Buses are enclosed spaces, which experts say pose higher transmission risks.įrom Georgia to Florida to Michigan, bus drivers are dying of COVID-19 at an alarming rate as the Delta variant sweeps the nation.Kids Workers in this age bracket are 40x more likely to die from COVID-19 than those in the 18-29 age bracket.īy nature, the job also comes with a higher risk of infection: This year, as schools have reopened, many of the remaining drivers have also quit voluntarily over health concerns.Īt 56, the average school bus driver is 14 years older than the median US worker. These drivers went on to find other transportation jobs, and it’s been extraordinarily difficult to recruit them back. Though school districts were given $13.5B in federal aid to weather the storm, many didn’t use any of the money to pay transportation contractors.īus companies - which rely on the 180-day school year for business - were forced to furlough or lay off their drivers en masse. The current shortage began to mount last year, when 95% of all K-12 schools in the US transitioned to remote learning. This year, though, many districts say they have 30%-50% fewer drivers than needed to adequately fill the demand. At the beginning of most school years, districts and private bus companies often find themselves short-staffed by a few positions. School bus driver shortages aren’t a new phenomenon. More than half of surveyed districts categorize this shortage as “severe” or “desperate.” In a recent national survey, ~81% of districts reported not being able to find enough school bus drivers to fill their needs. When times are good, these companies rake in serious dough: In the 2019 fiscal year, First Student reported $1.85B in revenue and $173m in profit - 15x more than Greyhound.īut right now, the wheels on the bus aren’t going round and round. On the private side, 3 companies - First Student, National Express, and Student Transportation - dominate the market. The other 40% are owned by private transportation companies that hire their own drivers and contract their services to schools. In total, the nation’s 13.8k school districts spend a collective $22B/year on transportation.Īround 60% of the nation’s 500k school buses are owned and operated directly by districts, which hire their own drivers. First, a glance at the school bus marketĭuring a typical year, 55% of all K-12 students - some 25m kids - use school buses to get to class. The Hustle talked to nearly a dozen bus drivers, school officials, and trade groups to find out.
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