Hempfield school officials, bus company working to lessen impacts of driver shortage

A shortage of substitute school bus drivers is impacting some routes in the Hempfield Area School District.

First Student bus company “has an occasional morning in which a substitute bus driver cannot be secured,” according to Superintendent Tammy Wolicki. While efforts are made to cover impacted routes through other means if a driver calls off, there are days when one or two buses are left uncovered, she said.

There are drivers for each route in the district, however, occasional call-offs from employees can result in some routes being combined, said Jay Brock, First Student spokesman.

“The extreme rise in omicron cases is affecting all industries, including school bus transportation,” Brock said.

When a shortage with First Student occurs, an alert is sent out through First View, an application that allows parents to track their child’s school bus in real time.

If personal transportation cannot be secured, parents are asked to email busroute@hasdpa.net and another bus is sent to pick up impacted students once the regular run is complete.

“Students may be late to school, but they are provided a ride by a bus as soon as possible,” Wolicki said.

She noted that shortages rarely occur at the end of the day because officials have more time to find a driver. If a driver cannot be found for an afternoon run, bus companies DMJ Transportation of Mt. Pleasant and Kittanning-based A.J. Myers will cover routes when necessary. Wolicki said those companies have not experienced driver shortages this year.

First Student also pulls administration and maintenance workers to drive buses when the company is short of drivers.

In addition, the company works to shift drivers so that the same buses are not repeatedly impacted, Wolicki said.

According to Brock, First Student is looking to hire more people. The starting wage for school bus drivers is $19 per hour, with a $3,000 sign-on bonus for anyone with a CDL.

Hempfield is not the only area district experiencing a shortage of bus drivers.

This month, the Woodland Hills School District in eastern Allegheny County was without at least 10 drivers. Officials at the time said the shortage was creating an emergency for student transportation.

Kiski Area also experienced a shortage of drivers this month, resulting in frequent morning and afternoon bus route pickup cancellations and delays.

Last year, Plum and Pittsburgh Public Schools were also impacted by similar situations. The Pennsylvania School Bus Association in July launched a statewide campaign to raise awareness about the driver shortage and to recruit new bus drivers. At the time, more than 1,000 new drivers were needed to be fully staffed for school in the fall.

Bus driver shortages are impacting schools from Maine to Hawaii.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and three other members of Congress from Maine have asked the U.S. Department of Transportation to delay or waive some training requirements that might help fill open bus driver positions, WGME-TV reported Thursday.