More Worcester school buses delivered; new drivers on board

WORCESTER — While the effort to recruit new drivers is ongoing, the Worcester Public Schools recently received the last of the 100 full-size buses it ordered for the district's transportation system.

After ending its contract with Durham School Services and bringing transportation operations in-house, the district purchased 165 new buses. The first 100 to arrive were full-size buses, while the remaining 65 are all midsize and will start arriving in February.

“They are very nice vehicles; the safety features that we purchased on them, I think, really stand out,” said Assistant Transportation Director Michael Freeman. “Having that extra visibility, and then the safety mechanism for the automatic braking, has been tremendous.”

Freeman said that, despite being about 50 drivers short of the district’s 230 budgeted drivers, he is feeling “very confident” that everything is on track for them to achieve their goal by the end of the school year.

Since the first day of school, the district has had six new drivers, including two full-size-bus drivers and four midsize-bus drivers, increasing its total number of drivers from 174 to 180. At this same time last year, when the drivers were Durham employees, the district had 168 drivers available.

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Additionally, six new hires are going through the onboarding process and are tentatively scheduled to start after the holidays, two of whom are going to be tested for their bus driver’s license this week, and 20 with permits who are getting ready to be tested, he said.

“The new facility, the new buses, our agreement we have with the union of $30 an hour, and then the training program we have with MassHire has helped us close that gap and continue to increase our driver levels,” Freeman said.

Currently, the 180 drivers run 163 routes, which include consolidated routes. However, when running at the full, budgeted capacity, drivers will run 196 individual routes, with none being consolidated.

“We hope by the beginning of March to be able to go to our max number budgeted routes,” he said. “That would give us the flexibility to also do after-school athletic transportation.”

The district has also started construction on a new gas station on Pullman Street near Market 32 that will not only accommodate buses, but other district vehicles as well, Freeman said.

Construction is moving along, with tanks being installed on Thursday, and expected to be completed in February.

Currently, most district buses fuel up at the Department of Public Works or receive a gas card to be used at a different location. But a lack of capacity makes wait times long, so having the new gas station will help prevent that issue, he said.

With nearly half of the school year finished, Freeman said they are beginning to "see everything coming into action and starting to unfold" and has been happy with how things are progressing.

He has received feedback from families this year, including some who are happy that there is not a heavy diesel smell coming from the bus, and are happy with the new safety features, as well as the myStop app, which allows parents to track the bus's location in real time.

"When I run into people they've talked very highly of it ... not having the students wait out in the cold or the rain," he said. "They can actually see when the bus is coming."

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: New Worcester school buses delivered with driver hires nearing goal