Business View Magazine | August 2020

146 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE AUGUST 2020 Recently, Business View Magazine spoke with Doug Middleton, General Manager of GoDurham, for his insights into the current operations, how they’re adapting to challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, and what’s on tap for the future of this progressive and very busy public transit system. The following is an edited transcript of that conversation. BVM: Can you give us an overview of GoDurham from an operations perspective? Middleton: “GoDurham has been in existence for about 30 years, and I’ve been here for the past three. It is a sub-corporation of the city, legally known as Durham City Transit Company (DCTC), operating under the brand ‘GoDurham’ and owned by First Transit. We are a very well- run organization, which I credit to our dedicated employees. We do a good job here; it’s a very powerful transit system for the community. “We run 12 base routes, with variations on those that bring the number up to 20, overall, and we employ a team of about 200 employees, total. In transit terms, that’s small- to mid-sized. Our biggest employee classifications are Bus Operators and Maintenance employees, which constitutes mechanics, service attendants, facility attendants and management. Everyone in Operations and Maintenance, except management, are union employees. We are budgeted for 126 Bus Operator positions and maintain 90 to 95 percent staffing, fluctuating between 112 and 120 operators. Our total bus AT A GLANCE GODURHAM WHAT: Fixed route public transit system WHERE: Durham, North Carolina WEBSITE: www.godurhamtransit.org