“With all of our maintenance workers out driving routes, we don’t have anybody back here in case we have a bus breakdown, so they’re trying to manage these things over the radio,” said Kottkes’ Recruiter Jessica Kotchen.
Victor Max has been driving for ten years.
“It’s challenging at times. But I like working with the kids, getting them to school and getting them home safe,” said Max. “It’s pretty rewarding.”
For new hires, the sign on bonuses are as big as ever, $3500 with the proper license and endorsement, $2500 with no experience and paid training. Despite that, the shortage continues.
“We all put a different hat on and do what needs to be done,” said Kotchen.
For school sports, it’s been an especially challenging fall season. Blaine High School Activities Director Shannon Gerrety says arranging transportation to get teams to away games at other schools has been a scramble.
“We done vans and taxis. We’ve shared, put multiple teams on a bus. We’ve put multiple schools on a bus,” said Gerrety. “We’ve had some of our smaller teams drive to free up buses for bigger teams. It’s collaborative and it’s every day. There’s not a day off from trying to figure out bussing.”
The pressure has eased since some younger teams have ended their fall seasons. But Gerrety hopes coaches can help out for winter and spring sports.
“We want to train our coaches to allow them to drive buses and hopefully that will help with this problem in the winter and spring. We’ve only dealt with one of our sports seasons, winter and spring we know is always crazy so if we can get some coaches trained as drivers, that might help us out,” said Gerrety.
Garrety says he understands the challenges the bus companies face and is proud of how everyone is working together to help solve the problem.
If you’re interested in driving, bus companies would like to hear from you. Kottkes’ says it hopes to find enough drivers to expand charter services. You can contact Kottkes’ at, www.kottkesbus.com or call them at 763-450-5388.
