John Dwar believes a good school bus driver needs to be good with children.
“Definitely someone who is good with children, and has very good defensive driving skills,” explained Dwar who is the Safety Training Manager at Stock Transportation in North BAy.
“We are navigating the streets here in the city in these buses that are 43 and 47 feet long, so you have to be a safe driver, you have to be a defensive driver, and you have to look out for the safety of the kids.”
Stock Transportation held an Open House on Tuesday morning in hopes of recruiting more part-time school bus drivers.
“We are always looking for new drivers, we have 101 routes just here at Stock Transportation itself so you are always looking for new drivers,” he said.
“Some of the drivers who are applying we give them the opportunity again as part of the recruiting process. There are minimum requirements that have got to be met so they would turn around as long as they meet the minimum requirements, pass the training, pass the practical test.”
Dwar says driving a school bus can open up some opportunities too as after two years driving a school bus, drivers could then potentially move up to drive a City Bus or even a transportation bus with Ontario Northland or Tisdale.
“So you actually get the experience under your belt and those doors will open for you,” said Dwar.
“It's a job that is a part-time shift. We are looking at people trying to take a route and commit to a route because the kids need the consistency of the same bus driver - same rules in the morning and same in the afternoon.”
