Pros
Minimum supervision. Pay is good enough but somehow turnover is still high.
Cons
Pay per routes, only straight time. Advertised bonus pay is usually automatic and an integral part of your paycheck unless the manager decides to ride your butt or you screw up damaging the bus or a customer complains, then your pay is $300 less that month. Average pay per route in Rio Rancho is about $95 per day (not including the bonus) which covers the route plus a few extra minutes for pretrip, refueling etc. Average route is probably 7 hours. Benefits are totally standard. Drivers are just numbers to management but they pretend to care. It's all about their bottom line. Driver turnover high at the moment because they fired the wrong people or the good drivers got fed up. AAA is so desperate they rehired people that quit only to see them quit again after a few weeks. Mechanics are overworked and only able to keep up with keeping the bus operational. Driver comfort doesn't really matter. Driver / Mechanic can be perfect for 5 years and then get unceremoniously fired in a NY minute. I quit after realizing I needed a pension, real PTO, Sick days and a real employer supported retirement. I also got sick of filling in for the two senior drivers who always got vacation days when they requested and I (and other drivers) kept getting excuses. My only vacation days were available to me when I was hospitalized. After 3 years of no vacation and almost never refusing to fill in I decide to find a more employee-friendly job.
