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Preparing to run the routes Mail Tribune /Jim Craven Trainer Frank Hardy, front, leads driver-in-training Jim Ward through a school bus inspection. Schools and bus companies are busy these days finding and training enough drivers for the opening of school this fall. School bus managers recruit, train drivers amid nationwide shortage By Vicki Guarino With a month of summer vacation to go, some school officials already are working on plans to get thousands of youngsters to class on time. School bus managers are starting to work out schedules, and find and train the drivers to run the routes. And they�re growing concerned that there won�t be enough drivers to go around. "We�re not as bad as some areas," says Laidlaw Transit manager Stewart Hedges, "but there is a nationwide school bus driver shortage.�� "Generally, it�s a problem everywhere, all the time," says the Central Point School District�s new transportation manager, Lindsay Heard. Heard comes to Central Point from the Ashland School District where she had been the driver trainer for 12 years. Times of high employment and high living costs, coupled with the demands of the job, are making school bus drivers scarce, the transportation managers say. Would-be drivers are finding full-time jobs elsewhere with easier hours, better pay and fewer frustrations. Bus managers say it�s too early in the summer to know whether a serious driver shortage will appear by fall. Most recruiting will begin earnest in a week or two. "I�m not sure if I�m worried yet,�� says Heard. "I think I�m going to have a little bit of a shortfall, but I don�t think it will be severe.�� The Central Point School District operates its own transportation service, as do Eagle Point and Ashland. Laidlaw, a private company, contracts service with Medford, Phoenix-Talent, Rogue River and Prospect school districts. The districts pay starting drivers around $9 an hour; Laidlaw pays $8. As manager for Laidlaw�s Medford district, Hedges is responsible for filling the largest number of routes � 83 this fall. Add to that the need for trained and ready substitutes, and Hedges� quota of drivers nears 100. To keep all those drivers� seats full, Laidlaw has had to recruit drivers just about all year long. Smaller districts find they have to do the same. "We�re advertising almost constantly,�� says Eagle Point School District bus dispatcher LaVonna Lammon. "This past year we had a shortage.�� By the end of the school year, Eagle Point�s roster of drivers had dropped to a point where bus mechanics and Lammon, all experienced drivers, were making regular runs. "Toward the end, I had my own little route I called it," Lammon says. The job becomes difficult for many drivers because early morning and afternoon hours wind up taking much of the driver�s day. Drivers assigned long routes can work close to full time, but the hours might be split over 12 hours of the day. Other drivers go through the 20-30 hours of state and locally required training, licensing and background checks, only to find that hauling around 70 kids twice a day is just too much. "It�s a real eye-opener for some drivers to be called four-letter names, the fights on the bus, the discipline," says Hedges. "It�s getting worse every year.�� Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA