Meanwhile, Adroit CEO and co-founder Emran Saidan said interest in alternative transportation has been increasing for the past five years and actually ac- celerated post-pandemic. “Specifically, school districts and outsourced transportation providers have been exploring alternative student transportation as a way to complement their existing operations, both to mitigate driver shortages and provide more flexible options to their students and families.” Saidan added that Adroit has seen a dramatic growth
in demand and also noticed a trend in transportation RFPs directly soliciting alternative transportation and/ or smaller vehicle fleets. “To go along with this, we’re starting to see more encouraging changes from state regulatory agencies that are recognizing alternative transportation providers as safe, viable options for stu- dent transportation,” Saidan added. EverDriven CEO Mitch Bowling noted another sys-
temic shift that is adding to the increased interest in alternative transportation. “Nationwide, there is a growing number of families exercising school choice, which means more children are traveling outside their traditional school district,” Bowling pointed out. “And the number of students who are experiencing homeless- ness, in foster care and students with special needs is growing.”
The School Districts’ View Jim Ellis, transportation director for the Henrico
County Public Schools that serves a portion of the Great- er Richmond, Virginia, area, is down about 75 drivers this school year in what he refers to as a chronic prob- lem. He noted that last year he was down 120 drivers from his optimum number of 475. One remedy tried was doubling up on routes. “We’ve always doubled up the routes when we’ve had
to,” Ellis said. “Sometimes a student may be delayed on starting based on transportation, but [if] we get word that a student is coming we can work it out by incorporat- ing that student on a bus. It may make that ride a little longer. “We didn’t change any start times,” Ellis continued.
“But we make sure there are ample staff there in case a bus arrives early, and the driver goes on a second run to get a second group in. We don’t have a great sidewalk
School districts are increasingly using non-school-bus vehicles to transport students amid the historic driver shortage.
network, so increasing the walking distance was not an option at this time.” Ellis said the district has also continued to contract
with EverDriven to transport its special needs students and homeless students protected under the federal McK- inney-Vento Act. ‘We’ve always used EverDriven for that,” Ellis explained. “We’ve just signed on with HopSkipDrive. We haven’t started with them, but we have a contract, so we’ll see where that goes. Both are mainly for special needs students that are off the beaten path. It would be crazy to use CDL drivers for one or two students that can fit in a van.” Another shortage issue Ellis and his staff are dealing
with are vans. “We’re still waiting to see if any automak- ers will have any vans available to purchase through the
network companies to transport certain student populations. (Out of 74 responses to a recent STN magazine survey.)
19%of districts currently contract with transportation 26 School Transportation News • OCTOBER 2022
PHOTO COURTESY OF HOPSKIPDRIVE
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