Use of Automotive Service Excellence Tests Within Transit (2016)

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26 buses, VIA realized it had to update its training program to keep pace. Training is now provided to technicians in two ways. The first is directed toward new hires, which must have 3 years of full-time work experience as a technician in any field or a 2-year certificate in automotive technology. They are provided with in-house training for 3 months. Courses include air system, electrical, and preventive maintenance inspection, where the split is approximately 75% hands-on and 25% classroom instruction. In addition to mandatory training for new hires, any employee can be selected to participate in a Targeted Main- tenance Training Program (TMTP), an intense 18-month pro- gram covering all bus areas. VIA selects employees for the TMTP training program based on: having a positive attitude toward their job, a willingness to try to do a good job, and on-time job attendance. According to VIA, employees who demonstrate a positive attitude toward work are more likely to learn and will make the most use of the training provided. The TMTP program is made up of various training modules. Students are given three attempts to pass a post-module test to advance from one module to the next. If they do not pass at a third attempt, no additional in-house training opportunities are provided. All training is given on agency time. Employees have the opportunity to take a test that is offered twice each year that can advance them in pay based on their test scores. Although this is not mandatory, VIA also encourages tech- nicians to take various online training programs at home offered by vendors. Otherwise, most training takes place at VIA’s facility and is provided by one trainer and one associate instructor. Tuition assistance is also available for employees taking college courses. For machinists, welders, painters, and other skilled positions limited to a small number of workers where creating a dedicated course is not cost-effective, VIA sends employees to a local community college for specialized training. Although VIA does not use formal mentors, once techni- cians earn lead-person status they become the “go to” people who other technicians come to for technical assistance when supervisors are busy. Originally, VIA only had one lead-person per shift; however, the increased emphasis on training has produced a greater number of highly skilled lead technicians who can offer expertise to others in-house. As compensation, VIA pays them 5% more than journey technicians. IntroductIon The three case examples included in this chapter focus on ASE program integration: two are transit agency examples, while a third examines a state-wide training program. VIA, San Antonio, Texas, incorporates the ASE Task List into its own training program and offers incentives for certifications. PRTC insists that its maintenance contractor, First Transit, employ ASE-certified technicians as a way of validating their competency. FDOT and CUTR offer a training program throughout Florida that uses ASE as key elements to both classroom and OJT learning. VIA MetropolItAn trAnsIt Agency overview VIA provides public transportation services in Bexar County, Texas, which includes the city of San Antonio. Bus lines are separated into Metro, characterized by frequent service routes; Skip, featuring limited stop routes; Express; streetcar routes serving the downtown area; and VIA Primo, the bus rapid transit line. VIA provides special event service from its Park & Ride locations to events such as San Antonio Spurs basketball games and various annual activities. VIA also offers VIATrans paratransit services. Vital bus service statis- tics are provided in Table 31. Maintenance department overview VIA employs 159 maintenance workers: 113 technicians, 34 body and paint specialists, and 12 electronics technicians working three shifts, seven days per week. Technicians are rep- resented by the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU). Inspec- tions, overhauls, running repairs, and body work are all done at one facility location. Maintenance training As buses became more complex and new technologies were introduced to an aging workforce more familiar with older chapter four cAse exAMples

27 VIA claims that its training approach has resulted in a cul- tural shift among technicians. Because VIA once relied on traditional General Motors Corporation RTS buses for many years, many senior technicians were not sure about working on new low-floor designs with multiplexed electrical systems and advanced onboard electronics. The emphasis VIA now places on training provides those technicians with a way to learn new systems or opt for early retirement if they have no interest in learning new technologies. Owing in part to enhanced skills learned through its TMTP program, VIA technicians now participate in APTA’s annual Bus Maintenance Rodeo compe- tition, where they have earned several awards. VIA’s mainte- nance director credits its TMTP program for taking mechanics once seen as “parts changers” to highly skilled technicians capable of accurately diagnosing faults, with skill sets needed to maintain and repair today’s highly advanced buses. Ase Integration Although VIA supports the ASE program, its maintenance training program is not centered on technicians passing ASE tests to gain certification. As with other agencies, the primary objective of VIA’s training is to ensure that technicians have the necessary knowledge and skills required to maintain and repair its specific fleet of buses and operating environment; hence, its TMTP “targeted” training program. VIA sees merit in the Task List established by ASE; learning objectives created by SMEs used by ASE to develop test questions. Discussions with local ATU representatives revealed that the union also values ASE as a way of keeping workforce skills current with new technologies and to compensate them for their proven abilities. As VIA was updating its training courses it reviewed the ASE tasks to make sure applicable subjects are covered not only in its classroom training, but also incorporated into OJT. The tasks are well suited as a checklist to make certain that students can demonstrate essential job skills as part of the learning process. In some cases, the ASE tasks were modified to suit VIA’s bus fleet. Currently, only nine of 159 VIA technicians have one or more ASE certifications and 13 are ASE-certified supervisors and trainers. There is an annual incentive of $120 for each certification. VIA understands that this bonus is not as much as other agencies offer and is looking to increase ASE certifi- cations by boosting compensation. VIA reimburses workers for the ASE tests and related fees only if they successfully pass each test. A complete description of VIA’s ASE incentives is included in Appendix B. VIA values the validation of technician skills offered by ASE and incorporates elements of the ASE testing into its own training program. The agency worked with the union to develop the training program and the internal testing protocol for advancement, as well as policies regarding ASE testing and certification. The ASE Task List for the transit bus series can be found as part of the ASE study guide at www.ase.com (search: study guides). potoMAc And rAppAhAnnock trAnsportAtIon coMMIssIon Agency overview PRTC is comprised of six member jurisdictions in suburban Northern Virginia. Bus services originate and are provided within three member jurisdictions. In addition to commuter bus service to Washington, D.C., and other major regional employment destinations, PRTC supplies connections to nearby Metrorail stations, a cross county connector service, and local flex-routing service. The agency also operates Virginia Railway Express, a commuter rail service into Washington, D.C. Vital bus service statistics are provided in Table 32. contracted operations PRTC contracts with First Transit to operate and maintain its fleet of 154 buses. Founded in 1955 as American Transporta- tion Enterprises, First Transit has had several acquisitions and name iterations over the years. In 1999, the firm was acquired by FirstGroup, plc, a large transportation organiza- tion based in the United Kingdom, and became First Transit. In the United States, First Transit has 242 contracts controlling more than 11,200 transit vehicles. Population Served Number of Buses Annual Revenue Miles Annual Passenger Trips 1.8 million 463 buses and 148 paratransit vans 29 million 47 million Source: VIA. TABLE 31 VIA—VITAL BUS SERVICE STATISTICS

28 Maintenance department overview PRTC/First Transit employs 19 technicians and three super- visors. Technicians are represented by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) labor union. All maintenance activities take place at a single operat- ing garage, although future plans call for a satellite facility in the western portion of the service area. Maintenance oversight To ensure that its bus fleet is properly maintained to contrac- tual agreements, PRTC employs a third-party firm to conduct maintenance audits three times annually to physically inspect a third of its bus fleet at random. The audit also includes an examination of key maintenance records, analyzing fluid samples (engine oil, transmission fluid, and coolant), and a road test of one-quarter of the fleet sample. Incentives are out- lined in the contract in part based on miles between service interruptions; PRTC’s agreement with First Transit includes contract deduction provisions that can be earned back at year’s end, based on good faith efforts to reduce or eliminate the cause of deductions applied and other measures of perfor- mance, including the results of the third-party performance evaluations. A review is also made of maintenance worker qualifica- tions as agreed to by PRTC and First Transit. Five heating, ventilation, and air conditioning work orders are examined to note if refrigerant-related repairs are being made by quali- fied technicians; 20 of the 22 First Transit technicians and foremen are air conditioning certified. PRTC also requires that the ratio of buses per technician not exceed eight. With a fleet of 154 buses and 19 technicians, the ratio is eight buses per technician. Ase requirement As part of PRTC’s contract with First Transit, technicians are required to have a certain level of experience and ASE certifications. The contract reads: Maintenance personnel will be trained to proficiency on each of PRTC’s vehicles and sub-systems before the start of service. Contractor will be required to ensure that all repairs involving warrantied vehicles, sub-systems, parts, etc., are performed at all times by maintenance personnel who are properly certified to perform such work such that qualifications cannot be questioned when submitting warranty claims. All mechanics (defined as mechanics and foremen) must have at least one ASE certification and five (5) years’ experience on heavy duty trucks or buses. Alternately, mechanics may be graduates of a certified two-year technical/vocational institute and have two (2) years’ experience with heavy duty trucks or buses. At least 33% of the maintenance staff (defined as mechanics only) shall be ASE Master Certified for medium and heavy duty trucks, not including the mainte- nance manager. In addition, all mechanics (defined as mechanics and foremen) shall receive a minimum of 16 hours of technical/ refresher training annually. During the maintenance audit that takes place three times annually the level of experience for each technician is reviewed. Investigations are made to determine if all technicians have at least one ASE certification or the required educational back- grounds, a minimum of 33% of all technicians are ASE Master Certified, and they receive the required hours of annual train- ing. Although not a requirement by PRTC, the maintenance workshop operated by First Transit has been ASE Blue Seal Certified for the past 8 years. As mentioned in chapter two, ASE grants this certification to workshops where at least 75% of technicians are ASE certified and each area of service offered in the shop is covered by at least one ASE-certified technician. hiring and training To meet PRTC’s requirements and to maintain its own Blue Seal certification, First Transit only hires technicians with ASE certification. As part of its training program, all techni- cians are given ASE study guides produced by Delmar as part of its training program, and the ASE website is used to accustom students to the ASE test taking process and to pre- pare them for certification. As with VIA, passing ASE is not used as the focus of First Transit’s training program, but as one element of it. First Transit encourages all of its technicians to acquire additional ASE certifications and reimburses them for all fees associated with taking the ASE tests as long as they pass. Compensation for acquiring ASE certification is given on a sliding scale where there is a $5 difference per hour for achieving Master Certification status. summary PRTC insists on the ASE certifications as a nationally rec- ognized method for substantiating technician competency. Population Served Number of Buses Annual Revenue Miles Annual Passenger Trips 486,692 154 3.2 million 3.4 million Source: PRTC. TABLE 32 PRTC—VITAL BUS SERVICE STATISTICS

29 Doing so gives PRTC the confidence that the bus equipment they own is being maintained in a way that will provide safe and efficient operation. Likewise, First Transit also sees the value in ASE by using the study guides and other ASE materials in its training and encouraging employees to become certified. center for urbAn trAnsportAtIon reseArch/florIdA depArtMent of trAnsportAtIon trAInIng progrAM background The Transit Maintenance Analysis and Resource Center (TMAARC) originally started out as the Florida Maintenance Training Program in 1990 when FDOT and CUTR signed a joint participation agreement, which established TMAARC as a comprehensive training program for transit bus techni- cians in the state of Florida. It consists of classrooms, labs, a resource center of various training programs and materials, and a pathway to professional accreditation. Administration of the program is the responsibility of CUTR, described in chapter two. certified transit technician program The CUTR/FDOT Certified Transit Technician (CTT) Program provides transit bus technicians in Florida with targeted main- tenance training as a means of achieving four certifications: • State Post Secondary Adult Vocational certification • ASE Master Certification • Florida Transit Maintenance Consortium certification • Associate of Science degree. After registering for the voluntary program, online techni- cians progress through a series of 15 modules (course offerings) organized under three levels: Technician 1, Technician 2, and Technician 3. The curriculum for each level consists of: Technician 1 • Equipment Preventive Maintenance • Basic Electrical Systems • Wheelchair Lift/Ramp • Diesel Engine Preventive Maintenance • Steering and Suspension. Technician 2 • Hydraulics • Diesel Electrical and Diesel Engine Electronics • Drive Train • Intermediate Electrical Systems • Transit Brakes/Air System. Technician 3 • Alternative Fuels System • Advanced Electrical Systems • Heating and Air Conditioning • Transmission Diagnosis, Rebuild, and Repair • Diesel Engine Diagnosis, Rebuild and Repair. Each level provides more than 600 hours of training, roughly split between 40% classroom, which is taken first, followed by 60% of OJT. The program makes it clear that it provides more OJT than classroom. ASE study guides are given to students as part of the training program, and ASE plays an integral role in the program itself. To date, 34 students have graduated from the program. classroom training Classroom training is offered at the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority in St. Petersburg, Florida, and at Volusia County Transit (Votran) in South Daytona, Florida. Classroom train- ing is also given at other transit agency locations in the state if minimum attendance levels can be met. Students sign up for classes at the TMAARC website; all classroom training is 3 to 5 days in duration. Supplemental instruction is provided online, which includes Virtual Hands-On Training, a concept that allows students to do real-time troubleshooting over the Internet miles away at their worksite. Students from remote locations make actual repairs to equipment that is located at a distant facility. The procedure is used as part of the Tech 2: Diesel Electrical and Diesel Engine Electronics class. In addition, three-dimensional (3D) modeling is offered as a computer-based, distance learning structure, where students can log on to the Internet and run through portions of the course while viewing 3D animated components and trouble- shooting diagrams. This approach is used as the first two days of the Tech 1: Basic Electrical Systems class. The CTT program pays overnight lodging and per diem expenses, and the transit agency pays normal wages and travel costs to and from the training site. Each transit agency controls who attends and when; the program dictates how, where, and when instruction is given. Pre- and post-test questions are given for each of the 15 classroom training modules. The tests are stylistically created to mimic the ASE question format. In the eight rel- evant ASE subject areas (H1–H8), the ASE Certification Test is actually used to satisfy the final requirement of those class- room modules; technicians are required to take and pass all eight Transit ASE tests and become ASE Master Certified as part of the FDOT/CUTR training program, even though ASE only requires the passing of seven tests for Master classification. The CTT program identifies, schedules, and pays for the ASE tests prior to the student taking them so students incur no out-of-pocket expenses. Use of ASE style questions in pre- and post-testing to confirm classroom learning combined with having students achieve ASE Master Certifications in all

30 eight transit areas reveals just how much FDOT and CUTR value ASE as a measure of technician competence. on-the-Job training OJT follows classroom training and is used to complete each of the 15 training modules. The OJT format is structured to accept many methods of instruction as long as the ASE Task List is used as the basis for the training. Even if OJT is per- formed differently, the ASE Task Lists ensure that the same material is covered. OJT using the ASE Task List is carried out at the student’s agency. As with VIA, ASE tasks serve as real-world jobs that technicians will be expected to perform. Technicians are given work orders for jobs that coincide with the ASE tasks. Work orders also serve to document and verify the OJT portion of the training. Maintenance managers and supervisors at each agency verify that tasks have been correctly performed. A signed OJT completion form is sent to the program administrator who updates each student’s progress on the web. certifications After successfully completing classroom and OJT portions of the CTT training program at all three levels, graduates receive a State Post Secondary Adult Vocational certification and a Florida Transit Maintenance Consortium certification in addition to the ASE Master Certification, which is used to validate successful completion of the training program. costs The cost to FDOT for each of the training levels is approxi- mately $1,700, or $5,100 to complete all three levels of the CTT program, 15 modules total. In addition to the training, the program pays lodging, per diem, ASE testing costs, all admin- istrative costs, and provides for the instructor, curriculum, and facility. In other words, FDOT pays all training CTT pro- gram costs. college credit When students complete all three curricula levels of the CTT training program they can continue their education and receive an Associate of Science (AS) degree at Hillsborough Commu- nity College (HCC). To do so, they present their Post Second- ary Adult Vocational certificate to HCC when they enroll in the AS program where HCC awards 27 “block” credits toward the degree. Students then need 33 additional college credits for the degree, which they either can take online or at an accredited training institution where they live, and transfer the 33 credit hours to HCC for the degree. Agency responsibilities If the agency is not providing the classroom training it must supply a means for the student to travel to and from a train- ing site, which is not unlike current agency policy. Agency personnel must also supervise the OJT portion of the training and sign off on the ASE-based OJT tasks. Participating agen- cies must also pay students their regular wages while attending class, which again is not unlike current agency policy. Ase Integration To summarize, the FDOT/CUTR maintenance training pro- gram offered throughout Florida incorporates many aspects of the ASE program. Classroom instruction consists of a comprehensive curriculum with pre- and post-tests admin- istered that mimic ASE style tests. ASE tasks are used to guide OJT training that follows classroom instruction and serve as a checklist to ensure all students perform similar tasks. The combination of classroom and OJT guarantees that students can perform on both an academic and hands- on level, making certain students who achieve certifications as part of the Florida program are indeed competent techni- cians when they reach the shop floor. Extensive use of ASE program elements is an indication that FDOT and CUTR value what ASE brings to their statewide training program, a program that provides skill training that culminates in certification.