The General Manager for Huron-Perth Student Transportation Services says, right now, it looks like they’ll have more school bus drivers in September than they did at the end of last year.
But she adds, they won’t for sure until the school year has started. Janice White admits they do expect that they will continue to experience driver shortages.
“We do expect that we will continue to experience driver shortages throughout the year. COID is still a factor and people are still experiencing illnesses. And they’re driving students so they are exposed to more people than most people would be on a day to day basis.”
White also says their operators are always doing what they can to recruit new drivers and they do that year round because they know that people do retire.
“They do know that people retire, or in general the bus drivers are an older group, so they often will have health issues or things that require time off work, so the operators continually recruit and train.”
White also points out, driver shortages aren’t a new issue.
“Driver shortages aren’t anything new, but Huron and Perth has only experienced them in the last few years. COVID certainly made them more acute, but driver shortages have been forecast and experienced for many, many years in the Province.”
White says she believes the number of drivers, at this point, is up slightly over last year, but she says that depends on everyone being healthy on September 6th.
