A Lamers school bus (Lamers)
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — The severe bus driver shortage in the area is causing massive headaches for school districts and bus companies alike.
“It’s dire. It’s so incredibly bad.”
That’s how Cindi Lawler with Lamers Bus Lines describes the current staffing situation. It’s required some creative thinking–and all hands on deck.
“We’ve taken shop staff, office staff, and we’ve licensed them,” Lawler said. “So if we have routes we know are starting without an assigned driver, we can prep them on those routes.”
The routes that the office and shop staff workers are covering, however, may already be consolidated. Lawler says that’s something they’ve been doing as well: reducing the number of routes driven.
“We’re constantly re-evaluating our routes to see if we can consolidate anything so that we can eliminate a route if necessary,” Lawler explained. “So that we can run the most efficient operation that we can.”
Something has to give. Lawler says it has. There are some things they’re having a hard time doing.
“For the first time in the 35 years I’ve been with the company, we’re having to contact groups for like, athletic charters, and tell them we don’t have a driver for them,” she said.
Athletic charters tend to leave earlier in the afternoon, which Lawler describes as “peak road times”. Their routes can conflict with other routes that must be driven.
Lawler says they’re working with school districts are working to reschedule games or load multiple teams on the same bus, cutting down needed drivers or freeing up drivers to take those charters.
There’s some hope, however. Lawler says there’s been a recent uptick in interest and driver applications.
“We’re doing everything we can to attract drivers,” said Lawler. “But it takes some time to get them through that process. We’re hanging in there.”
If you’re interested in becoming a bus driver, you can visit goLamers.com to apply.
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