Why no bus drivers?
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There’s a shortage of bus drivers: here’s one reason why
While reading an article on the difficulties of homeless shelter residents getting to and from jobs outside the common 9-5 schedule, this detail caught my eye:
Laurie Linscott, Bangor bus superintendent, said she began looking into expanding the bus’ hours in 2015, but found every bus in the fleet needed to be replaced first.
Linscott was able to get new buses by 2020 using multiple grants, but then a shortage of drivers stood in the way of expanding the bus’ operating hours. Around the same time, the process through which someone earns their commercial driving license changed entirely.
When Linscott joined the Community Connector in 1999, she earned her commercial drivers license by reading the book from DMV, taking a paper test, practicing driving and then taking a driving test.
Today, students need to find a commercial driving course with a certified instructor, then undergo 43 hours of classroom instruction. Students then take a written test after completing 48 hours of driving practice.
If they pass that test, they are added to a state database and then need to learn the state commercial driving book before applying to take a state test on the computer.
If they pass the digital test, students then take a road test at the Bangor Department of Motor Vehicles, Linscott said.
The process can take students about three to four months to obtain a commercial drivers license.
“Years ago, it was so much easier, but now there are state requirements, federal requirements, and it’s very time consuming,” Linscott said. “It’s hard to have a full time job and take this class, then get all of your driving hours.”
To further complicate things, there aren’t many schools in the area offering the training, Linscott said. In the Bangor region, Northeast Technical Institute seems to be the only option.
But, just as earning a commercial license has become an arduous process, so has becoming a certified instructor.
Anyone looking to become an instructor needs to have six to 10 years of experience in the industry. They then must earn a certification from a 40-hour class, get a letter from their employer, have CPR and first aid training, and get fingerprinted, all before they can take a final test, Linscott said.
“I can’t have longer hours right now because I don’t have the staff, and I don’t know where the staff will come from unless I teach them myself,” Linscott said.
I was a beneficiary of the easy entrance requirements back in 1974 when I decided to get a commercial driver’s license. A friend living in New Hampshire rented a huge semi for the weekend and taught me how to double-clutch and back up, and that was about it. I studied the written portion of the NH Class One test and strolled into the DMV a few days later. After a quick road trip during which I didn’t hit anyone, I was issued a license and set loose on the nation’s highways. I’ll concede that New Hampshire’s relaxed requirements were perhaps a little too loose for drivers of trucks weighing up to 80,000 pounds, but gaining permission to operate a simple street bus shouldn’t take months.
