Shortage of school bus drivers causing delays in Toronto, with taxis being used to shuttle kids to and from class

Thestar.com
Sept. 14, 2022
Isabel Teotonio

 A shortage of drivers is causing delays and resulting in Toronto school bus operators using taxis to shuttle kids to and from class -- a move that’s created confusion and unease for some parents.

So far, no bus routes for have been outright cancelled: drivers are picking up the slack, but the delays impact 1,500 students of the roughly 45,000 who ride school buses each day.

“We did debate whether we would suspend any routes temporarily or not, but we felt it was better that we run the buses late,” explained Kevin Hodgkinson, general manager of Toronto Student Transportation Group, which arranges transportation services for the city’s Catholic and public school boards.

Hodgkinson knows parents are frustrated -- some kids have waited “well over an hour” for a bus -- but says the TSTG is trying to keep parents informed of delays. He said it could be “several weeks” before buses are running smoothly.

The TSTG works with seven school bus operators that provide service across the city and says about two to three per cent of the fleet is without a driver. In late August, it was advised that about 20 routes -- one per cent of total routes -- didn’t have drivers assigned, and that there was a shortage of about 80 backup drivers.

Companies are training more drivers, and trying to attract them from elsewhere in Ontario. The TSTG has contacted chartered companies to help (they find the requirements too onerous) and has even reached out to a limousine service it used years ago, but it’s no longer in business.

Hodgkinson says parents are advised online when buses will be late. They then decide whether their child will wait for the bus (and arrive tardy to school), or find an alternate way; most bus carriers are also providing taxi service to kids whose routes are serviced by smaller buses.

Taxi service is only for verbal students in Grade 4 and up and parents must consent to it. All cabbies are licensed by the city, and undergo a criminal background check.

Patricia Ocampo says her husband Greg Kramer got a call last Friday from bus operator Switzer-Carty Transportation saying that beginning Sept. 12, it didn’t have a driver available for the route home from their daughter’s school, so it would co-ordinate Beck Taxi service for students. (Her daughter, in Grade 5, is bused from her neighbourhood school to another Etobicoke school to attend a gifted program.)

Ocampo spoke with other parents whose kids ride the same bus as her daughter, and says they got conflicting information from the company on key details, such as whether cabbies would transport children individually or in small groups, and where they’d be dropped off.

“It was all very confusing,” says Ocampo, adding it made her uneasy about letting her 10-year-old daughter ride in a taxi, which is something she’s never done before. So for now, her husband is leaving work early to pick up their daughter from school, and the couple is trying to co-ordinate carpooling with other parents.

“The main reason we’re uneasy stems from the lack of communication and the short notice. If the company had let us know in a timely manner I would’ve felt reassured and we could’ve done what we needed to prepare our daughter.”

Aaron Turner, whose son is in the same gifted program, assumed bus service would be running normally because neither he nor his ex-wife were contacted by Switzer-Carty. But on Monday at 8:50 a.m., he got a call from a cabbie asking where his son was. The taxi driver said he was waiting for the boy at the usual pickup spot to take him to school, which had started at 8:15 a.m.

“This was the first I’d heard of it,” said Turner. “All I kept thinking was, ‘Somebody was expecting my son to get into a taxi with a stranger.’”

Turner’s son had spent Sunday night at his mother’s house and she had driven him to school on Monday. The parents say they didn’t a get a call from the bus operator alerting them to the taxi service and neither consented to it, which is why both were baffled to learn on Monday that a cabbie was waiting for their son.

“I was completely shocked,” said mother Eleanor Antoncic, adding she had checked online Monday morning to see if there were any issues on her son’s bus route and all seemed normal. “(Taxi service) is not something I would have agreed to had we had any prior knowledge.”

Jim Switzer, president and CEO of Switzer-Carty Transportation, said he was surprised to hear that neither of the boy’s parents were contacted and aid he planned to find out what had happened. He also said regular school bus service along their son’s route should be restored by week’s end.

The company has a full complement of drivers on staff, but has had to use taxis to cover for drivers who are off sick or on a leave of absence. Switzer said it paid for eight taxis on Monday but he was unsure of how many were used Tuesday.

Switzer urged parents to be patient, saying delays will be common for the next few weeks, as bus operators work to smooth out routes that also must deal with traffic and construction.

“We’re working away at getting kids to school on time and we’re working to get a solution to removing all taxis,” said Switzer. “We’re working continually towards that with training and recruiting.”

In 2016, school bus woes in Toronto garnered headlines and created havoc for about 2,600 students, prompting Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dube to investigate. The following year, his report “The Route of the Problem,” cited “a systemic, administrative failure” and communications breakdown with parents, bus operators and schools.

School boards were blamed for not paying attention to early warning signs of a critical driver shortage and Dube made 42 recommendations, which the boards agreed to.