This week, Student Transportation Services of Waterloo Region (STSWR) had to temporarily cancel eight bus routes across the region due to an ongoing bus driver shortage impacting over 850 students across the region and in surrounding townships.
While more than 90 per cent of scheduled trips are operating normally, some routes are experiencing more frequent and prolonged delays of 50 minutes or greater, due to the shortage.
STSWR cancelled some routes in order to reduce unsafe waiting times including bus route 21 to Moffat Creek Public School and St. Anne Catholic Elementary School in Cambridge from Sept. 16 – 23.
“Unfortunately, we had to make decisions rather quickly, hence the short notice to parents this week. We will try to give parents as much notice as possible, as we want to make sure we give greater specificity in terms of the cancellation period,” said Waterloo Region District School Board coordinating superintendent, Matthew Gerard, at a school board meeting Monday night.
“We are also looking to create more frequent general updates so that our regular using school bus student body and their families are aware of the situation as well.”
According to STWR, routes will not be cancelled for more than a week at a time. This temporary measure will be effective through to December 2022.
Families will be informed the day prior to any cancellation. All cancellations will be posted on the STSWR website with an expected return date.
Gerard said there are currently 27 open school bus routes.
“That means that there is not a permanent driver that is assigned to those routes. We currently have 29 people in training to become school bus operators. These number look great but if there are folks interested in supporting that by driving a bus, we are actively seeking applicants,” Gerard said.
“We are offering remuneration of $21 an hour and there are some benefits are also associated with the job as well.”
Gerard said buses should be back up and running normally by mid October with the new drivers in training ready to go, hopefully alleviating some of the pressure on routes and the need to cancel them.
“Our bus drivers do good work and provide a great service to us. We are grateful for their service and dedication, and we offer anyone who interacts with a driver, to offer the same,” Gerard said.
“They are wonderful individuals who do a great job, and we would definitely like to welcome more folks into these exciting roles.”
If anyone would like to know more about driving a school bus, they can visit here.
For more information about Student Transportation Services of Waterloo Region, visit here.
