Leamington school bus company says it's a constant cycle of hiring, training drivers

In just less than a week, kids will be headed back to school and for many, they'll be getting there by hopping on a school bus.

While the local English public board says the local consortium that runs bus transportation has enough drivers to get students to school, one local company says they'd still like to have more drivers on their roster.

Katy Friesen has been driving a school bus for the Switzer-Carty Transportationin Leamington for 10 years and says she loves her job.

"I drive a special needs run, so it's really rewarding," Friesen said. "Those kids are so special to me. I had a special needs son, so that's kind of me dabbling in that world after he passed away."

But not everyone is like Friesen. Mark Sivak, operations manager for Switzer-Carty, says it can be hard to recruit new drivers because the job only offers part-time hours.

"All of our routes currently have a driver assigned, but it's a constant cycle of hiring and training," said Sivak, who estimates they would like to have six more drivers than they currently doto coverabsences.

"And that is a real challenge in the world anymore:Just trying to be prepared for people who need to be off because they're not feeling well. Or, a lot of our employees are at least partially retired, so some of them take vacations and trips and whatnot."

Recruiting drivers has been a significant problem across North America ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Nancy Daigneault, the executive director of School Bus Ontario, which represents around 80 school bus companies.

"There were a lot of drivers who just decided to hang up their keys forever after COVID," she said.

"That was a particularly trying time having to drive during COVID. But since then things have gotten better. There's not the same requirements for cleaning and sanitizing."

Daigneault said a core contributor to Ontario's bus driver shortage is also the move to full-day kindergarten around a decade ago, which eliminated the midday shift and turned the job into a part-time job.

She emphasized, however, that there are plenty of opportunities to turn school bus driving into a full-time career, as drivers can become trainers, master trainers or dispatchers or take jobs in the office.

Daigneault has not heard of any driver shortages in Windsor, she said.

Sivaksaid while the job is not for everyone, it does have its advantages for retired people or stay-at-home parents.

If you've got school kids at home, you get all your summer holidays, Christmas break, March break off when they're off,"said Sivak, adding that it takew about six weeks to fully train drivers along with medical and background checks.

But Friesen says the real reward is the relationship she has with the kids.

"When you get to that school and see the [education assistants] and the kids all interact and they're just happy go lucky. No matter how tough life is, that's what I like," she said.

The public board reports the consortium that runs the bus routes for Windsor-Essex has enough drivers to handle the return to classes on September 3.