HAMILTON COUNTY, Ind. -- The bus driver shortage in Hamilton County is getting worse and the district says they believe the lack of people wanting to drive is directly related to the number of new businesses that have opened in the county this year.
Hamilton Southeastern Schools have more than 300 buses and 1,000 routes that need to be driven each day to make sure kids get to school on time – but some drivers are having to take on extra routes because of all the unfilled positions.
Zach McKinney, Director of Transportation with Hamilton County Southeastern Schools says they currently have more than a dozen spots that need to be filled.
It’s gotten so bad that McKinney and several of his office staff members have had to take routes.
McKinney said he believes their problem finding drivers has to do with all of the well-paying jobs that have come to Hamilton County in the last year – most notably IKEA, Top Golf and Portillo's.
“You look at IKEA just opening, you have Top Golf – a lot of these larger companies coming in and starting to kind of suck away from those that would come t' work for us,” said McKinney.
According to Glass Door, a cashier at IKEA can make $85.36 per day and a cashier at Portillo's can earn $79.96 per day while a bus driver with Hamilton Southeastern Schools makes about $82 per day.
Bill Morris has been employed by the district for over a decade and says he loves his job, but it’s been tough on everyone this year.
“We have many drivers that are doing triple routing,” said Morris. “I call it rescue drivers – where sometimes things don’t go as well as planned.”
McKinney said the district is reassessing wages and looking into what other incentives they can offer to entice more people to drive a school bus.
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