“I was surprised to find that [districts] aren’t creating
incentives for getting new drivers,” Zylstra commented. By contrast, a small district that does have enough
drivers is Anamosa Community School District, lo- cated about 25 miles northeast of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Transportation Director Matt English has 16 drivers for a 20-bus fleet. “We’re fortunate that if our teachers get a 2 percent raise, so do we, and the district has held true to that for years,” he said. Like many others, his employees don’t qualify for
benefits, unless they work over 30 hours, but they are eligible to participate in the state retirement program.
A Geographic Tie-In “It’s also interesting that the people waiting for regular
routes to come up don’t leave and find another job,” ob- served Zylstra. “They are extremely tied-in geographically. In every single district that I studied, all of their drivers live within a few miles of their district’s boundaries. So, there aren’t districts poaching drivers by raising their pay, because it would be too inconvenient for drivers.
Also, most of these drivers take their buses home at night and the route starts from their house.” Anamosa, Iowa also has its drivers geographically
plugged in, but perhaps they wouldn’t want to work any- where else. “We’re like family here,” said English. “Actually, my father and two of my sons have worked for me. I went to school here, and my six kids did, too. ... It wasn’t unusual for a few of them to get up early and come to work with me to ride Grandpa’s route with him. Our drivers help each other out on the road, and in their personal life as well.”
The Long Road to Licensing Zylstra said that both drivers and administrators he has
interviewed have cited the difficulty of getting licensed. “There are a lot of long, tortuous steps, the cost of upgrad- ing your permit, shadowing a driver, recorded practicing and taking the test. Different districts pay for different por- tions of that, but in general, it’s up to the applicant to follow through, and many of them just don’t bother.” Zylstra suggested that a checklist for school districts would be helpful.
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