SPECIAL REPORT
School Bus Contractors Stuck in Traffic on Road to COVID-19 Recovery
Written By Art Gissendaner P
rivate school bus contractors cannot wait until the day the COVID-19 pandemic is in their rearview mirrors. Fallout from COVID-19 has tested their resilience like nothing before, re-
vealing systemic weaknesses in the industry resulting in a seismic shift that has rattled the financial dominos of everyone plugged into student transportation. What was supposed to be a two-week pause has rolled
over into a 12-month hiatus at least, filled with uncer- tainty and financial crises for the contractors, who also predict a recovery period that may take a while, even with last month’s signing of the American Rescue Plan. The National School Transportation Association (NSTA) calculated that school bus contractors lost $4
22 School Transportation News • APRIL 2021
billion in revenue last year, and estimated that if schools don’t fully reopen they could lose another $3.75 billion this year. That financial strain has caused some drivers to lose faith in what was a stable, predictable industry they could depend on for steady work every fall. “We allowed two weeks to flatten the COVID-19 curve
and two weeks turned into [12] months,” said NSTA Exec- utive Director Curt Macysyn. “That was challenging for contractors because nothing could be done at the federal level to require school districts to pay their contractors. From our standpoint, bus payments had to be made, buses had to be housed and hypothetically, bus drivers have to be ready to drive, those that haven’t found other work or decided to remain on unemployment for the
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