School bus driver shortage is still real

During my time at M&J Bus over the past seven years — I am its chief operating officer — I have seen the school bus driver shortage deteriorate. Even before COVID, creative dispatching was necessary almost daily to cover driver shortages. Add field trips and athletics to the mix, and dispatching was challenging.

Then COVID came in the spring of 2020. Schools were shut down for the rest of the spring and summer. Work stopped.

Some schools reopened in the fall. The efforts from our drivers were impressive. Their commitment to wearing masks and their cleaning and sanitizing of their buses multiple times daily kept the kids and themselves safe. We were able to cover the bus routes as best as we could, but there were hundreds of drivers, perhaps more, who opted not to return to busing in Connecticut.

As more people got vaccinated, our state really began to open up, and the summer of 2021 came with optimism for in-person summer-school programs and for schools fully reopening in the fall. Attendance was expected to be up significantly, which meant that buses would be fuller and more of them would be back on the road.

But many drivers opted for enhanced unemployment benefits instead. I knew our ability to cover all of our bus routes was going to be a major challenge.

Further, we need two to three months to get a prospective driver licensed due to the lengthy background check process.

When I put all of this together, I realized we had a major mess on our hands — the driver shortage would reach a crisis.

I organized a June press conference, close to the end of the school year. Media from major Connecticut news agencies came to my Old Saybrook headquarters and met with me and leaders of other major bus companies that operate statewide. We made clear the enormity of the crisis and thanked the superintendents and moms and dads across the state for their understanding while we worked through this driver shortage.

The press conference made us feel good. It gave us a chance to say thank you and that we needed help. But another major wrench was thrown into the works at the beginning of the school year: the governor’s mandate for vaccination and/or weekly COVID testing.

I personally know of a number of drivers who, for whatever reason, were not willing to comply with the mandate and who resigned from the job.

Still reeling from shortages, here we were again, faced with another major challenge.

A few good things have happened. Last month, the enhanced unemployment benefits ended, so some drivers have come back. And the backgroundcheck process has sped up due to improvements in technology — namely more electronic fingerprinting machines statewide. Both of these are positives for our industry. But I am convinced that more is needed to persuade more people to sign up as bus drivers.

The solution lies in fixing the licensing requirements.

The training requirements for bus drivers are intimidating because they include much of the same training as for a heavy truck operator.

We need specific training requirements only for school bus drivers. In fact, Connecticut needs a special school bus driver’s license, so that our drivers are trained for what the job specifically requires.

Further, the state of Connecticut requires a proficiency test every four years, which only seems to push more licensed school bus drivers away because of the rigors of the examination. This proficiency test should be abolished, and school bus operators should be in charge of annual testing and examinations of their drivers by their own certified trainers.

These two things, coupled with faster background checks, will help bolster the supply of prospective bus drivers and retain already licensed drivers at higher levels.