School bus drivers in demand in Halifax

After years of a shortage of school bus drivers in the Halifax region, it appears the shortage is now easing, and it’s happening at just the right time, with the new school year starting in a few weeks.

This is a busy month for Dartmouth-based trucking company Transco.

“There are more and more people who need more schools and more buses, and we just try to provide the service that we need,” said dispatcher Andy Taggart.

The company, a division of First Student, held a recruitment event on Thursday in hopes of hiring more drivers and supervisors.

“We are still actively recruiting. We are positive about the new school year, but we are still seeing a slow flow of applicants,” said Site Manager Ainslie MacAdam.

In recent years there has been a shortage of drivers both locally and nationally.

“I see it’s on the rise now. I’ve noticed, here at least, that we’re on the rise with the drivers, and more people are coming in to become school bus drivers,” Taggart said. “Our training department is constantly training new people.”

Finding enough drivers is no easy task. According to the Halifax Regional Centre for Education (HRCE), 400 buses are needed to transport more than 30,000 children to and from school in September.

The division partners with three school bus providers: Southland, Student Transportation of Canada and Transco.

“Thanks to the hard work of our service providers in recruiting new staff, we have not had any significant driver shortages recently,” an HRCE spokesperson told CTV News in an email.

Attracting more drivers is just one of the many tasks Transco is currently working on.

“A lot of what we do now is classroom training, road training. We do a lot of prep work with our fleet, a lot of preventative maintenance and just working the route,” MacAdam said.

She said they hope to hire eight more drivers and eight patrol officers before September.

Taggart, who has worked as a dispatcher for about 30 years, is looking forward to seeing some new faces.

“People don’t realize how much joy they get from being around these kids day in and day out. It’s a phenomenal thing,” Taggart said.

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