2nd Firm Weighed for Bus Service : Transit: An ongoing strike by drivers and mechanics is hampering the Antelope Valley’s present operator.

The Antelope Valley Transit Authority may hire a second firm to temporarily provide bus service if the current operator remains unable to run the Antelope Valley’s public transit system at 100% because of an ongoing strike.

DAVE Transportation Services Inc. has been unable to meet prescribed service levels since Oct. 25 when about 80 of its bus drivers and mechanics went on strike.

On three of five local routes, which are only operating between about 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., buses are coming by stops every two hours. Some riders are complaining that the buses are not even coming that often and when the substitute drivers get lost in the outlying areas they are simply turning around without trying to complete the route.

“I’m really disappointed to have to reduce the service to this point,” said George Root, an AVTA director and member of the Lancaster City Council, at the first AVTA board meeting since the start of the strike. “If they’re not up to snuff in a couple weeks, we’re going to have to do something else.”

Bill Budlong, AVTA executive director, has already notified DAVE Transportation that AVTA expects service levels to be returned to or close to pre-strike levels in the next two weeks, regardless of whether the strike ends. Otherwise, an outside bus operator may be hired to supplement the service.

The striking workers, who voted in May to join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 572, offered to provide their services to AVTA free. An array of legal issues, Budlong said, prevents AVTA from using the workers, who are DAVE Transportation employees.

About 30 of the strikers and their supporters attended Tuesday’s AVTA meeting, using the public comment period as a chance to state what led them to implement the work stoppage and to criticize the practices of their employer.

“All we’re asking for is integrity and respect,” said Loretta Sandoval, a bus driver on strike. “We’re wanting to get back to work.”

Three all-day negotiating sessions, with a federal mediator at the helm, between DAVE Transportation and the strikers/Teamsters have failed to bring an end to the strike.

The strike and subsequent service reduction have had a significant impact on the number of people riding AVTA buses. Ridership on local routes dropped 67% to 7,262 passengers the first five days after the strike began, compared to 21,918 passengers the five weekdays before the strike, according to AVTA records.

Ridership with Dial-a-Ride, which offers door-to-door service primarily to senior citizens and the disabled, declined 60.4% to just 538 riders the first five days of the strike, compared to the same period the prior week. Only a limited number of Dial-a-Ride vans have been in service since the strike began.

Commuter service has been affected least, with only a 6.6% reduction in passengers the first week of the strike compared to the prior week.