The wheels on the bus go 'round

Last week we read in the Buffalo News that First Student, the British/American bus company that took over Laidlaw on October 1, 2007, was in a jam due to a lack of bus drivers in Buffalo. The understaffing caused many students to wait at bus stops for up to 45 minutes. According to John P. Fahey, assistant superintendent for transportation for the Buffalo Schools, the problem is that First Student is about five percent, or about 30 employees, short on drivers. This, he explains, was never a problem in the past with Laidlaw.

First Student spokesperson Glenda Lamont has no explanation for the understaffing, except to say that not all the drivers they were expecting showed up for work for whatever reason. She could not predict when the openings would be filled.

According to Fahey, First Student has sent drivers from other parts of the country—California, Minnesota, Long Island, Rochester—to address this big mistake. First Student calls this “a benefit of having a nationwide operation and evidence of our level of commitment and investment to get this right.” The interim drivers are in the process of learning the local routes and getting their licensing paperwork squared away. It is hoped that some substitute drivers will be able to help by Monday, October 6. Any new applicants must first complete 50 hours of training in order to be hired by the firm.

Fahey says, “We’d much rather have a driver who knows the route and knows the kids.”

On September 29, First Student purchased a full page black-and-white ad on the back page of the “A” section of the Buffalo News—at a reported cost of $26,918—which carried a message of apology to the community, while also serving as a huge “help wanted” ad. The ad assures us that the “safety and security of your children and our drivers is paramount. As part of our commitment and investment to the City of Buffalo, we are installing live-GPS systems on all our buses which has a proven record for improving on-time performance and in locating buses in the event of a problem or incident.”

Fact is, according to Lamont, that First Student is installing GPS on all their buses nationwide, and there is no specific target date to complete the upgrade here in Buffalo.

Meanwhile, school bus aides, who are in a current contract battle, say they get no medical benefits or sick time, and haven’t received a raise in five years, but have been encouraged in a “derogatory” way by both the school district and First Student to apply for jobs as bus drivers with the private bus company.

Lamont concedes that First Student is a private company, the bulk of whose business comes from taxpayers in the form of contracts with public school districts. In the case of Buffalo alone, they receive more than $30 million per year to provide one crucial service. “We do apologize to the community, and that’s not a hollow apology,” Lamont said. “We don’t like not delivering.”

Neither do parents, and neither do kids. Still, Lamont offered nothing more tangible than an apology. She explained that First Student’s contract is with the Buffalo schools. Which explains why their CEO was up here this week from Cincinnati, trying to preserve a lucrative contract that runs through the 2009-2010 school year.

—buck quigley