Providing opportunities for members to exchange ideas, techniques, share in solutions to common challenges and concerns and encourage development of current and future student transportation professionals.
In a prior life I had some success using absentee data. I identified our avg. number of absences per day and my highest day the prior year. I shot for a number in between those as my "unassigned" drivers. That has been a slow buy in at my current home. Yet, we have increased the number of "unassigned" drivers substantially.
Take a look at that number and see how it compares to 10%. I'd argue the number of unassigned drivers should be higher than 10%.
Just another way to look at it. Not that you have the candidates, but that is the number of positions you are looking to fill. Utilize them to back up missing Aides, as those tend to have poor attendance as well. Yes, they are an expensive "Assistant", but you need someone there to drive the bus. Mechanics and dispatchers need to stay in their positions, IMO. They support all of those that do show up and are on the street.
I think 10% would be a pretty close figure. That would be 10% of the driver FTE's, however, not a percentage of the routes. It would be difficult to manage positions if a district had to change the number of available substitute positions based on the number of routes, which for us can change on a daily basis. My District does not have a substitute driver position as it is difficult to get part-time, non-benefited positions approved by the association. I have the same experience as the rest of you, however, that it is difficult to stay fully staffed, let alone have extra drivers to cover.
I am hoping to find some type of industry standard , like from NAPT or other organizations. I realize we may never be totally staffed but I need a number or percentage to submit to my HR dept. so they can take my handcuffs off and I can continue to hire. I truly appreciate all your efforts
At Dysart we have a position called substitute bus driver, that is in its own category. Non-benefited and no holidays or paid leaves, they choose their days and times. I currently have eight. We currently have 77 routes also, and 86 drivers so this means there will be 9 routes split up for cover driver or field trip driver, however the dispatch department and the routing department wants to divide them. Cover driver (CD) routes are bidded routes and coveted by drivers because they typically get lots of hours. Field trip (FT) routes are also bidded routes and we usually have 4. These drivers run our sports trips on weekends and week nights and sometimes do student transport if it isn't going to put them in violation of HOS. In the past we were able to have 10% of our drivers be cover drivers but more recent years has been short of that. Like Jason, because of turn over, I can't seem to keep over 85-90 drivers at a time.
KSD has position inventory for 9 Substitutes. We run 77 routes (way down from 102 when I first started, thanks to a change in Bell Times). The one issue we run into is even though we have available positions, we rarely seem to get past 80-82 drivers due to turn-over.
It's an interesting question and I think you will see a response all over the place, especially as you look at the "industry" as a whole. I am hosting a panel of transportation supervisors/directors in my podcast this week. I may ask this very question to see their persepectives.
Thank you Jason, if we can come up with an industry standard in a % rather than an actual number would be great i.e. at 10% 100 routes 10 covers, 5% 5 covers etc etc. The number would/could change annually
In a prior life I had some success using absentee data. I identified our avg. number of absences per day and my highest day the prior year. I shot for a number in between those as my "unassigned" drivers. That has been a slow buy in at my current home. Yet, we have increased the number of "unassigned" drivers substantially.
Take a look at that number and see how it compares to 10%. I'd argue the number of unassigned drivers should be higher than 10%.
Just another way to look at it. Not that you have the candidates, but that is the number of positions you are looking to fill. Utilize them to back up missing Aides, as those tend to have poor attendance as well. Yes, they are an expensive "Assistant", but you need someone there to drive the bus. Mechanics and dispatchers need to stay in their positions, IMO. They support all of those that do show up and are on the street.
I think 10% would be a pretty close figure. That would be 10% of the driver FTE's, however, not a percentage of the routes. It would be difficult to manage positions if a district had to change the number of available substitute positions based on the number of routes, which for us can change on a daily basis. My District does not have a substitute driver position as it is difficult to get part-time, non-benefited positions approved by the association. I have the same experience as the rest of you, however, that it is difficult to stay fully staffed, let alone have extra drivers to cover.
I am hoping to find some type of industry standard , like from NAPT or other organizations. I realize we may never be totally staffed but I need a number or percentage to submit to my HR dept. so they can take my handcuffs off and I can continue to hire. I truly appreciate all your efforts
At Dysart we have a position called substitute bus driver, that is in its own category. Non-benefited and no holidays or paid leaves, they choose their days and times. I currently have eight. We currently have 77 routes also, and 86 drivers so this means there will be 9 routes split up for cover driver or field trip driver, however the dispatch department and the routing department wants to divide them. Cover driver (CD) routes are bidded routes and coveted by drivers because they typically get lots of hours. Field trip (FT) routes are also bidded routes and we usually have 4. These drivers run our sports trips on weekends and week nights and sometimes do student transport if it isn't going to put them in violation of HOS. In the past we were able to have 10% of our drivers be cover drivers but more recent years has been short of that. Like Jason, because of turn over, I can't seem to keep over 85-90 drivers at a time.
KSD has position inventory for 9 Substitutes. We run 77 routes (way down from 102 when I first started, thanks to a change in Bell Times). The one issue we run into is even though we have available positions, we rarely seem to get past 80-82 drivers due to turn-over.
It's an interesting question and I think you will see a response all over the place, especially as you look at the "industry" as a whole. I am hosting a panel of transportation supervisors/directors in my podcast this week. I may ask this very question to see their persepectives.