OCEAN CITY – No matter if you live in Maryland, Delaware or Virginia, a commercial driver’s license Class B (CDL) with a “P” endorsement is required to drive a bus with 16 seating capacity or more. The good news is that the Town of Ocean City Transportation will help you, every step of the way, obtain the proper license and endorsement for your home state even though you will be working in and for the Town of Ocean City.
After the standard city job application is completed and reviewed, you will be contacted by an Ocean City Transportation associate and instructed to obtain a Department of Transportation (DOT) physical from a physician certified to do DOT physicals and to obtain a CDL Learner’s Permit with passenger and airbrake endorsements. The CDL Learner’s Written Test may be taken at your local DMV office at MVA in Salisbury for Maryland residents, DMV in Georgetown for Delaware residents or DMV in Accomack, Va., if you are a resident of Virginia.
Physicals are not limited to Maryland, as doctors and DOT physicals from other states are accepted. Once the DOT physical certificate and CDL Learner’s Permit are in hand, you will be instructed to present them to the Transportation Administration Office, in Building E, at 65th Street, Ocean City, to be sent for a pre-employment drug test, which is a federal requirement for transportation employees. After receiving a favorable pre-employment drug test, you will be contacted to begin paid training.
When you are cleared for training, a contract is issued and you will begin with a starting wage of $11.48 per hour for training status. After an initial training period, Ocean City Transportation trainers and supervisors will teach you not only how to drive a 40-foot city bus but provide you with a bus you will need to complete the final examination road test to obtain your final Class B CDL with the “P” endorsement. With new CDL in hand, the wage increases to $13.29 per hour for the contractual 500 hours of service as a trainee.
At the end of the season, you will be reclassified to a T-Bus (temporary) Driver and will receive a compensation check equal to the 500-plus hours at $1.36 per hour. Provided you complete the 500 hours, you may begin the following season at the full rate of $14.6543 per hour.
So there it is all laid out for you. We look forward to seeing you in Ocean City next summer as one of our new driver ambassadors.
– Mark Rickards
Special To The Dispatch
(The writer is the transit manager for the Town of Ocean City’s Department of Public Works.)