[ HAWAII AT WORK ]
Shari Isobe, an assignment technician for TheBus, stands next to a wall of schedules.
Team effort precedes
passengers on TheBusI work for TheBus. It is my job to write schedules for the buses and to divide the work into shifts for the bus drivers. I share this task with five other people.
Our customers usually see the bus drivers as the face of TheBus, but there are hundreds of people in many different departments that make the operation work the way that it does. Some people might say that preparing the schedules for the buses on 92 routes is a difficult task because of all the variables that have to be considered such as traffic congestion, time of day, passenger loads and costs, but when all the pieces fit together and we are able to schedule things to run smoothly, it's really fascinating. I'm sure most people don't think when they walk down to the corner to catch the bus about how much effort is made behind the scenes to ensure that they get to their destination on time.
Shari Isobe
Classification: Schedule and assignment technician IIEmployer: Oahu Transit Services Inc.
Time in the job: 14 years
Goal: "To make sure our passengers enjoy their ride and get to wherever they need to get to in a timely manner."
Within the last year, all the buses have been installed with global positioning systems so I can track a bus from point A to point B with a computer and see how much time it takes. With the information I get, I can then make schedules that will work better for our passengers. This is really exciting for the future.
My day usually starts at about 7:30 a.m., and first I take a look at time cards the bus drivers submit from the day before. If the driver has unscheduled overtime, I need to know why. Usually it's because of traffic problems or mechanical failure or some other legitimate reason. The time cards show me if a particular run is taking too long to complete and why. I then take a look at loads or passenger counts, the time of day during the peak of the morning and afternoon traffic and what areas are being most affected. I also like getting information from the bus operators because they are the eyes and ears on what's happening out on the roads. With all of this information, I can write a new schedule that will go into effect with the next service change. We do that four times a year.
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