School boards propose incentives to cut bus delays

The consortium that organizes transportation for Hamilton schools has pitched financial incentives to bus companies geared to reduce delays.

The public and Catholic boards are waiting for responses from the three main bus companies that shuttle thousands of children every day.

“We are seriously considering and have proposed some incentives to the bus companies that we hope will help solve some of the challenges,” public board chair Todd White said Wednesday.

But at least one of the contractors, Sharp Bus Lines, says the offer is too low.

“We’re a long ways away at this point,” Bill Sharp said. “We look forward to ongoing talks with them so that we can resolve our industry’s struggles.”

In an email Wednesday, Glenn Attridge, president of Attridge Transportation, called the boards’ work with operators “very positive” but said talks “are ongoing.”

Attridge and Sharp met with the consortium last week to discuss ways to improve service. The other main company, Caledonia, didn’t respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Hamilton boards have struggled to transport students to class on time the past two school years due to a shortage of bus drivers.

The scarcity of drivers is attributed to low pay, split shifts, high responsibility of the job and its seasonal nature.

With kids back to school this week, this September has shown improvement over previous years, but there are still delays, White said.

“Right now, it appears to be in the single digits. We don’t have a precise number at this point,” he said about the driver deficit.

Sharp said his company “would like some spares, but we’re just whole.”

A glance at the Hamilton-Wentworth Student Transportation Services website Wednesday morning listed 11 routes as running late with delays of between 15 to 30 minutes in most cases.

The delay list is fluid, with some routes dropping off and appearing throughout the day.

The consortium spends about $20 million a year on transportation services for schools in both boards. What initially started as a five-year contract with bus companies has been extended to eight years.

This is the sixth year of the agreement.

A two per cent annual increase is built into each of the contract years, White said. The proposed incentives would be above and beyond those increases, he said, declining to mention specific amounts with no deal inked.

“It is a voluntary proposal, an option on our part,” he added, suggesting little if any appetite for negotiations.

Local operators blamed a lack of adequate funding from the consortium for their struggles in recruiting and retaining drivers.

The boards, meanwhile, have pointed to their own stretched budgets, which depend on provincial dollars.

The province says it’s providing Ontario boards with a projected $961.4 million for student transportation in 2018-19. That’s an increase of nearly $40 million since 2017-18, a Ministry of Education spokesperson said.

Last week, Unifor, which represents 2,900 school bus drivers, said there’s “no excuse” for shortages.

“When drivers are paid fairly, they stick around. It’s not that complicated,” national president Jerry Dias said in a news release.

Hamilton drivers aren’t unionized.

Unifor says “wages and benefits are steadily driven down as school bus companies fight for contracts,” adding drivers work for hours without pay at the start and end of shifts.

Sharp said his drivers “are compensated adequately” for the job. Drivers are paid a minimum of $16.50 an hour based on a timedistance calculation, he said, noting the average day is four hours.

Attridge has said his company is now paying drivers between $16 and $17.50 an hour.