While in training, you make minimum wage. In West Michigan, you start at $9.85 per hour after training. Small yearly raises after that. This is not even close to a living wage. This pay rate will keep you in poverty. Your responsibilities for transporting senior citizens and handicapped people safely & timely is a BIG responsibility. The pay does not come close to matching the responsibilities required. One rider told me that MV Transportation hires parolees. I asked him how he knew and he said because he himself is a parolee and he recognized them. I believe that MV gets tax breaks for hiring ex-cons and people who are on welfare. ANOTHER HUGE SAFETY ISSUE: On the bus there is an onboard computer with GPS and a communication system. The dispatcher is constantly adding riders to your schedule... and sometimes deleting riders... you'll also be getting calls from the dispatcher telling you to pickup the phone...while you are trying to drive safely and get people to their destinations ON TIME. This takes the bus drivers attention from concentrating on driving safely... it is VERY UNSAFE. They law punishes people for texting while driving (and rightly so) but these onboard computer/phone/GPS units are much more of a distraction to a driver than texting. I am sure that if the D.O.T. knew how much of a distraction, they would force safety changes to be made. Another BIG SAFETY ISSUE: New drivers work split shifts - that means getting up at 3 am to be to work by 4 am. You work til about 10 am, then you are off til about 1 pm. you then work from 1 pm until about 6 pm. I can tell you that these split shifts wears you down and you are NOT a safe, alert driver by the end of the shift. D.O.T. needs to check this out. ANOTHER ISSUE: MV Transportation is constantly training new drivers and unleashing them on the general public because not many people stay with the job for long. You have to be very desperate to stay with MV. You won't be able to afford much on what they pay.
