Pupil Transportation in the U.S. is a large enterprise involving some 25 million children and nearly a half million buses moving them to and from schools every school day. In fact, school buses are the largest form of mass transit in the country.
Students from across the nation will return to school and many will do so via the yellow school bus. The school bus industry is dealing with a significant shortage of school bus drivers —a complex problem that pre-dated but was exacerbated by COVID school shutdowns. The driver shortage remains a high priority for districts, as does maintaining the safety record of large yellow school buses, consistently the best in the transportation industry. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) underscores it’s the safest way for children to get to and from school.
Furthermore, it is important to note that the entire transportation sector, including airlines, motorcoach operators, trains and rideshare companies, along with many other industries, are experiencing staff shortages that impact operations.
Yet this year, addressing the driver shortage feels different for the leaders of the National Association for Pupil Transportation (NAPT®). Why? President, Rick Grisham, explains “The school bus driver shortage is not a new issue, and yet there is an immediate and deeper need from pupil transportation professionals to respond to it with innovative and existing tactics in order to provide students the safety, security, and normalcy that they all so deeply crave and deserve since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Grisham adds “NAPT®’s vision is “a world where every student has access to safe and efficient transportation,” and therefore, the leadership of NAPT® will continue to be part of the solution that combats the driver shortage by tirelessly checking in with ourselves and our members to ensure that the work we are doing reflects our vision.”
Support and Solutions:
While there are always inevitable variations in service caused by the unavoidable, traffic conditions, accidents, and weather, on time performance is the reality experienced by most children and families served by the school bus industry.
In fact, during recent town hall meetings conducted across various NAPT® regions, association leadership heard from members who are doing everything that they possibly can to resolve the driver shortage in their districts to facilitate on time performance.