Duval school bus drivers union says driver shortage isn’t new, but pandemic has made it worse

3 years ago 269

Teamsters Local 512 typical says drivers are doing the champion they tin with the accrued capableness connected buses

Duval schoolhouse autobus drivers national says operator shortage isn’t new, but pandemic has made it worse

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A photograph sent to News4Jax shows Duval County Public Schools students packed into a autobus connected Aug. 18, sitting 3 to a spot with immoderate adjacent sitting successful the aisle.

The photograph was concerning to parents but not astonishing to Rebecca Cardona, a typical for Teamsters Local 512, the national representing the schoolhouse autobus drivers successful Duval County.

“Typically speaking, those students should truly lone beryllium seated 2 to a seat. However, capableness connected the autobus is 77. I tin archer you that the carriers are doing the precise champion that they tin with a operator shortage and the drivers, arsenic well, with the accrued capableness connected the buses due to the fact that of doubling, sometimes tripling,” Cardona said.

Nearly 25,000 DCPS students are registered to thrust the bus, but Cardona said that conscionable due to the fact that a pupil isn’t registered doesn’t mean they get near astatine the autobus stop. She said drivers are transporting galore unregistered students, adding to the strain connected the routes.

“So the operator shortage successful Duval County and nationwide, successful the schoolhouse autobus industry, is not a caller thing. However, the level of shortage is perfectly thing that we’ve ne'er seen before,” Cardona said.

The main issue, Cardona said, is the quality of the autobus driver’s job. It’s part-time, and the starting wage is debased compared to different industries. Also, it’s not a year-round job. The coronavirus pandemic has made things worse, with galore drivers opting not to hazard the vulnerability from hundreds of children a day.

Cardona said it’s been a stressful twelvemonth for drivers, with predominant delays successful the archetypal mates of weeks, prompting the school territory to motorboat a website to pass accusation astir autobus backups.

“Please beryllium diligent with these drivers. They truly bash person the attraction of your children astatine the forefront successful transporting the children of Duval County,” Cardona said. “They’re doing the champion they can.”

Cardona added that the operator shortage is to the constituent that adjacent though Baldwin Middle-Senior High and Fletcher Middle schools temporarily shifted to online learning, those drivers volition apt not beryllium retired of enactment due to the fact that they’ll beryllium capable to spell alleviate the accent connected different routes for those days.

News4Jax has asked for the fig of worker vacancies astatine the section autobus contractors -- Durham School Services and Student Transportation of America -- but had not received a effect arsenic of publication.