Kramberger: West Island parents schooled on school bus transportation

Planned strike action this week by bus drivers at one of a carrier used by the Lester B. Pearson School Board has been averted, but school board officials note that driver shortages will continue to be a factor.

Unionized drivers employed by Autobus Séguin have accepted an agreement in principle. A suspension of services that would have affected 18 bus routes at five Pearson schools until April 3 has been prevented, said Carol Heffernan, the school board’s assistant director general.

Nonetheless, parents have been alerted that bus routes have frequently been cancelled this school year because of a driver shortage.

“The main problem with the transporters is the shortage of bus drivers and the shortage of employees (in general) we’re seeing across North America,” Heffernan said. “So it’s not unique to them. But if they’re transporting students, they have to have a special driver’s licence, which takes a couple of months (to obtain).

“Buses being cancelled is not new, it has happened in the past, but it’s more frequent now because they don’t have replacement drivers,” she added.

Pearson, an English board that covers a territory from Verdun through the West Island to the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region, outsources transportation to nine different carriers, supplying about 215 buses that make around 6,000 stops for 13,500 students daily.

“What we have noticed as a board is that of about 430 routes, every day there are one or two buses that don’t have a driver. The driver is sick and there’s no replacement,” Heffernan said.

It’s not always easy for parents to make last-minute adjustments to bring their children to school, including possible carpooling.

Parents can sign up for Pearson’s bus alert system through the Mozaik portal to receive an email if their child’s bus is cancelled or delayed for more than 15 minutes. In some cases, a bus route cancelled in the morning could be back for the afternoon run if a replacement driver is found.

Finding replacement bus drivers to serve the more remote off-island area, such as Rigaud, is another factor facing the Pearson board. Montreal Island high school students can use the STM bus system as an alternative if a yellow bus route is cancelled, Heffernan noted.

Andrew Jones, president of Autobus Beaconsfield, said although the province increased funding for school-bus drivers last fall, maintaining staff remains a challenge in the industry. It was exacerbated by COVID-19 but predates the pandemic, he said.

Training a driver can take up to eight weeks and might cost a company more than $3,000, Jones said. Potential drivers need a clean regular driving record and must pass a background check before the exam for a Class 2 driver’s licence.

Drivers generally work split morning and afternoon shifts, 30 hours per week, 40 weeks a year, Jones said. They make $22 to $23 an hour, up from about $18 to 19, he said.

Some drivers might quit after facing disgruntled parents reacting to a late arrival or dropoff or student disciplinary issues following bus rides, Jones said.

“We can try everything we can, but at the end of the day, when the parents yell at the bus drivers, which is primarily why they leave, it takes six to eight weeks to find another driver,” he said. “Most parents are really amazing, but we do have some parents that are really not pleasant to deal with.

“It’s a tough job,” he continued. “You’re dealing with up to 70 kids, some screaming, yelling or not listening to you and you have to drive at the same time.”

While his company has managed to not skip any of its bus routes this year, regularly interviewing potential replacement drivers is a necessity, Jones said. A trained bus driver has the option to find a job as a delivery trucker, which might also come with a higher wage, he added.

On top of dealing with labour shortages, school transportation companies face pressure from the province to convert their fleet of buses to electric models, which cost about $360,000 each, Jones noted.

Ample choices for voters in Pointe-Claire byelection

There will be six candidates on the ballot in the Pointe-Claire District 1 byelection, all of whom have run in past municipal elections in this West Island city. The nomination period closed last Friday.

The byelection for April 23 was called after Erin Tedford resigned as councillor for Cedar/Le Village (District 1) in January. She cited personal and professional reasons for stepping down just over a year into her inaugural mandate.

Tedford was elected in November 2021, ousting then two-term incumbent Claude Cousineau, who is running in the byelection.

Other byelection candidates are Lois Butler, who ran for mayor in 2021; Teodor Daiev, who ran for mayor in 2017; Linda De Witt, who ran in District 2 in 2021; François Giasson, who placed third in the District 1 race in 2021; and Jeremy Searle, a former Montreal city councillor who ran in District 5 in 2021 against incumbent Pointe-Claire city councillor Cynthia Homan.

Eligible voters in District 1 can take advantage of an advance poll at city hall on April 16.

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