Northern Lights Public Schools (NLPS) will be sending a letter to the ministers of education and transportation to voice their concerns about the new conditions for bus drivers.
During their meeting on Wednesday, March 6, the board of trustees passed a motion to submit a letter addressing the province’s requirement that all new Class 1 and 2 bus drivers complete Mandatory Entry Level Training along with their “S” endorsement.
While the changes came into force March 1, new drivers can apply for an extension between March 15 and July 31.
“This will help us obviously get through the rest of this school year,” expressed Matt Richter, director of transportation for NLPS. “But, it’s going to be a barrier for new entry drivers by-far.”
Due to the 85 hours of lecture and driving time required to complete the Mandatory Entry Level Training for new drivers, Richter noted that could impact the number of bus drivers available.
“We’re going to try our (hardest) with the two trainers for us, but it could switch on us and we could be needing more trainers,” he said, adding over the last three years NLPS has seen a 40 per cent turn over rate of drivers that they employ.
He’s concerned with how the new requirements on bus drivers will affect those looking to get into the industry.
“This will definitely hurt the smaller operations, and it’s going to hurt the larger operators. Just from a recruitment perspective, they might have enough money to do all the training and have the manpower.”
While safety is a major factor for the changes, board chair Arlene Hrynyk believes more could have been done prior to the province’s announcement.
“The other piece was the lack of consultation. Decisions were made in a short timeline that had significant impacts across the province,” she said.
NLPS is currently in the process of applying to become a driving school, which will allow them to train bus drivers in their “S” endorsements and their Mandatory Entry Level Training.
While costs for it aren’t yet known, associate superintendent Bill Driedger explained there are still discussions surrounding the subject.
“How many new folks are going to have to be trained? Will we have enough time to train them? Will we have enough bus drivers in September to make sure our students are in school? We will have to do everything on our end to make sure we have to be as prepared as we can be, but those are some concerns we have as we’re moving forward. We’ll certainly do our best to work towards it, we have our plan, but we have concerns on top of that, as well.”
Driedger noted he believes there will be a significant price tag associated with becoming a driving school.
