Bus driver shortage

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Normally, during the first week of school it’s the students who are trying to get back in the swing of things. This time, school bus companies across the province entered the new school year with a driver shortage and that’s resulted in huge delays for many households including here in Hamilton.

“Overall there aren’t enough bus drivers to meet the demand of the amount of students needing transportation.” Todd White, HWDSB.

The public school board says the shortage is affecting 18 routes and nearly 1000 of their students. Both boards are telling students and parents to expect delays of up to 30 minutes.

According to the school board and some bus drivers, the root issue of all of this is recruitment. Joe Partito has been driving buses for three years and says while the job is attractive to retires it’s tough to keep younger drivers long-term. The public school board says bus companies are stepping up their recruitment now. Training takes between four to six weeks followed by a police check, they hope to decrease the wait time every week and to have all routes covered by October.

The Hamilton Wentworth student transportation services website supplies parents and students from both public and catholic schools with real time updates on school bus arrivals.