'Starting all over': School bus companies training new drivers as first day of school approaches

With only days to go until the new school year starts, school bus contractors are still searching for drivers.

Laura Doroshenko, the general manager for Cunningham Transport, says it’s an annual scramble. Her parents started the business 50 years ago.

“Over the summer you get people that come and go and say ‘Hey, you know what, I don’t think I’m coming back in September,’ and you’re starting all over again with a new trainee,” she told CTV News Edmonton.

“Come school start-up, we’ve got trainers driving, we’ve got management driving, including myself, just to make sure all the runs are covered,” she said.

Despite that, Doroshenko says the driver shortage has eased somewhat this year. It was worse during the height of the pandemic.

“Our main demographics are the retired and semi-retired drivers and stay at home moms with the kids, and during the pandemic that demographic just disappeared.”

“They were afraid for health reasons.”

Doroshenko says she has four drivers currently in training.

Christopher Phoenix is one of them. He’s learning to drive a bus after 25 years as a semi driver.

“It’s definitely different,” he said. “The safety factors are 15 or 20 times what they are in a semi. Their pre-trip inspections alone are far longer than what you would ever do in a semi-trailer.”

While Phoenix is used to driving a large vehicle, most new drivers aren’t.

Brad Miller has been training drivers at Cunningham for four years. He says new trainees start driving the big buses on day one.

“The biggest intimidation is the size. Forty feet compared to whatever your vehicle is. It’s totally different,” he said.

“The whole bus is a blind spot. It’s all about mirrors.”

But once they get used to driving the bus, Miller says driving a school bus is a lifestyle that works for many retired or semi-retired people.

“You come in, you do your two or three hours in the morning, you’ve got the rest of the day to do your business, you come back, do your afternoon run, it gives them more of a free of a day,” he said.

The schedule was a definite appeal for Phoenix.

“It’s the right amount of hours, it’s perfect for me,” he said.

And as a father himself, he says he’s looking forward to driving a different kind of precious cargo.

“I love kids. I absolutely love working with kids. I’m going to have fun." 

With files from CTV News Edmonton's David Ewasuk.