NEWARK – School bus drivers in Worcester County are seeking a pay increase to deal with rising fuel and maintenance costs.
Dozens of school bus contractors attended Tuesday’s meeting of the Worcester County Board of Education to ask for increases in their hourly and per-mile pay. They said they couldn’t provide the service the county expected at current compensation levels.
“We are not asking you for what we want, we are begging you for what we need to stay safely on the road,” bus contractor Lori Thompson said.
Thompson and several other bus contractors approached the board Tuesday to share their concerns in the wake of the board’s Feb. 1 budget discussion. Thompson thanked the school system for continuing to pay contractors during the height of the pandemic, as that had allowed them to resume service seamlessly when schools reopened. As a result, she said Worcester was one of just three counties that didn’t have any interruptions in student transportation.
Thompson said contractors were asking the board to reconsider the rates included in the proposed budget. As proposed, it would increase the hourly rate from $22.58 to $25 and would pay drivers $1.62 per mile.
Thompson said that with the increased costs they were facing, contractors were asking for $26.29 an hour and $1.80 per mile.
“We simply cannot operate our buses safely without it,” she said.
Thompson said the cost of labor and parts had increased so that drivers were struggling with maintenance of their buses.
“Today we have school bus contractors in essence working for free because their bus is out of service, the parts they need are unavailable for the foreseeable future,” Thompson said. “They are paying a bus payment and having to pay to rent a bus to ensure that they are delivering on their commitment to you … Our current compensation doesn’t allow us to save for a rainy day.”
Thompson said she hoped the board valued the service bus contractors performed and the care they showed to their young passengers daily.
“Our community needs us,” she said. “Someone somewhere once said you know, school bus contractors are the first and last touch points a parent and student has to our Worcester County school system. Yes, that is true but there is more to it than that. We wear many hats. In some cases, we are the first person to exchange kind words with a child today.”
Driver Harry Wimbrow said Wicomico County had recently increased its bus contractors’ rates.
“These items are not items of greed, they’re items we need to maintain a viable, profitable business,” Wimbrow said.
When there’s a maintenance issue with a bus, because it’s a specialized piece of equipment it has to be repaired at the dealership, Wimbrow explained. The dealership that once charged $125 an hour is now charging $195 an hour, he said. Wimbrow added that people weren’t clamoring to become bus drivers, as they could make more money elsewhere.
Thompson said that in Baltimore, the school system had paid parents to transport their children to school because there weren’t enough school bus drivers.
“The reality is it’s not lucrative,” Thompson said.
The contractors said that some counties paid a flat hourly rate and provided benefits. Thompson said in Worcester County drivers didn’t get benefits.
“We love what we do we just want to make a living as well,” she said.
