NORFOLK, Va. — This week, Hampton Roads Transit invited News 3 to try their bus driver simulation. HRT has two machines inside their headquarters on the Southside that can simulate a number of incidents, helping drivers know what to do once they are road-ready.
“We have all different kinds of scenarios we can do. We can do rain, snow, high winds, tire blowouts. All different kinds of equipment failures are enabled,” said Ron Simmons Jr., a training instructor with HRT.
This training session is timely. In the last few weeks, News 3 has detailed Hampton Roads Transit’s System Optimization Plan, which they have been presenting to different cities in Hampton Roads. This includes a major redesign of their bus system and adding more options, including microtransit services, to increase ridership during the current nationwide bus driver shortage.
“We’re always looking for operators to keep our routes running and get our customers where they need to go. But the reality is with the shortage, we’re not providing the type of service, the type of network that we want to do and that our customers deserve,” said Thomas Becher with HRT.
Throughout the next few months, HRT will be hosting numerous career fairs, starting this coming week.
“The first one of this fall is on Monday the 22nd from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Norfolk at building 4 in our boardroom, and then we have career fairs once a month through December,” Becher told News 3.
If you would like more information on these career fairs, click here.
