As school districts across North America move into a post-Covid world, many are starting to face another crisis brewing within their own transportation departments: Driver shortages.

While driver shortages are a familiar challenge to the transportation and logistics industry, the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 has exacerbated it. Furloughs and restrictions that resulted from this came as another blow for businesses and individuals that struggle to hire/retain drivers to meet their transportation needs.

One of the hardest hit areas in this industry has been school districts. Prior to the pandemic, between 28-47% of districts surveyed faced driver shortage issues depending upon the size of the fleet. Now some surveys have that number as high as 78% of districts that are struggling with staffing issues.

To say that school bus drivers were hit hard by Covid-19 pandemic is an understatement. School closures, capacity restrictions, and shifts to a remote-learning system led to large-scale furloughs of drivers that persisted for months, if not longer. And even those that stayed employed faced tough decisions. The average age of a school bus driver is 56 years old, which put them into a higher risk category of developing serious complications from the coronavirus. Many started working for private companies, switched careers, or even dropped out of the workforce altogether.

As restrictions begin to relax and transportation leaders look to the 2021-2022 school year, the current landscape looks to be filled with challenges for districts across North America.

So where does pupil transportation go from here?