Metro Schools Gets Beyond Bus Driver Shortage With Higher Pay And More Monitors

Every bus route in the Metro School district will have a driver on the first day of school. This is a major improvement from last year, when Metro’s transportation system was one of the nation’s most understaffed. 

It’s not just early hours, split shifts, and low pay that caused an exodus of bus drivers last year. It was also low morale.

The district has raised wages, added bonuses and has started paying drivers for a full eight hours a day. Taffy Marsh, the Executive Transportation Director for Metro schools, says this has been effective. 
  

“The results from that are we have an increased morale in the department. Every day that gets better. We have improved attendance, we have decreased attrition rates, we have increased recruitment power,” Marsh said. 

A Metro spokesperson says happier 
drivers have become some of the best recruiters.  

The School Board has also hired more bus monitors so there’s someone aboard to handle discipline. And substitute drivers will be posted around the county, along with bus mechanics, so both can respond more quickly to emergencies.