FIRST TAKE What’s Your Bus Driver Worth? WRITTEN BY RYAN GRAY |
RYAN@STNONLINE.COM T
his month at the STN EXPO, a general session following the trade show dives into the troubling topic of school bus driver shortages. Anyone who’s worked in this industry for more than
the proverbial five minutes is, for one reason or another, familiar with trying to cover routes. Te issue always seems to come back to not having enough certified drivers. Te session features four extremely intelligent and experienced school bus professionals from various back- grounds who will discuss potential paths the industry could explore to possibly solve the school bus driver shortage—ebbing the tide, if you will. Added to the ob- vious discussion of recruitment and retention is succes- sion planning, which as any good to great organization will tell you, is key to long-term success. Much has been written and discussed about low wag-
es. Certainly, most school bus drivers should earn much more for what they do each day. Te sad reality is that this is not how our world is programmed to work. On one hand, there is neither a nobler profession, nor one more one vital to our nation’s success than transport- ing students to and from school so they can learn and become positive contributors to society. But the other hand slaps us into the realization that far too many people consider driving the bus to be an unskilled—or at least not as skilled—profession when compared to many others that sell shiny gadgets or other scintillating things. In other words, society is too shortsighted on profit and consumption. School busing is a $10 billion a year industry, but that’s a drop in the bucket compared to others, and it will always take a back seat to classroom education. Yet there is no more recog- nizable symbol of public education, anywhere, than the yellow bus. And the aptitude necessary to adeptly and safely drive 60 to 70 students is mind boggling. Tere must be a dollar figure we can assign to driving the school bus, yes? With so much work being per- formed to define key performance indicators and to crunch the increasing mountain of metrics, the industry could certainly figure out a dollar number that school bus drivers save for districts across the nation every
day. Perhaps take a percentage of the GDP and some- how calculate how student transportation results in a prepared and accomplished workforce down the line? Can someone estimate how much money school buses save each year in reduced school district liability, injury claims, etc.? What can we do to update or expand upon ASBC stats showing the benefits of lower emissions and reduced traffic congestion relative to driver salaries? I must admit that such a task is meant for those much
smarter than me; I’m unable to solve all the world’s ills in this column—or anywhere else for that matter. However, we do know that reducing school bus routes or cutting them altogether directly affects millions of students’ ability to obtain an education necessary to better themselves in today’s world. Plus, it makes their commute to school—if one is even possible at that point—more dangerous. And that brings us back to the value of school bus drivers. Granted it takes a village, they say, and the school bus is but one figurative yet literal cog in that wheel. But it’s, indeed, vital to our society. Tis is evidenced in the number of news headlines one can find each day on school transportation issues. You, my dear reader, do most definitely transport the most precious cargo, make no mistake about that. And while the industry is often raked over the coals, public attention paid to seemingly every bad egg, while ignoring the positive stories hidden well beneath the fold, indicates to me how important communities know school busing to be, even if they aren’t necessarily or consciously aware of it. Still, here we stand amid a continuing, choking school
bus driver shortage. Ultimately, what can we do about it? What are we going to do about it? I hope you are joining us this month in Reno to be a part of that conversation. In the meantime, read on for more discussions on
driver and attendant training and additional tools these professionals can use to demonstrate their value. ●
Ryan Gray, Editor-in-Chief
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School Transportation News • JULY 2017
CELEBRATING25YEARS
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