PUBLISHER’S CORNER Moving Population + Driver Crisis WRITTEN BY TONY CORPIN |
TONY@STNONLINE.COM A
s a professional thirtysomething living in Los Angeles, I sometimes feel as if everyone I know is hatch- ing plans to move to somewhere
less expensive, less massive and less hectic. I know people who have moved in recent years from Los Angeles to Charlotte, North Caroli- na, from New York to San Antonio, Texas, and from San Francisco to the Denver suburbs. According to the new U.S. Census data, I now know I am not just imagining things. People are flocking to urban areas. Just not the top-ti- er settings as you’d expect. Fresh numbers released in late January
provided 2013 population estimates for metro areas. If you look at the 52 metro areas with more than a million residents, the biggest increase in domestic migration since 2010 is that to America’s second-tier cities. Te chart on this page lists the 10 fastest-growing metro areas. Only two, Dallas and Houston, rank in the national Top 10 in terms of population size. So what does this all mean for school trans-
portation? A director in a Nashville suburb I spoke with (No. 6 on the list) said he’s seen the student population there expand greatly over the last year. He mentioned that the county is planning to build five new schools to keep up with demand. Equally, he’s seen increasing demand for school transportation services. But therein lies the problem. Metro Nashville is in the midst of a major driver shortage, along with most other districts and bus companies across the country. Seemingly everywhere and everyone in
transportation is feeling the labor crunch. In Nashville, for example, driver wages have increased to between $14 and 15 per hour for a guaranteed eight-hour day, plus full benefits. In some cases, an attendance bonus is offered. Tese increased labor costs that have greatly impacted districts and operators. As an industry, we are constantly being asked to do more with less. Eventually, budgets will realize some marginal growth in the form of tax revenue from positive economic growth and new business development, but it might never
82 School Transportation News • MARCH 2016
reach transportation in time to help. “Communities in Nashville are experiencing
such fast growth it’s nearly impossible to meet demand,” said the director. “Parental expecta- tion is to provide a high level of school trans- portation service and we are just trying to stay staffed to meet baseline needs. Our department just had all of our routes staffed and filled, keep in mind we are over halfway through the school year already. It’s been a major task finding school drivers and keeping them.” Another major reason the transportation
director cited was that drivers are getting older and retiring. Others are fed-up with poor student behavior and the lack of administra- tive discipline or support to resolve ongoing problems on the school bus. “I’m having an emergency meeting with the school principal and drivers to come up with a solution for dis- cipline issues to control student behavior that’s effecting driver moral and retention,” said the director. “If something doesn’t happen we’ll just keep losing good school bus drivers.” To make matters even worse, school districts and operators are fighting over the same labor pool and engaging in a bidding war. So what are you supposed to do? Keep searching for good qualified drivers, even if it feels pointless? Offer more money than the next district and hope it works? I know this can be a stressful time and you
are being pulled in multiple directions to make everyone happy, from current drivers to admin- istrators and parents. It’s not an easy problem to solve, so be sure to lean on your industry peers for support, advice and best practices to attract drivers and manage expectations. Look to forums like the upcoming TSD
Conference and STN EXPO for guidance. It will be a worthwhile effort that could help you down the road, and much sooner than you might think. l
TONY CORPIN PUBLISHER
Top 10 Growing Metro Areas 1. Round Rock, Texas (Austin area)
2. Raleigh, North Carolina 3. New Braunfels, Texas (San Antonio area)
4. Aurora-Lakewood, Colorado (Denver area)
5. Concord-Gastonia, North Carolina/South Carolina (Charlotte area)
6. Davidson-Murfreesboro- Franklin, Tennessee (Nashville area)
7. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 8.
Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida (Orlando area)
9. The Woodlands-Sugarland, Texas (Houston area)
10. Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas (Dallas area)
According to the U.S. Census Bureau
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84