Laidlaw: South End bus drivers a rare catch
BY PAM BRANNON Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

Santa Rosa County School Board bus drivers are safe drivers, conserve fuel well, but are hard to recruit in the south part of the county. That was all part of the quarterly report from Laidlaw Transportation, who handles bus transportation for the school district, at the school board meeting last week.

Laidlaw supervisor Bobby Williams said "for some reason" it is more difficult to recruit drivers from the south end than from Milton or Pace. He said substitute drivers are still having to travel from Milton to the south end almost daily because of lack of south end drivers. He said they are still using the nine bus signs to try to draw new bus drivers, all being used on the side of buses sitting in locations in the south end, offering $10.50 an hour for beginning drivers. But recruitment in the south is still slow, he said.

Williams reported 103 new drivers had been hired this school year, and Laidlaw now has a 24 percent bench (substitute) driver pool for the disctrict, which is the goal the school board wanted Laidlaw to reach this school year.

He reported that the school district's safety record is improving, with current accident levels by school bus drivers here at 2.52 accidents per million miles driven, which is a 9 percent reduction from last quarter and a 7 percent reduction from the last school year. "We've covered 2 ½- million miles so far this school year, and have a few more to go before the end of the year," Williams said.

He said the district's drivers are also some of the best in the national company's districts to conserve fuel. "Laidlaw has split our bus terminals up into 29 sections, and in our group Santa Rosa County is leading in fuel conservation, getting 10.3 miles per gallon," Williams said. "We have been doing things like asking drivers not to idle, and be careful about warm up times. If this continues through the end of the school year, each of the drivers and transportation staff will receive a $50 gas card for their own private use."

The school district's transportation director told board members that the new routes for next year should be in bus drivers hands by the end of May. And there will be 'dry runs' on those routes the day after school is out.

Currently 16,800 students ride the district's buses, with drivers making 9,800 stops each day. That number of stops is high, compared to other districts throughout the state and local area. Board member Ed Gray II of Gulf Breeze asked again, and he has at past meetings, that the transportation department look at consolidating bus stops to cut down on stops.

School District Supt. John Rogers said, "Location will be a major factor in consolidating stops. With the way our district is laid out, it can be difficult. But where we can do it, we should look at doing it."