Saturday, Dec. 13

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Illinois Department of Transportation ready for winter storms     Send a link to a friend

Full complement of drivers and equipment on standby

[DEC. 13, 2003]  SPRINGFIELD -- Illinois Department of Transportation Secretary Timothy W. Martin announced Thursday that members of the department's snow-fighting team and their equipment are prepared and standing by to clear state highways when called upon.

Martin also noted that a new hiring practice for snowplow drivers will mean a more experienced and higher quality team than in years past.

"Even though last year's early retirement meant the loss of some very experienced plow drivers, I can assure you, the men and women who make up IDOT's snow-fighting team are ready to meet any challenge that faces them," Martin said. "We've made changes to how we make new hires for plow drivers -- changes that I know will mean a better overall team, drawing from more diverse experiences that will serve the public well."

Of the approximately 2,000 highway maintainers the department is budgeted for, 470 took advantage of the early retirement incentive and 365 replacements have been hired. The department also has 670 full-time temporary employees hired for the snowplowing season, with approximately 800 "snowbirds" hired for an as-needed, on-call hourly basis. This brings the total IDOT snow-fighting team to approximately 3,500 employees and 1,500 pieces of equipment.

 

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"Governor Blagojevich has made it clear that he wants us to do everything within our ability to make the roads as safe as possible this winter, and that means changing the way we do business," Martin said. "We've changed the hiring process for our plow drivers to create a bigger pool of candidates, which is resulting in higher quality employees."

Previous hiring practices for IDOT plow drivers dictated that people who worked for IDOT the previous year during the snow and ice season were automatically rehired. This process was based on a scoring system that almost exclusively relied on previous IDOT experience, limiting the pool of candidates. The new IDOT scoring system, put in place this year, takes into account outside experience drivers may have. That is resulting in a larger pool of skillful applicants, from which the department may hire the most highly qualified.

[Illinois Department of Transportation news release]

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