As with any large transit system, processing employee bid requests at Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) can be challenging, with three bus and two rail divisions, and more than 1,200 operators. An automated sign-up provides a streamlined and auditable approach to conducting bids for shifts, extra work, and vacation time-off based on seniority and other eligibility rules.
Traditionally, bidding is one of the most complex processes to implement and run for any agency. It involves boxes of paper and much paper shuffling – think walls of constantly updated sign-up sheets that operators crowd around and peer over, and paper pick slips which can be easily misplaced.
With a manual and paper process, it can be easy to make a costly mistake.
“You’re going to hate bids,” project manager Garry Dupper’s predecessor at DART told him, noting that with five divisions and 300 operators in each division, it can take a week to build one.
Leveraging OPS-Web, DART now reaps the benefits of having an automated, online bidding process, saving time and effort for both operators and administrators while reducing errors.
With his tech expertise and OPS-Web automation, Garry can conduct simultaneous bids, even 20 all at once. “I had one time when we did Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Day After, Christmas, and New Year’s, four bids at a time, times five divisions,” he recalls.
A holiday bid now takes the agency only three and a half days to run, saving the agency “tons of time.”
Automation also simplifies and streamlines bidding for operators. OPS-Web enables DART to set time windows which provides operators more time to put in their bid requests. Depending on the bid type, each operator is given five to ten minutes to bid in seniority order, enabling the agency to keep to tight schedules.
Likewise, operators and crew can put in multiple options in their selected order of preference. Work and extraboard quotas are tracked, ensuring runs or rosters are removed from the process automatically if chosen by another employee. The system automates the award process, which can be manually time-consuming, and creates an auditable record of the requests and award.
What’s more, operators can enter their bids from home by accessing the online portal and make last-minute changes. Say an operator decides he wants to work on Memorial Day or the Fourth of July. He can bid for a piece of work on his phone, while watching TV in the evening.
“All this flexibility, it makes (bidding) so much easier,” says Garry.
“So many things are so much easier because no longer do you have to either get a piece of paper or speak face-to-face with an operator to get their bid request.”
Certainly, bidding automation has eased many hassles for the agency.
One huge benefit, according to Garry, is the transparency OPS-Web has afforded the bid process. With OPS-Web, the agency can show proof that bidding was done properly and fairly, and that seniority was observed.
Supervisors can immediately show employees that the bids were processed in the correct order, reassuring employees that the work or absence they had requested was not granted to someone with lower seniority.
It’s also easy to explain to operators how the software processes their requests.
“Just open the bid, select operator, select bid requests, and they will see the audit trail,” Garry says.
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