A shortage of drivers is pinching school bus companies and public transit agencies that are left scrambling to transport students and workers, fill vacancies and keep their current stable of employees from burning out.

“It’s just hard to get drivers. We just can’t figure it out,” said James Varner, manager of First Student’s North Huntingdon terminal. Based in Cincinnati, the company bills itself as North America’s leading school bus company. “I have applications, we set them up for an interview, and a lot of times, they just don’t show up for the interviews.”

First Student has 102 routes in Westmoreland County but only 95 drivers. Since 2020, its North Huntingdon terminal has been down nine drivers. Five would serve the Norwin School District, Varner said.

The terminal also contracts with Jeannette City School District and several parochial schools, including Queen of Angels Catholic School in Irwin.

W.L. Roenigk, based in Clinton Township, Butler County, has not canceled any routes, but the company’s dispatchers have to piece together drivers, mechanics, office staff and managers to fulfill contracted duties, said general manager Josh Orris.

“We are dealing with it but to what extent?” he said. “Every garage is putting puzzle pieces together every single day.”

Roenigk touts itself as the largest privately owned school bus company in Western Pennsylvania. It services about a dozen school districts, Orris said, including Springdale, Freeport, Leechburg, New Kensington-Arnold, Pittsburgh Public Schools, Mt. Lebanon, Hampton and North Allegheny.

In the past, the company would offer up a driver or two to help school districts outside its contracts. Now it cannot afford to take on additional routes, Orris said.

Public transit woes

The situation isn’t much better for public transit agencies. Pittsburgh Regional Transit, for example, is down at least 50 drivers, said spokesperson Adam Brandolph.

“This is an issue that most transit agencies are facing across the country,” Brandolph said. “You can literally just Google ‘bus driver shortage,’ and it will bring up dozens of different agencies around the country.”

The transit agency operates 96 bus routes, many of which run 20 hours a day, seven days a week, Brandolph said.

The service transports about 103,000 people every weekday, down about 74,000 people since before the pandemic. With a shortage of drivers, it is difficult for the agency to fulfill its usual schedule of trips, Brandolph said.

“There may be a bus that’s supposed to come at 2, 2:30 and 3. We might pull that 2:30 trip because there isn’t an operator to drive it and nobody else to fill in (as) their replacement,” he said.

This leads to unreliable service and overcrowded buses.

“By and large, we have less than 2% (of our trips) out of service,” Brandolph said, “but there are days in which we have 4% out of service, 5% out of service.

“Even if 98% of our trips are on the road, if your bus is one of the 2% that’s not … you don’t really care about the other 98%.”

Westmoreland County Transit Authority’s fixed route buses are in need of only an extra driver or two, but the authority could use 10 to 15 drivers for its shared ride service, Executive Director Alan Blahovec said.

The shared ride service, which must be scheduled a day in advance, often serves senior citizens and disabled individuals, Blahovec said. Many riders need to be taken to Pittsburgh for medical appointments.

The service transports about 600 people a day, 200 fewer than before the pandemic, Blahovec said.

“Our staff knows when our schedule is getting overwhelmed, and you have to cut off trips for the next day,” Blahovec said. “That gets hard on the people that are using the service. At this point, there’s not really much else we can do. Our employees are working as much as they can, and they’re doing a great job, but we need more.”

Asking employees to work overtime is not a long-term solution, Brandolph said.

“They are working extra hours, so maybe they feel a little burnt out. That means, if they do that for a week, they may say, ‘I’m tired. I need to take a day off,’ ” Brandolph said. “It’s cyclical in that if you have too many people working overtime, it’s not that sustainable to some extent.”

Down 30 drivers

Krise Transportation, a bus contractor for 29 school districts across Pennsylvania, is experiencing a similar driver shortage.

The company runs 44 bus routes for Pittsburgh Public Schools, which relies on Krise and 20 other bus vendors.

The district reported an enrollment of about 18,500 for the 2023-24 academic year. It has 117 students who should be transported via bus but aren’t because of the shortage, said Timeka Thompson, manager for Krise’s terminal in Penn Hills.

About 30 additional drivers would help, Thompson said.

Krise also is contracted to run 30 routes for Woodland Hills School District but is able to run only 10, said Sean Dobich, regional manager for Western Pennsylvania.

Those 20 other routes would cover an average of 30 to 50 students per bus, Dobich said. These students are forced to get rides from parents, walk or take Pittsburgh Regional Transit buses, he said.

An additional 20 drivers are needed to transport about 130 students in the Penn Hills and McKeesport school districts, Dobich said.

“Many of our (drivers) really were a lot of older people who could drive and did not have to worry about having a second job like a lot of our drivers do now,” Dobich said. “But ever since covid, a lot of those older drivers just said, ‘You know what? I don’t feel comfortable coming back and driving a bus anymore.’ ”

Vaccine mandates and nearing retirement age caused a lot of drivers to leave Pittsburgh Regional Transit during the pandemic, Brandolph said.

Student behavior and the responsibility of transporting children make it difficult to attract school bus drivers, Dobich said. Some prefer to drive vans so they have a smaller number of passengers.

“School bus drivers are held to such a higher level now of accountability,” Dobich said. “I think even parents view the jobs of others in their kids’ lives differently than what they used to.”

Krise managers often step up to handle a route if a driver calls in sick, Dobich said.

Varner of First Student said he and the terminal’s dispatcher and router step in to drive as needed. The company is offering a $3,000 sign-on bonus and referral bonus to attract drivers.

For now, the terminal is managing, Varner said.

“We have not canceled any runs or anything,” he said.

At the end of September, Hempfield Area School District struggled to find substitutes to fill in for four drivers who were out sick, according to a letter sent to parents. Busing difficulties began two weeks into the school year, Superintendent Tammy Wolicki said.

First Student operates 44 full-sized buses and 15 smaller buses for the district.

Building connections

More than half of the nation’s nearly 50 million K-12 students rely on the school bus system, according to a 2022 study by the Brookings Institution. So finding people like Libby Hall is critical.

Hall is training to become a bus driver.

“Every bus company I know of is putting up bonuses to get CDL drivers,” said Hall of Munhall. “They’re paying for training.”

Hall is a van driver for Krise serving the Pittsburgh Public Schools. Having completed 14 hours of classroom training, she is approaching a permit test and six hours of behind-the-wheel training.

After that, she will be eligible to take the CDL test to become a bus driver.

“As I’ve been a van driver, the connection you have with the kids, it’s been really cool,” Hall said. “You can be positive. A lot of them come in with little attitudes, and you can be the first person they see to give them some positivity or some hope.”

Dorinda Bose-Parker, who trains bus drivers at Krise, said the company has consistently brought in new trainees.

“There’s a lot of people that I’ve seen stepping up to the plate and stepping up to the challenge, which is a good thing,” said Bose-Parker of Pittsburgh.

At any given time, the Pittsburgh-area terminals are training about 10 to 12 CDL and non-CDL drivers, Dobich said. The certification process takes about a month, he said.

Bose-Parker has been a bus driver for about 12 years. Despite the difficulties of the job, she said she would not trade it. She values the opportunity to “speak into children’s lives” and “take care of the community.”

“We’re counselors in a way. We’re safe people. Kids talk to us, and we hear some of the things kids talk about,” Bose-Parker said. “They look at us as a safe person if they are scared or if they’re being bullied.

“Sometimes I’m the first person they see that smiles and says, ‘Good morning, how are you?’ or ‘How was your day at school? What did you learn today?’ ”

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)