School bus cancellations down but delays may continue

While some local school kids may still be waiting a little longer than normal to catch the bus in the morning — at least it's showing up.

Student Transportation Services of Waterloo Region (STSWR) said more than 90 per cent of local bus routes have been running on time of late.

That comes after safety concerns in September prompted rotating weekly cancellations with STSWR saying, at the time, as many as one in ten routes were experiencing delays of 50 minutes or more.

“In September and October we were cancelling routes because we weren't able to service them within a half-hour of their set time,” said Benoit Bourgault, General Manager, STSWR. “That number is now down to zero, we're not cancelling routes.”

Since the start of the school year, Bourgault said 75 new bus drivers have been hired, trained, and are now behind the wheel.

That said, there are still some delays.

“We're still experiencing some consistent delays of 10 to 20 minutes on some routes,” Bourgault said. “The challenge we face now is the daily absenteeism as opposed to the shortage of drivers.”

He said this is largely due to the pandemic times in which we continue to live where drivers, like everyone else, are told to stay home if experiencing many cold or flu-like symptoms, adding these daily fluctuations in the actual number of drivers available to work have been “creating challenges.”

“So it's finding the right balance and, as the flu spreads through the community, some days we're more stretched than others.”

Bourgault did say adding even more drivers would clearly help with that as well though he also noted there would likely be retention issues trying to keep bus drivers employed who may only be working one day a week, or less.

He also said it's not quite the easiest job for attracting new candidates.

“It's only a few hours a day and it's not year-round, [though] there are benefits to the right person,” Bourgault said. “There's a lot of people that reach a point in their life or have flexibility and are interested in supporting the community, and it's a great role for a 'community champion'.”

“It's finding those people and sometimes it's only for a few years, but some drivers have been driving for 40 years because it fits in their lifestyle, it fits with their needs, and it fulfills their own needs of supporting the community.”