Roswell looking to hire more transit bus drivers

ROSWELL, N.M. – The City of Roswell’s Transit Department put on a hiring event to recruit more transit bus drivers. 

City officials say they want to do better for their community.

“Right now, we have people that stand out there in the sun, and it’s 107 degrees out, and they’re standing out there in the sun waiting on us. 20, 30, sometimes 40 minutes for us to get a bus to them,” said Christopher Moore, manager of the Roswell Transit Department. “That’s not good customer service, and we’re trying to be better at what we do.”

Moore says before the pandemic, they were offering 180,000 rides per year. Now they’re at half of that.

“We’re back up to 85 to 90,000 rides. We’re about half way there and a lot of that is due to we don’t have the staff in order to go drive these buses,” said Moore. 

The department is looking for five more people with a commercial driver’s license to help bring up the number of rides. But there are certain requirements you have to meet.

“The biggie is not just only having a CDL, but it’s also being able to pass that drug test,” Moore said. 

He says this job isn’t for everyone.

“I’m not going to lie it’s a hard job, you know, and it’s not for everybody,” said Moore. 

He says in the end it’s about customer service.

“If we had the staff then we could get out there and grab the people, get them there faster, and do a little bit more customer service work,” said Moore. 

For more information on Roswell employment opportunities, click here.