Sudbury Consortium cancels 7 bus routes due to driver shortage

The Sudbury Student Services Consortium has cancelled seven school bus routes this week due to a driver shortage.

The consortium manages school buses in Greater Sudbury, Espanola and Manitoulin Island. Renée Boucher, its executive director, said they don't have the necessary 10 per cent buffer for replacement drivers, when someone calls in sick or cancels a shift for other reasons.

In addition to the seven cancelled routes due to a driver shortage, the consortium also cancelled two routes on Monday, due to a COVID-19 case.

Boucher said some drivers were exposed to COVID-19 earlier in the school year, and decided not to come back to the job. That has contributed to the shortage.

"So we had children who were positive on our school buses and it affected drivers and some of those drivers decided not to come back," she said. "They can still catch COVID even if they are fully vaccinated. So we've lost some drivers due to COVID and exposures that we had on our school buses." 

Early in the school year, the consortium delayed some routes, but that proved controversial with parents who did not have certainty on when their children would be leaving, or arriving home, from school. 

After consultations with parents, Boucher said they opted to cancel a small number of routes instead, and change those cancelled routes each week. Parents would be alerted ahead of time if their child's route would be cancelled, so they can make other arrangements.

Boucher said the consortium manages more than 390 bus routes. But the seven cancelled routes still have an impact on the parents and students affected, she said.

She said their bus operators are training new drivers, and they hope to have enough replacement drivers by the end of the month.