CHAT News File Photo

By Chris Brown

Four school bus driver positions currently open in Medicine Hat

Jan 24, 2022 | 5:04 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – The company that provides busing for both of the city’s school divisions says it’s down four drivers in Medicine Hat and is actively recruiting to fill those roles.

In a statement provided to CHAT News, Southland Transportation says illnesses among drivers, drivers moving to full-time work opportunities and overall COVID-19 concerns have all contributed to the staffing challenges.

The company says a dedicated team of drivers and operations personnel are helping fill in the gaps until they have a full roster of drivers. Training courses are taking place for qualified applicants.

The full statement can be read below.

Southland says there are 133 between Medicine Hat Public School Division and Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education, transporting about 6,000 each day.

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Southland’s statement:

“The COVID-19 pandemic has presented many challenges over the last two years, especially relating to staffing levels for the transportation industry, and the Omicron variant specifically has compounded those challenges. Multiple factors contribute to these staffing challenges, including driver absences due to illness, drivers moving to full-time work opportunities, continued concern with rising COVID-19 numbers, and anxieties related to the health risks associated with the new COVID-19 variant exposures. These constantly changing variables have forced us to be agile and adjust our operational processes frequently to fulfill our contractual agreements and get children to school and Safely Home each day.

We have several measures in place to cover routes. We are thankful to have a dedicated team of drivers and operations personnel helping fill in the gaps until we have a full complement of drivers in the Medicine Hat area. We are actively recruiting drivers to fill in these openings and are running ongoing training courses for qualified applicants; however, the time to complete this valuable training for a new candidate limits the time in which our operations will run at full capacity.”