Vice President of Communications Jill Hazelbaker; Rachel Whetstone, the SVP of policy and comms at the time; Holt; Jeff Jones, the former president; and others — agreed he should meet with Kamel to apologize.

VCG / Getty

During that gathering, Kalanick and others suggested he use his own money to pay Kamel for the cost of his cars. Kamel owns two cars that operate on Uber’s platform under a black car business called West Coast Limos.

Since Kamel’s primary complaint with Kalanick was that Kamel bought cars to drive for Uber and had been losing money because of lowered fares, they discussed Kalanick possibly covering the depreciated value of the cars.

The meeting took place within two days after the video came to light. Kalanick was advised to apologize and immediately leave. Instead, Kalanick spent an hour or so with Kamel, sources say, to express his regret for how he behaved but also to talk through many of the same issues they discussed in the video.

Naturally, Kamel was upset in the aftermath of his original encounter with Kalanick. But a spokesperson for Kalanick said that the subsequent meeting was not argumentative and that it ended well. The spokesperson declined to comment on whether Kalanick gave Kamel any money.

However, Kalanick offered Kamel $200,000, Bloomberg News later reported.

At least one Uber executive was uncomfortable with the meeting. Kalanick was accompanied by Wayne Ting, the general manager of Uber’s Northern California operations at the time. After the meeting, Ting told a few executives at Uber that he was unable to get Kalanick to leave. Sources say he also expressed his frustration to leadership in an email and felt Kalanick acted irresponsibly.

Salle Yoo, the company’s former chief legal counsel, acted quickly and made it clear Kalanick had to invest his own money and broker a deal with his own legal counsel — not Uber’s.

Still, the driver improvement campaign went on as planned. Uber launched its crusade to retain drivers on June 22. A day later, under mounting pressure from major shareholders who were generally frustrated with his leadership, Kalanick formally resigned from the company.

A dozen deputies, including Holt, took the reins of Uber. Under them, the driver improvement campaign became the rallying cry of the company.

Growth über alles

Many of Uber’s problems in 2017 stemmed from its obsession with growth. Expanding its business and growing its marketshare often came at the cost of operational needs, such as providing human resources with training and tools to properly deal with employee issues. Some say that is what led to the company’s mismanagement of the sexism and harassment claims Susan Fowler detailed in her essay.

That was also the case, Holt said, when it came to creating a good experience for drivers.

“From the time I was there, growth has been a huge focus and priority,” Holt, who joined Uber in 2011, said. “In trying to keep up with the growth and keep pace with what was happening in the business, the focus on, ‘How do we create the most compelling driver experience?’ just wasn’t top of mind for us as much as it should’ve been.”

Instead, Uber invested all of its time and resources in recruiting new drivers and relatively little on retaining drivers. The company ran a sophisticated and often expensive driver recruitment campaign. The idea was drivers would use the service that had more riders and in turn more rides. By that logic, all Uber had to do was continue to recruit new drivers while it focused on making its service as efficient and convenient as possible for passengers.

Uber used a combination of subsidies, promotions and a process called slogging — singling out drivers on competing services such as Lyft to convert them to Uber drivers — to grow its driver pool.

“We’ve always put a lot of energy to figure out the best possible way to get drivers on the road,” Schildkrout told Recode last August. “Many innovations have occurred in the on-boarding space from how we just get people interested in the platform in the first place from advertising to convincing riders that they should try to become drivers and referrals and so forth.”

“I think we have done not nearly enough to support them to be successful drivers.”

Once a driver joined the platform, Uber would funnel more rides to the newcomers or to lapsed drivers using specialized software in an effort to show how robust the service was, or in the case of lapsed drivers, to encourage them to continue driving for Uber, sources familiar told Recode.

The company regularly experimented with ways to ease the process for new drivers. Other examples include initially limiting UberPool requests until the driver got used to the platform. The company says it is not currently experimenting with funneling rides to new or returning drivers.

But after completing their first five to 10 rides, for most drivers the number of ride requests would drop. So too would much of the company’s efforts to keep them on the platform.

“I think we have done not nearly enough to support them to be successful drivers,” Schildkrout said in August. “So I would say we still have a long, long way to go in this area and we have significant-sized teams now focused on solving those problems.”

Starting over

Uber had lost the trust of both the public and a large proportion of its employees as it grappled with the many public scandals of 2017. Morale was low as employees saw the ouster of Kalanick, the co-founder and company’s primary evangelist.

Though some lamented his departure, others saw this as an opportunity to start fresh.

For the first time, teams across Uber were focused on making good on their promises to drivers instead of just figuring out how to win at all costs and grow the business. The campaign was the first cross-functional effort of its kind, Holt told Recode, banding together Uber’s operations, engineering, marketing and other teams.

In an email to staff introducing the campaign, obtained by Recode, Schildkrout and Holt called for the full collaboration of all of Uber’s employees.

“Without drivers Uber wouldn’t exist, and, if we are honest with ourselves, over the last few years — as we’ve raced to keep pace with our own tremendous growth — we have not fully delivered on what it means to be a partner,” the email read. “This is changing — starting today.”

It became the reason many of its employees across these functions stayed, according to many sources.

“I think we have a privileged moment where the business need and the moral need are perfectly aligned,” Schildkrout told Recode.

Schildkrout, the co-founder of dating site HowAboutWe, has worn many hats since he joined Uber in 2015. He started as the head of data and made his way across the company as the head of growth and then the head of rider product. As it happens, the head of driver product would be his last role at Uber.

Schildkrout, who had been considering taking time away from the company before the campaign, was among those who stayed at Uber to see the driver improvement project through. Just a day after Uber launched the last part of its 180-day driver improvement campaign in December, he announced he was leaving the company.

“This last year of work to transform our relationship with drivers has been one of the most gratifying experiences of my life,” Schildkrout wrote in an internal email announcing his departure.

The company is hoping that the steady drumbeat of new features for drivers will help build a more solid foundation for their frayed relationship.

But the elephant in the room, drivers told Recode, are the low fares.

“They can’t earn our trust because the way they broke our trust is by lowering the fares,” said Kruger, a New Jersey-based driver who has a 4.96 rating — that’s good. “To make us feel good you’re going to give us rider compliments? That doesn’t pay my bills.”

“They can’t earn our trust because the way they broke our trust is by lowering the fares.”

However, there’s little chance Uber will raise the rates at which it pays its drivers. The company argues higher fares would drive down volume, ultimately resulting in the same or less income.

One driver in the Bay Area, Daryl Townsend, has been driving since 2014 and says if the fare goes any lower he’ll stop using Uber.

“It was good when it started,” Townsend told Recode. “Driving for Uber kind of feels like the Titanic. Each time it’s getting worse and worse and worse. The point of that is you have to be intelligent and know what you’re doing. It is getting worse. It’s going from $40 to $30 and some days you only make $25 an hour.”

Overall sentiment, however, is improving. Over the course of the campaign, Uber surveyed select drivers after each new batch of features was launched. By November 2017, favorability among drivers improved about 7 percent since the campaign started in June, according to internal charts Recode obtained. Churn, Uber said, has improved too but wouldn’t say by how much.

Though the company is optimistic about the impact the campaign is having, a single moment clearly illustrated the frailty of its driver relationship. In the third month of the company’s campaign — which focused on promoting flexibility — Uber introduced a number of improvements around its driver destination feature.

“Driving for Uber kind of feels like the Titanic.”

The feature allows drivers to specify a location they want to reach, allowing them to maximize their time and accept rides that are going in that direction, especially when they want to finish working for the day and head home.

Previously, the company allowed drivers to do this only twice a day. After testing the feature in some cities and seeing little degradation to wait times, the company increased that to six. According to Schildkrout, Uber even contemplated allowing drivers to pick as many destinations as they wanted every day.

But upon launching the additional driver destinations and heavily marketing that to drivers, Uber quickly realized that it was hurting its marketplace.

In some cities, a few routes were not being serviced because drivers’ destination preferences took supply away from certain routes. It also increased the time it took to pick up passengers.

After attempting to solve the problem with subtle changes — such as setting drop-offs as anything within a mile of the driver destination — Schildkrout and an emergency response team realized it was getting worse.

In a matter of days, Uber rolled back driver destinations from six per day to two in those cities. Still, because the company had marketed the feature so heavily and drivers liked it so much, those problems persisted in markets where usage was still very high. So, the company added additional limitations during specific times — such as peak hours.

For drivers, this was a clear moment of Uber going back on its word. The promises they’d been making since the start of the campaign meant nothing. Uber would always pick the marketplace over them.

But Schildkrout insisted the deterioration of the marketplace also hurt drivers. Higher ETAs to pick up riders meant fewer rides for drivers and more time driving without a fare.

“Building trust with drivers is of the absolute utmost importance,” he told Recode. “Going back on this feature was not something that we took lightly, and unless we were extremely sure that it was not good for anybody — riders or drivers — we would never have done it. And we’re working incredibly hard to come up with something that’s better for both riders and drivers that meets driver’s needs for deep flexibility.”

The company has been working on new and more refined features, he said, that actually respond more specifically to the needs of drivers instead of a feature that acts as a one-size fits all solution to the desire to have more control.

Still, Schildkrout spent a good deal of his time responding directly to drivers who tweet at him.

This moment, deep into the campaign, illustrated how fraught Uber’s relationship with its drivers still was. The question of whether the company was actually listening to them remains at the heart of the issue.

“They’re trying to paint lipstick on a pig,” Townsend told Recode of the destination filter rollback. “They haven’t really changed but they’re saying they have.”

Uber contends it is listening to the drivers. In fact, the process to come up with new features proves they’re listening, sources inside the company said, because it starts with driver feedback.

“They’re trying to paint lipstick on a pig. They haven’t really changed but they’re saying they have.”

The company has a squadron of researchers who embed with the driver team and gather qualitative and quantitative data through driver interviews and other methods. That team works to bridge the gap between what drivers say they want and what features the company can actually develop that would solve those pain points.

That, for example, was how driver destinations and driver profiles were originally conceived. For destinations, drivers said they wanted more flexibility and control over where and when they drove.

Driver profiles, on the other hand, came out of complaints about rider behavior. Drivers wanted riders to behave better and respect them more. The profile, which tells riders about the driver and features any compliments other riders might’ve given them, was an attempt at humanizing the rider-driver relationship.

Each part of the process, the company contends, responds to specific driver issues and feedback such as earnings transparency. Moreover, Uber employees are now encouraged to drive on the platform to get a first-hand feel for what it would take to feel truly like a partner.

The campaign may have ended officially but Uber’s work is not over. The company concedes that this was about getting the fundamentals of the relationship right so that it could continue to improve and innovate upon the driver experience.

“We’re going to continue to drive this as a core priority,” Holt said. “That won’t change as we are starting to move the needle in a really meaningful way in terms of the results we’re seeing from the campaign.”

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Police are recruiting unpaid volunteers to drive officers around so they can use their mobile phones in the car

Avon and Somerset Police are recruiting volunteer drivers to help officers

Will complete deliveries and drive officers around so they can use their phones

Benefits of the role include using your driving skills for the ‘benefit of policing’ 

By

Dianne Apen-sadler For Mailonline

Published: 07:54 EST, 3 February 2018 | Updated: 08:51 EST, 3 February 2018

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A police force is recruiting for volunteers to drive officers around so they can use their phones in the car.

Avon and Somerset Police are advertising the role to ‘enthusiastic’ volunteers who can ‘relieve some of the demand and pressures on our front line officers by providing a driver support service’.

Drivers will work weekdays from 8am to 6pm, with breaks, starting in the spring.

They will be expected to complete deliveries and ferry officers to and from appointments, as well as keeping accurate records of mileage and journey time. 

Benefits include using your driving skills for the ‘benefit of policing’, and ‘being a valued member of Avon and Somerset Constabulary’. 

Avon and Somerset police are recruiting volunteer drivers to drive their police officers around so they can keep using their phones (file photo)

Applicants must be 25 and over and have had a full driving licence for more than 12 months and have a ‘good knowledge’ of the Highway Code.

They will be given access to a fully insured unmarked vehicle with a sat-nav and a mobile phone.

Temporary assistant chief constable Steve Cullen told the Mirror: ‘This scheme is all about embracing trusted members of the community who wish to participate in policing and maximising the amount of time officers and staff spent carrying out their core roles.

‘We anticipate the volunteer drivers helping with things like collecting detainee medication or supporting officers in dropping them off and collecting them to conduct enquiry in busy settings such as Bristol city centre.

‘Not only does this enable our officers to keep working on mobile devices whilst being driven but it will ensure that our cars are being used efficiently and not tied up all day for one appointment.’

Volunteers will be given access to a fully insured unmarked vehicle with a sat-nav and mobile phone. Benefits include using your driving skills for the ‘benefit of policing’, and ‘being a valued member of Avon and Somerset Constabulary’ (file photo)

Several other forces have launched initiatives to help them with understaffing issues from budget cuts.

Earlier this week Staffordshire Police Chief Constable Gareth Morgan came under fire for creating a ‘dial-a-detective’ service to investigate burglaries, thefts and anti-social behaviour over the phone.

He claimed that he needs the service because he can’t afford to have his officers ‘dealing’ with every crime.

The new system is currently operating across North Staffordshire and it’s claimed 1,400 cases have been resolved since December. It is expected to be rolled out across the county by the summer.

But Mr Morgan admits the force, which has lost hundreds of officers and closed stations due to budget cuts in the past decade, hasn’t got enough resources.

Just last month it was revealed that Scotland Yard were recruiting 20 volunteers to work as Special Constables in counter-terrorism units. 

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Shakopee Fire Department to hold recruiting events

The Shakopee Fire Department will hold several events to engage residents who might be interested in serving Shakopee as paid, on-call firefighters.

The first recruitment event will be Feb. 15 at 7 p.m. and the second will be Feb. 17 at 8 a.m. Both events will be held at the Shakopee Fire Station on Vierling Drive.

The events will allow those interested to learn more about becoming a firefighter, including roles and responsibilities. Parents should leave their children at home.

The department will begin accepting applications in mid-February. There are currently 46 paid, on-call firefighters who operate out of two fire stations. There is also a crew of full-time firefighters during the day.

Applications should be 18 years or older and live within 10 minutes of a fire station. They should have a high school diploma or GED and a driver’s license and be able to pass a background check and checks on physical requirements.

The starting wage is $13.79 an hour with pension, leadership opportunities and more.

Those interested in attending either of the recruitments should email fireinfo@shakopeemn.gov and say which session they’d like to attend.

Interviews will be conducted in March or May.

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Final push for Florida football’s 2018 class

Gators expected to entertain three top prospects.

By Graham HallCorrespondent

The final weekend before National Signing Day has arrived at last, and the Gators are looking to finish strong on the football recruiting trail.

Florida’s coaching staff is expecting to host three prospects in the 2018 class on official visits over the weekend, including a prospect regarded as the top in-state wide receiver in Jacob Copeland.

A 6-foot-1, 190-pound prospect out of Pensacola’s Escambia High, Copeland is expected to sign with either Alabama or Florida on Wednesday, but not before giving the Gators one last chance to keep him in his home state. Copeland, ranked the No. 12 overall wide receiver prospect in the 2018 class by 247Sports, backed off a previous pledge to the Gators following the departure of Jim McElwain, but a strong push by coach Dan Mullen and wide receivers coach Billy Gonzales has Florida back in the mix to land the Under Armour All-American participant.

Although his situation could change before the weekend, Florida is also expecting to host the top JUCO defensive end prospect in the 2018 class in Dorian Gerald. A native of Florence, South Carolina, Gerald’s recruitment has taken off over the past few months as he’s been courted by multiple SEC powers, and he’ll arrive in Gainesville immediately after a mid-week official visit to Arkansas. The Gators appear to be in a strong position to land his signature, but they’ll have to stave off the Razorbacks and Texas A&M on Wednesday. If Gerald doesn’t arrive in Gainesville for his official visit, however, it indicates the Gators are in a prime position to land a signature from Armwood defensive end Malcolm Lamar.

The Gators also expect to host another defensive end in Olive Branch (Miss.) prospect Fabien Lovett. A 6-foot-4, 285-pound prospect, Lovett had previously committed to Mullen at Mississippi State prior to the start of the 2017 season, but he decided to back off his pledge Jan. 1. Now, it appears his decision will come down to the Gators, Ole Miss and Mississippi State, with UF getting the final crack at signing Lovett, ranked the No. 20 strong-side defensive end in the 2018 class by 247Sports.

With just nine scholarships to hand out Wednesday, and three prospects verbally committed in offensive linemen Richard Gouraige and Griffin McDowell and athlete Justin Watkins, it’s anyone’s guess how Florida’s board shakes out down the stretch. But one thing is certain: there’s no shortage of highly valued prospects looking to join Mullen’s inaugural class as Florida’s head coach.

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US Xpress adopts Google technology to improve truck driver recruitment

Home > Technology > U.S. Xpress adopts Google technology to improve truck driver recruitment

Technology January 4, 2018

Software allows drivers to complete job applications on mobile devices without long delays, company says.

By DC Velocity Staff

Truckload carrier U.S. Xpress Enterprises Inc. said today it has adopted Google Inc.’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) technology to improve its truck driver recruitment process by delivering fast-loading web pages on mobile devices.

Chattanooga, Tenn.-based U.S. Xpress is using the AMP software to optimize its recruitment websites and accelerate the application process for truck drivers, the company said.

In a test run, the AMP-enabled web pages loaded five times faster than U.S. Xpress’ standard content, generating a 62-percent increase in completed job applications, the company said. That speed is critical in an economy where truck drivers and other potential hires increasingly use their phones and other mobile devices to access and complete job applications, U.S. Xpress said.

Based on the results of that 20-day test period, U.S. Xpress plans to implement AMP technology across all of its recruiting platforms in 2018. That initiative could generate cost savings above $1 million per year in recruitment costs by avoiding the slow loading times that sometimes frustrate applicants to the point where they abandon job applications before completing the forms, according to U.S. Express.

“One of the biggest challenges the trucking industry faces today is the growing shortage of drivers, and our industry has to find ways to improve our ability to recruit and hire drivers so we can meet the increasing shipping demands of our customers,” U.S. Xpress CEO Eric Fuller said in a statement. “The reality is current recruitment websites are not always mobile friendly and often struggle with loading job applications in a timely manner.”

Google launched the AMP Project in 2016 to improve the performance of the mobile web by allowing digital content to load quickly regardless of which device or platform a reader is using. The initiative is an open-source project led by Google with collaboration from technology companies including Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and WordPress.

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Shortage of spare school bus drivers continues, but companies recruiting ’24/7, 365 days a year’

Halfway into the school year, transportation companies are saying it’s still a challenge to recruit new personnel as a shortage of school bus drivers continues to plague several parts of the Greater Toronto Area.

The Toronto Student Transportation Group, the organization that manages student transportation for Toronto’s public and Catholic school boards, says the school boards are still getting complaints about the service.

The group’s general manager, Kevin Hodgkinson, says most of the complaints are due to traffic delays but there are still some delays caused by inadequate staffing on some bus routes.

He adds the issue of bus driver shortages has improved since last year, but the recruiting process is still far from over.

“All of our carriers haven’t stopped hiring drivers since last year,” Hodgkinson said. “It’s a 24/7, 365-day-a-year routine for them.”

Hodgkinson says the issue is ongoing for all of their carriers, and every carrier in the city of Toronto is hiring.

“We have more drivers than we have routes,” he said. “The problem we face is the spare pool is not where it needs to be. So if too many drivers are booking off sick or on leave of absence on any given day there may be a time where there’s more routes than drivers.”

The Toronto boards have 1,756 permanent drivers and 93 spare drivers who service 1,795 routes. Hodgkinson said the spare pool is not up to where it needs to be yet — ideally they would like to hire 40 additional drivers to ensure there is a driver ready to go on any given bus on any given day. 

Transportation companies are advertising in newspapers, online and a few have hired recruitment specialists to help with the process.

Hodgkinson calls it a slow improvement.

‘The job has changed’

Switzer-Carty Transportation has school bus routes that span across the GTA. President Jim Switzer says the industry as a whole is experiencing challenges.

“We have found recently that we have had to go to advertising for technicians and drivers in the marketplaces,” Switzer said, adding, as it stands, the company is in a good position with their driver pool, 

Switzer acknowledges the changing responsibilities in the job add to the challenge of recruiting new drivers.

“The job has changed in the last 15 years,” Switzer said. “It’s not the bus doing one route in the morning and one route in the afternoon. A typical driver in the GTA would probably have three routes in the morning and three routes in the afternoon, carrying anywhere between 40 and 60 kids on each one of those routes.”

Switzer added the drivers around Toronto are dealing with high volume traffic and multiple schools.

But the union representing drivers says more needs to be done to address the challenges facing them.

“There’s a lack of acknowledgement of the responsibilities that comes with the job,” said Debbie Montgomery, president of Unifor 4268, which represents 1,400 school bus drivers in the Greater Toronto Area.

“Drivers feel that they aren’t being supported by the board or the operators,” she said, adding split shifts and minimum wage compensation have also led to the recruitment issues faced by operators. 

Switzer-Carty Transportation says they offer competitive wages and health benefits to entice new drivers, but they still want to ensure they are hiring quality drivers who love to work with kids.

“We can’t just take anybody. It takes a special person to drive a school bus,” Switzer said.

Recruiting plans

Glenn Attridge,  president of Attridge Transporation, says they don’t have a full complement of drivers, but they do have enough to keep delays to a minimum.

“We are recruiting and training every single day,” Attridge said, noting there have been improvements in delays from last year.

Glenn Attridge, president of Attridge Transporation, says they strive to keep their name visible when recruiting drivers though various forms of media.

Attridge said his company aims to be visible through ads in papers and online. 

“We have some recruiting plans,” he said.

“We’re going to look at everyone’s wages and see what we can do to make it more enticing as we plan towards September 2018.” 

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Uber and Careem recruit first female drivers in Saudi Arabia

Female customers currently represent 80% of Uber’s Saudi rider base and 70% of business for its Dubai-based counterpart, Careem, according to statistics shared with CNN by both companies. The apps are a lifeline to women with no independent way to get around the Kingdom.

Currently, all drivers employed by the two firms are male — mostly Saudi nationals driving their privately-owned vehicles.

Following the ground-breaking royal decree that announced plans to lift the ban on women driving last September, however, both companies have been preparing to hire their first female drivers.

After the decree was issued, the company launched a series of 90-minute training sessions, in the Saudi cities of Riyadh, Jeddah and Al Khobar, targeting Saudi women who have already acquired valid driving licenses while abroad.

Careem operates in 13 countries across the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan and is valued at around $1 billion.

Careem — which operates in 13 countries across the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan — has launched a series of 90-minute-long training sessions in Saudi, targeting Saudi women who have already obtained valid driving licenses from abroad.

Taught by existing female Saudi employees of Careem (working in administration roles, not as drivers), the sessions educate attendees about Saudi road laws, customer service techniques, and how to use the application’s platform.

“From the first moment, we announced our willingness to welcome the ladies to work on our platform,” says Abdullah Elyas, co-founder and chief privacy officer at Careem, over email.

Careem has already received thousands of applications from Saudi women interested in becoming drivers, Elyas says. Those who complete the training sessions receive a certificate which acts as a guarantee that they have officially joined Careem’s team, bar any changes to Saudi traffic laws, says Careem’s public relations manager, Murtadha Alalawi.

The sessions, taught by Saudi female instructors, educate women interested in becoming Careem “captains” — as the company refers to chauffeurs under its platform– about the Saudi traffic law, principles of customer service, and how to use the application’s platform.

Uber, meanwhile, has announced plans to open “one-stop-shop” facilities dedicated to recruiting future female drivers, or “partners”, as the company calls them. These Green Light Hubs already exist in the country to serve male employees.

“We will partner up with necessary stakeholders to facilitate the paperwork, training access, and access to vehicles, including access to driving schools run by third party partners,” says Zeid Hreish, Uber’s general manager in Saudi Arabia.

Hreish adds that Uber has also launched “listening sessions” for women in Riyadh, which have been attended by a number of influential figures including the company’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. The sessions are aimed at “shaping the company’s priorities and upcoming plans for women in the Kingdom,” and have addressed topics such as problems women could face when driving.

At least 10,000 female drivers by June

Careem plans to hire more than 10,000 “female captains” — drivers — by June 2018, says Elyas.

“Female captains will help us provide a better service to many women who want to travel but refuse to be driven by men,” he says. Many women from conservative backgrounds currently do not use ride hailing apps, as being driven by an unknown male is unacceptable in their culture.

“Captinah’s (female captains) will help us provide easier service to many women who want to move but be driven by women,” says Careem’s co-founder and chief privacy officer, Dr. Abdallah Elyas, in reference to women from conservative backgrounds that do not accept being given a ride by an unknown male driver.

“This means that a new segment of Saudi society that does not use our services will begin (to use it) next June.”

Careem and Uber, however, must tread with caution when handling the cultural sensitivities related to gender mixing in the conservative Saudi society. The Dubai-based company, for instance, has announced that the female driver option will be restricted to female riders or families. It will also provide a call masking option, to block the contact numbers between the driver and the customer, to protect privacy.

Such security measures encouraged Amani Alawwami, 28, a Saudi bank employee in Al Khobar, to join the first workshop Careem ran last October.

Amani Alawwami (28), a Saudi employee working at a bank in Alkhobar, joined the first workshop Careem offered in Saudi.”I want to be there to help when someone is in need for a lift, and it is a beautiful feeling to be among the first female captains in my country.”

“The first thing that made me think about working for Careem was our great need to drive,” says Alawwami. “As women in Saudi, we need a man for our smallest commuting needs, and the local taxi service is not sufficiently available where I live.”

Alawwami got her driving license while studying in the United Arab Emirates.

“Ride hailing applications have helped us a lot,” she says. “I want to be there to help when someone is in need of a lift, and it is a beautiful feeling to be among the first female captains in my country.”

The mother-of-one says that her husband and family never opposed women being allowed to drive. She believes that “the announcement of the government’s plan to lift the ban has caused many of those who said they opposed females driving to become supportive of it overnight.”

Saudi’s national transformation

Uber and Careem hope their recruitment drive of women can support the Saudi government’s efforts to reduce the country’s unemployment rate, which the Saudi General Authority for Statistics estimates to be at 12.8%.

A Careem captain driving the lowest class of car for eight hours a day makes between $1,600 and $2,100 per month, according to Elyas — less than the Kingdom’s average monthly income of $2,640 a month, according to Saudi General Authority for Statistics.

Uber has also launched a series of regular “listening sessions,” attended by a number of influential female representatives in Saudi, aimed at “shaping the company’s priorities and upcoming plans for women in the Kingdom,” according to Uber’s general manager in Saudi, Zeid Hreish.

Still, the government has been supportive of the ride-hailing apps. In mid 2016, the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) invested $3.5 billion in Uber, the largest single investment ever made in a private company, as it sought to diversify its portfolio amid plummeting oil prices.

Economic diversification is one of the pillars of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 strategy, which was announced in 2016 by the country’s now 32-year-old crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and aims to decrease reliance on oil and boost employment of the younger Saudis.

More than one million Saudis are currently listed as job seekers, according to the General Authority of Statistics.

No special road rules for Saudi women

Abdullah Al-Mutairi, the spokesperson for the Saudi Public Transport Authority (PTA), says the “same regulations governing the licensing of men who work in transportation will be applicable to women.”

“Those regulations include having a valid Saudi driving license and insurance, and being at least 20 years old,” he says. Furthermore, the PTA plans to hire female drivers in public transport roles “under the condition of (the women) being sufficiently trained to drive vehicles and various means of transportation, including buses.”

“The Saudi public transportation environment needs to acquire female chauffeurs who are sufficiently trained and qualified to contribute directly in vital duties,” he adds.

Saudi women take part in a training programme for new female drivers at Careem, a chauffeur driven car booking service, at their Saudi offices in Khobar City, some 424 kilometres east of the Saudi capital of Riyadh, on October 10, 2017.

“Those duties include transporting female students and teachers who do not wish to drive their own vehicles, and filling other vocational opportunities that require the presence of a woman trained to drive in a qualified and secure way.”

Currently, Saudi’s public transport culture is negligible, with the intracity buses that do exist being mainly used by blue collar workers and poorer male expats, while women either rely on apps, private drivers, or taxis. But plans are afoot to broaden public transport options across the kingdom.

One snag in all this, however, could be that Saudi labor laws currently stipulate that women — apart from those working in medical fields, at charities, as accountants in retails shops, or for their family business, among other exceptions — should not work in the hours between sunset and sunrise.

It is not clear how strictly this law will be applied, and whether working as a driver will be considered a job in the strict sense. Alalawi says Careem is still “awaiting the regulations and laws governing the sector to be implemented.”

Khalid Abalkhail, a spokesman for the Ministry of Labor and Social Development, told CNN: “Facilities are allowed to let women work night shifts, as long as they do not go beyond the maximum limit of daily working hours and are not kept at their workplace beyond 11pm.”

Under Saudi labor law, a worker may not work for more than eight hours a day, or more than 48 hours a week.

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