Joe Cervone of Sachem Central School District on New York’s Long Island attributes a minimal driver shortage there to a positive working atmosphere, new equipment, an updated bus yard, well-behaved students, and a retirement package.
cial media is apart of the strategy. Each office has its own Facebook page and posts at least one week. “This post could be pictures of activities taking place
at that particular location, always informing those who come to the page that we are hiring,” suggested Ceaser. “We believe that our current employees are our best source of recruiters, so we have incentivized our employees to refer potential drivers with an employee referral program and an employee referral contest.” If a referral is hired on as a driver, the person who
transportation each day. “The contractor and I were in better shape than most others until COVID hit,” said Joe Cervone, the district’s transportation supervisor. “COVID caused a shortage due to the mandatory quarantine procedures. There was a three-month period from January to March when on average, we were short 10 to 15 drivers daily.” And while the Sachem Central School District has a
shortage of bus drivers, Cervone added it is less than what he sees at other districts. He attributed that to a positive working atmosphere, new equipment, an updated bus yard, well-behaved students, a retirement package for the drivers and support from upper man- agement and the school board.
Creative Ways to Encourage Applications Ceaser with Cook-Illinois observed there is no silver
bullet to solving recruiting problems. “It takes several recruiting resources all working together that will recruit new and retain our current drivers,” he added. Ceaser said he is seeing evidence that once the addi-
tional federal unemployment benefits end, which they were expected to last month, “more candidates will be knocking on our doors. But we certainly are not waiting for them to knock,” he added. “Each office has created a recruiting team that goes out into the community on a daily basis to share our story and that story is ‘we are short drivers and we need your help.’” He shared that each recruiting team is taking part
and recruiting at community events, attending job fairs, distributing “now hiring” flyers, posting yard signs, and strategically placing buses in high-volume areas with “now hiring” bus banners on them. Job postings are also appearing on billboards, and so-
34 School Transportation News • OCTOBER 2021
made the referral gets a cash bonus of $300 to $500. Additionally, that employee’s name is entered into a drawing for one of three prizes, ranging from $1,000 cash to trips to the Bahamas to weekend stays at local luxury hotels. One person won a vehicle and another received airline tickets to fly anywhere in the U.S. In New Mexico, meanwhile, Huish and his staff have
directed recruiting efforts to job fairs, county fairs and displaying banners on buses around town, emphasizing that CDL training will be provided. Cervone in New York said he likes to recruit by word of
mouth, enlisting his drivers to seek out friends and past co-workers as potential job candidates. “Being a school district, we offer a benefits package that attracts candi- dates,” he pointed out. “Private contractors cannot offer the same retirement package.” While the impact of the pandemic creates some
challenges in hiring bus drivers, so, too, does a negative pre-conceived notion about driving a school bus. Farm- ington officials are trying to offset the public perception that driving a school bus is “not a good job and the pay is low,” noted Huish. One of the misconceptions people have about driving a school bus is that it’s extremely difficult to do, added Ceaser. “As part of our interview and training, we stress to them that our trainers have trained thousands of drivers,” he said. “And once they become trained by one of our trainers, they will quickly see that driving a school bus is very similar to driving a car.” Despite some negative public perceptions or news
coverage about driving a school bus, Cervone said when he interviews drivers and asks them why they are a bus driver, they all tell him they love the job. “Ninety-nine percent of the students are well-behaved, with little to no incidents on the bus,” Cervone added.
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