Why America has a school bus driver shortage
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Why America has a school bus driver shortage
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Re: Why America has a school bus driver shortage
#2tl;dr: people with commercial drivers licenses can get much higher paying jobs doing other types of driving.
Re: Why America has a school bus driver shortage
#3tl;dr: people with commercial drivers licenses can get much higher paying jobs doing other types of driving.
Types of driving that also don't involve dealing with other peoples' children.
Re: Why America has a school bus driver shortage
#4tl;dr: people with commercial drivers licenses can get much higher paying jobs doing other types of driving.
Types of driving that also don't involve dealing with other peoples' children.
I trained as a school bus driver, and I agree with both of you, but especially the dealing with children part.
I quit my job as a bus driver on my second day because I was stressed out about hurting kids. (Yes, I know school buses are among the safest vehicles on the road; it was an irrational fear.)
But the other part of the equation is the schedule.
You are hired as a part-time employee, no benefits, but the schedule is such that finding a second job is unlikely. In the district I trained in, the schedule was 6-9, 12-2. Those are awkward hours to work around.
Re: Why America has a school bus driver shortage
#5tl;dr: people with commercial drivers licenses can get much higher paying jobs doing other types of driving.
Does this point to a solution in the form of using smaller vehicles that don't require a CDL?
School buses are super inefficient because kids are all spread out, so you end up driving a huge 6 MPG diesel a lot of miles to pick up 40 kids. Or worse, driving it a lot of miles to pick up less than 40 kids.
If you used smaller vehicles to pick up the same number of kids, you would need more of them, but they would each only have to cover a fraction of the bus route, and they get much better mileage.
The main reason not to use smaller vehicles is that you need more drivers. Not as many as you would have additional vehicles, because with shorter routes the same driver could cover two of them in the same time. But if you're all out of CDL drivers and there are a surplus of, effectively, Uber drivers, then that goes the other way, right?
Re: Why America has a school bus driver shortage
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
Types of driving that also don't involve dealing with other peoples' children.
I trained as a school bus driver, and I agree with both of you, but especially the dealing with children part. I quit my job as a bus driver on my second day because I was stressed out about hurting kids. (Yes, I know school buses are among the safest vehicles on the road; it was an irrational fear.) But the other part of the equation is the schedule. You are hired as a part-time employee, no benefits, but the schedu…
The solution is to recruit teachers to work as drivers.
Re: Why America has a school bus driver shortage
#7Huh, I'm surprised, my initial guess of "pays like shit" wasn't the primary reason - "bus driving has been privatized and the for-profit bus companies laid everyone off for C19" was the main one, with a chaser of "doesn't pay as well as other driving jobs".
Re: Why America has a school bus driver shortage
#8The article mainly focuses on pay.
And that's true, bus drivers need and deserve way, way more money. Anyone with a CDL can go out and make 6 digits without much trouble.
Yet they want people to do it for 1/4 the money.
In addition to more money, they need more power to throw kids off the bus or ban them outright. Today they must just tolerate kids cussing you out, throwing things at you, and oftentimes trying to physically assault you. You wouldn't believe the awful things I saw on a public schoolbus.
You'd have to be insane to sign up for that in current conditions.
Re: Why America has a school bus driver shortage
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Types of driving that also don't involve dealing with other peoples' children.
I trained as a school bus driver, and I agree with both of you, but especially the dealing with children part. I quit my job as a bus driver on my second day because I was stressed out about hurting kids. (Yes, I know school buses are among the safest vehicles on the road; it was an irrational fear.) But the other part of the equation is the schedule. You are hired as a part-time employee, no benefits, but the schedu…
Bus drivers get benefits in the district I live in and the pay is not too bad. Still, I'd never consider it because the kids part.
Re: Why America has a school bus driver shortage
#10Is this similar to the HGV issues Britain is having with food and fuel shortages? Nobody to deliver it.