- #Pittsburgh school bus driver shortage 2017 drivers#
- #Pittsburgh school bus driver shortage 2017 license#
#Pittsburgh school bus driver shortage 2017 drivers#
And of course when compensation goes up it doesn’t come back down.īefore you jump on me: I believe that drivers should be paid well and held to high standards. It means less service for the same operating dollar. But the real problem is retention, and it’s hard to imagine how that will be solved without some increase in compensation, also known as operating cost. Transit agencies are doing what they can, offering one-time bonuses for signing up. Meanwhile, there’s been huge growth in delivery jobs, some of which pay decently and don’t involve dealing with people. Worst of all, some US cities are seeing a rise in assaults on drivers.
I’m seeing similar cuts all over the US.Ĭan you blame the bus drivers? The job was always hard, and now it’s more dangerous in two ways: People breathe on drivers a lot, not always masked, and the mental health epidemic is showing up in more rudeness and bad behavior. Here in Portland, TriMet is cutting 9% of its service, bigger even than the cuts in the Great Recession. One friend told me their agency is losing 10 drivers for every one they hire. Drivers are quitting or retiring early much faster than agencies can replace them. If they keep coming in at the same rate, the district should be staffed up for the year, Haney said.I know we’re having a lot of emergencies and it’s hard to keep track, but many US transit agencies are looking at devastating service cuts due to a shortage of bus drivers. In the weeks since, it has seen an uptick in applications. The district also increased bus-driver pay and offered a program to help people get their commercial licenses. “It was very alarming and very concerning,” he said. Administrators put out the word that office staffers might have to get their commercial driver’s licenses just to get all the kids to and from school. It was down about 30 drivers, so its workforce would have been too small to staff all their routes, said spokesman Jeff Haney. In suburban Salt Lake City, the Canyons School District was in dire straits about a month ago.
One Michigan school district was able to find enough drivers by guaranteeing they could work enough hours in the district, including as janitors or in food service, to qualify for health insurance coverage, said Dave Meeuwsen, executive director of the Michigan Association of Pupil Transportation. His company allows bus drivers whose children are at least 1 year old to ride on the bus with them while they work, saving on daycare costs, Redford said. Field trips and sporting events can add more hours for those who want them, said Redford with First Student. There’s no requirement to work nights, weekends or holidays. Demand for commercial drivers is only increasing with the pandemic-related surge in online shopping, said McFarland with HopSkipDrive.īut working with kids driving a bus can be a rewarding profession, and the hours work well for stay-at-home parents or retirees seeking to supplement their income, contractors say. And people who have them can often find higher-paying work that doesn’t require splitting the day for pickup and drop-off.
#Pittsburgh school bus driver shortage 2017 license#
Driving a school bus requires a commercial driver’s license that can take weeks to obtain. President Joe Biden on Wednesday ordered his education secretary to explore possible legal action against states that have blocked school mask mandates and other health measures meant to protect students against COVID-19.Įconomic forces are also at play in the bus driver shortage. Ron DeSantis, who wants to forbid mask mandates, and districts convinced they’re needed to keep kids safe. In Florida, many of the largest school districts are using managers as drivers and implementing other stop-gap measures to get students to class as the school year begins against a statewide political fight over masks between Republican Gov. Greg Abbott initially prohibited Texas school districts from requiring masks, but successful court challenges led the Texas Education Agency on Thursday to suspend enforcement of his ban while the challenges move through the courts.
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