With the wide service area for school boards, taking a bus to get to school is a typical activity for most students. And according to one Muskoka area school bus company, finding a driver to get your child to school is not going to be a problem this September.
Scott Hammond, Director of Operations for Hammond Transportation says the types of driver shortages seen in larger communities is not evident in the Muskoka Region.
In the Greater Toronto area, there are at times severe shortages of drivers that leave kids waiting up to an hour for service as other drivers cover a route after their own has been completed.
In Bracebridge and Huntsville, this is not the case.
Hammond says they have a large percentage of their routes covered heading into September and only if there are unplanned for sick days do they need to organize route coverage.
That being said, Hammond and most school bus companies are constantly recruiting to cover both charter and daily school bus route needs.
“We’re pretty good,” admits Hammond. “We haven’t had to have one driver cover two routes in quite a long time.”