School bus drivers improve on-time arrival rate to 94%

Effort to address driver shortage shows positive signs, officials say.

Clayton County Schools says an incentive program it recently launched to address its bus driver shortage and absenteeism is showing signs it may be working.

The district said on-time arrivals at schools hit 94% in November, the month it announced that it was creating an incentive program to encourage better attendance at work. The district did not disclose what kind of incentives it is offering.

“I would like to share, on behalf of the transportation department, that nearly 330 transportation staff members have qualified for November’s perfect attendance incentive,” Clayton Superintendent Morcease Beasley said in a release.

Clayton, like many metro Atlanta districts, has struggled this year with a shortage of drivers. The school system said it had 40 openings for bus drivers at the beginning of the school year, but has since reduced that number to 22.

Bus drivers in the district say, however, that the issue is pay and complained in at least two meetings in September they had not been fully compensated for work they had already done. Beasley said last month that the school system was rolling out new software to improve worker compensation.

Clayton said it has raised the wages of bus drivers in fiscal 2019 as well as increased the number of guaranteed hours for drivers. The district said it is competing not only with other metro Atlanta school systems, but with private companies that can pay better.

JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM Clayton County Schools had 40 openings for bus drivers at the beginning of the school year, but an incentive program helped reduce that number to 22. The superintendent said 330 transportation staff members qualified for November’s perfect attendance incentive.