For the second year in a row, COVID-19 is playing havoc with school bus transportation here in the Sudbury area.
If you’ve visited the Sudbury Student Services Consortium’s website lately, you’ll notice a number of school bus routes that have been cancelled due to a driver shortage. This week, it’s 12 routes.
There’s also a number of bus runs cancelled due to COVID-19 exposures, which are resulting in students and drivers alike being sent home to self-isolate.
Renée Boucher, executive director of Sudbury Student Services Consortium, which co-ordinates school bus transportation for all four local school boards, said several factors play into what’s currently happening with school bus transportation.
She said during the first and second weeks of school, the consortium had enough drivers to cover all of its routes.
But during that second week of school, there started to be cases of COVID-19 affecting school buses, and it was at that point that bus drivers started to see the implications for their lives, and they started to quit.
“Some of our drivers who were fully vaccinated still needed to isolate,” Boucher said.
“So a lot of our drivers said ‘Well, no, I don’t want to take a chance to have to isolate. I have children to take care of, I have parents that I have to take care of,’ and for some drivers, they said ‘You know, it’s not worth it for me to stay in and have a potential of being exposed, even with being fully vaccinated, if I still need to isolate’.”
When a case of COVID-19 crops up, its effect on school buses multiplies, as most children have at least two different bus drivers taking them to and from school (more if they’re taking transfer buses).
“So we have had cases where one COVID case actually impacts five drivers, depending on the situation,” Boucher said.
Each of these drivers have a couple different runs in both the morning and afternoon, as they transport both elementary and secondary students to school.
The recent surge in COVID-19 cases in the Greater Sudbury area “didn’t help with our driver shortage,” she said.
“I know we have frustrated parents,” Boucher said. “It’s been frustrating for parents and for schools, but it’s also been very frustrating for us in this industry.”
She said the Sudbury consortium is working with other bus consortiums and school bus companies across the province, as well as the Ministry of Education as the sector at large attempts to grapple with the problem.
The consortium continues to recruit new drivers. School bus operators are even offering monetary incentives to their own employees if they bring in new drivers, and the Ministry of Education also offers monetary incentives to new drivers.
“All of our school bus operators are hiring,” Boucher said. “But then, the training takes time.”
Boucher notes that school bus companies are also being impacted by MTO testing being backed up due to the effects of the pandemic.
“So even if we train our drivers, we also have to have them tested,” she said. “Our school bus operators are in contact with MTO and trying to get our drivers to be tested a little bit earlier.”
The consortium has amalgamated some runs this fall, resulting in taking three school buses off the road.
“Did it help greatly? I don’t think so," Boucher said.
The consortium is also introducing new technology, with each bus driver provided with a mounted tablet that helps them keep track of their stops. “So if we can provide a little bit of something to help our drivers, we do,” Boucher said.
In the near future, the consortium is also looking at introducing more new technology, where students will have cards that they’ll scan on the tablet, ensuring they’re getting on the right bus.
Asked what Sudbury Student Services Consortium has to say to parents and students about the continued issues with school bus transportation, Boucher said she’d like to apologize.
“We understand their frustration,” she said. “I have children of my own, and I have to say that their morning bus has been cancelled one week, their afternoon school bus has been cancelled another week.
“So I completely understand their frustration as parents. But if they could just be patient and understand this is not just a consortium issue, it’s not just a Sudbury issue. It’s all industries who are being impacted by a shortage of employees.
“We’re not different here in Sudbury, and our school bus operators are doing the very best they can, in retaining their drivers and trying to attract new drivers, in terms of incentives, and in terms of free training.”
