School boards levy bus-delay penalties

Hamilton’s public and Catholic school boards have begun levying financial penalties against one of their bus operators as they try to fix a driver shortage that continues to affect hundreds of students.

Public board chair Todd White said the transportation consortium overseeing busing for the two boards recently withheld a portion of payments to Attridge Transportation as allowed by contracts with four operators.

He said financial penalties will continue to be part of a strategy to “encourage a solution” to the driver shortage that could include contracting an additional bus operator.

White said the other three bus companies contracted through the consortium are using spare drivers to cover routes affected by illness or resignations with minimal delays.

Having 700 (public board) students miss instructional time on a daily basis is not acceptable.

“In those cases, we wouldn’t want to penalize the provider because any delays would be temporary, not permanent and ongoing,” he said. “Most are using all of their spare drivers or close to it, but that’s why it’s important not just to have the full complement, but spare drivers in addition.”

Attridge did not respond by deadline to a request for comment submitted by email after a previous phone message went unanswered.

“We’re currently 18 drivers short, so if we can find a strategy to find 18 drivers and it costs us some money, certainly we’ll explore that,” White said.