budget. In fact, many districts have faced difficult times since early 2020, and challenges created by the outbreak aren’t over yet. Budget pressures are certain to leave fleet managers seeking more efficient ways to operate vehicles and safely transport students, especially those who have special needs or are homeless.
Los Angeles-based transporta-
tion network company HopSkipDrive recently released its 2020 State of School Transportation Survey to reveal “pain points [that] those tasked with coordinating pupil trans- portation face.” The survey’s data suggests that smaller districts have tended to re-open sooner, while larger districts “almost always require more bus drivers and significantly more bus routes, and new COVID-19 safety protocols [which] only complicates already challenging transportation logistics.” The four most-mentioned obstacles to a return to a full
student transportation service were bus driver shortages, hybrid schedules, not enough substitute drivers, and bell times. One transportation director lamented, “We have buses, but no drivers. We don’t have enough drivers with commercial driver’s licenses for our bus routes.” Megan Carey, chief development officer at alternative transportation provider ALC Schools, said districts across the country have been taking the time since late spring to sign on with third-party carriers—even if they haven’t decided yet that they’ll need such services right away. “We need a contract to be able to get the drivers vetted and trained so we can be ready,” she said. “So, we’re ramping up operations in more districts than ever before and working with our district partners to be ready even before the start of the school year.” One reason is a potential surge in the number of
McKinney-Vento students as a nationwide eviction mor- atorium is lifted and more families will find themselves homeless. Some districts’ McKinney-Vento liaisons foresee a 25-percent increase in students falling into that category. Districts will also face route disruptions as some parents opt to continue hybrid learning schedules. “There’s so much happening in the industry right now, and I think everyone’s just trying to make the best deci- sions they can,” Carey observed. “Districts are facing so many challenges that they have never seen before. The scariest part about going into the next school year is the unknown that we’re all facing.” Another wild card, Carey mentioned, is the number of
older drivers or those with health complications. “While most of the requirements for drivers of smaller capac- ity vehicles are still the same, they’re not CDL drivers,”
32 School Transportation News • AUGUST 2021
she explained. “The training, for example, for working with students with special needs is the same—they have to know how to use a safety vest and properly secure a wheelchair,
for example, but we can get drivers up and going faster because the requirements are
slightly different.” Hamilton Southeastern signed a contract with ALC last year to drive
students with special transportation needs and homeless children currently staying at a location outside the district.
“I was hesitant at first because I didn’t know if I
had the latitude in my budget. Then as I sat down and looked at the cost of having one of our drivers do it, it was pretty close to being a wash,” McKinney said on partnering with ALC. “It’s been very beneficial.” An advantage, he said, is that a third-party driver trip can be canceled at no cost with adequate notice. He is considering using the service in place of the buses that may transport a handful of students who participate in auxiliary programs, such as welding and auto mechanic classes.
Rising Fuel Prices Equals Importance of Efficient Routing McKinney and Bullman tout the importance of routing
programs as districts seek to get the most value out of each vehicle mile. “There was one day we had 62 open routes. We were able to cover them all because of our three-tiered routing model,” McKinney commented. “It’s not like I have 62 people just sitting back not doing these kind of merge routes and blend those in. And we didn’t have one thing picked up late and no one was taken home late.” Albin, Bullman and McKinney said they anticipate
higher fuel prices in the coming year, though locking in the most competitive prices through contracting will provide some predictability. As if the pandemic wasn’t challenging enough, South Carolina schools were still in session when the May 7 cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline choked off fuel supplies. Bullman’s department personnel scrambled day and night during the ensuing week to move fuel within its system and keep buses moving without missing a single route. “Most districts had no idea that their local bus garage had no fuel in the ground [at] some points, but that’s what it’s all about,” Bullman said. Add “planning against cyberattacks” to the list of prior-
ities transportation departments should focus on during the new school year, he added. ●
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