4 ms·

tl;dr: people with commercial drivers licenses can get much higher paying jobs doing other types of driving.

by fnord77 5y ago

fatnoah 5y ago
Types of driving that also don't involve dealing with other peoples' children.
- ghoward 5y ago
  I trained as a school bus driver, and I agree with both of you, but especially the dealing with children part. I quit my job as a bus driver on my second day because I was stressed out about hurting kids. (Yes, I know school buses are among the safest vehicles on the road; it was an irrational fear.) But the other part of the equation is the schedule. You are hired as a part-time employee, no benefits, but the schedule is such that finding a second job is unlikely. In the district I trained in, the schedule was 6-9, 12-2. Those are awkward hours to work around.
  - kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
    The solution is to recruit teachers to work as drivers.
    - gruez 5y ago
      AFAIK teachers are often overworked and/or do extra work outside of the classroom. I doubt they'd want a few extra hours tacked onto their existing schedule.
    - hiptobecubic 5y ago
      The solution is to make the job attractive enough that people are willing to do it.
    - effingwewt 5y ago
      Every teacher I've ever known on a personal level has been overworked and underpaid, and still had to go into their own pockets tl provide things for their class, from what I understand it's common practice at schools now to force costs to the teachers, or have them shunt it to the parents (have student bring X for class!) because we dont already pay for the schools with taxes, lunches, after school programs and electives, uniforms, bake sales, candy drives, etc.
  - UncleOxidant 5y ago
    Bus drivers get benefits in the district I live in and the pay is not too bad. Still, I'd never consider it because the kids part.
    - ghoward 5y ago
      I'd love to get benefits. Curious: does your district have a shortage too? If not, maybe the benefits make the difference?
      - UncleOxidant 5y ago
        They definitely seem to be hiring: https://www.beaverton.k12.or.us/departments/transportation/come-drive-for-us https://www.beaverton.k12.or.us/departments/transportation/c...
  - bluGill 5y ago
    School bus driver is a good job for otherwise stay at home parents. You drive your kids to school and back home everyday and get paid for it. Sure if you drove your own care you could do the round trip in half an hour, while the bus means it takes 2 hours, but you get paid and ensure you kids actually go to school every day. You can also take the babies along with you to work (or at least my school allowed that) It is also a good I'm retired but need to get out of the house to do something job. Otherwise yes, you can earn more elsewhere with better hours.
    - ghoward 5y ago
      Replying to say that yes, you are absolutely correct. I spoke quite definitely when there were other options, and you rightly called me out for it.
AnthonyMouse 5y ago
Does this point to a solution in the form of using smaller vehicles that don't require a CDL? School buses are super inefficient because kids are all spread out, so you end up driving a huge 6 MPG diesel a lot of miles to pick up 40 kids. Or worse, driving it a lot of miles to pick up less than 40 kids. If you used smaller vehicles to pick up the same number of kids, you would need more of them, but they would each only have to cover a fraction of the bus route, and they get much better mileage. The main reason not to use smaller vehicles is that you need more drivers. Not as many as you would have additional vehicles, because with shorter routes the same driver could cover two of them in the same time. But if you're all out of CDL drivers and there are a surplus of, effectively, Uber drivers, then that goes the other way, right?
- cmeacham98 5y ago
  If you're going to hire more drivers, might as well instead pay your existing drivers more. You'll get drivers that are more skilled and care more. Do you really want the equivalent of an Uber driver taking your kid to school each day?
  - dstaley 5y ago
    I think the idea is just a larger number of drivers driving smaller, typical vehicles, not literally using Uber/ride-share drivers.
  - AnthonyMouse 5y ago
    > If you're going to hire more drivers, might as well instead pay your existing drivers more. They already get paid more than Uber drivers. The problem is that "more" isn't enough right now, and there comes a point where the alternative is less expensive. > You'll get drivers that are more skilled and care more. There isn't a "caring" section on the CDL test. Why is the assumption that anyone without a CDL is some kind of negligent drug addict?
    - cmeacham98 5y ago
      The assumption is that drivers that are paid more are more caring.
Supermancho 5y ago
This is accurate.

tl;dr: people with commercial drivers licenses can get much higher paying jobs doing other types of driving.

fatnoah 5y ago

Types of driving that also don't involve dealing with other peoples' children.

ghoward 5y ago
I trained as a school bus driver, and I agree with both of you, but especially the dealing with children part. I quit my job as a bus driver on my second day because I was stressed out about hurting kids. (Yes, I know school buses are among the safest vehicles on the road; it was an irrational fear.) But the other part of the equation is the schedule. You are hired as a part-time employee, no benefits, but the schedule is such that finding a second job is unlikely. In the district I trained in, the schedule was 6-9, 12-2. Those are awkward hours to work around.
- kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
  The solution is to recruit teachers to work as drivers.
  - gruez 5y ago
    AFAIK teachers are often overworked and/or do extra work outside of the classroom. I doubt they'd want a few extra hours tacked onto their existing schedule.
  - hiptobecubic 5y ago
    The solution is to make the job attractive enough that people are willing to do it.
  - effingwewt 5y ago
    Every teacher I've ever known on a personal level has been overworked and underpaid, and still had to go into their own pockets tl provide things for their class, from what I understand it's common practice at schools now to force costs to the teachers, or have them shunt it to the parents (have student bring X for class!) because we dont already pay for the schools with taxes, lunches, after school programs and electives, uniforms, bake sales, candy drives, etc.
- UncleOxidant 5y ago
  Bus drivers get benefits in the district I live in and the pay is not too bad. Still, I'd never consider it because the kids part.
  - ghoward 5y ago
    I'd love to get benefits. Curious: does your district have a shortage too? If not, maybe the benefits make the difference?
    - UncleOxidant 5y ago
      They definitely seem to be hiring: https://www.beaverton.k12.or.us/departments/transportation/come-drive-for-us https://www.beaverton.k12.or.us/departments/transportation/c...
- bluGill 5y ago
  School bus driver is a good job for otherwise stay at home parents. You drive your kids to school and back home everyday and get paid for it. Sure if you drove your own care you could do the round trip in half an hour, while the bus means it takes 2 hours, but you get paid and ensure you kids actually go to school every day. You can also take the babies along with you to work (or at least my school allowed that) It is also a good I'm retired but need to get out of the house to do something job. Otherwise yes, you can earn more elsewhere with better hours.
  - ghoward 5y ago
    Replying to say that yes, you are absolutely correct. I spoke quite definitely when there were other options, and you rightly called me out for it.

AnthonyMouse 5y ago

Does this point to a solution in the form of using smaller vehicles that don't require a CDL? School buses are super inefficient because kids are all spread out, so you end up driving a huge 6 MPG diesel a lot of miles to pick up 40 kids. Or worse, driving it a lot of miles to pick up less than 40 kids. If you used smaller vehicles to pick up the same number of kids, you would need more of them, but they would each only have to cover a fraction of the bus route, and they get much better mileage. The main reason not to use smaller vehicles is that you need more drivers. Not as many as you would have additional vehicles, because with shorter routes the same driver could cover two of them in the same time. But if you're all out of CDL drivers and there are a surplus of, effectively, Uber drivers, then that goes the other way, right?

cmeacham98 5y ago
If you're going to hire more drivers, might as well instead pay your existing drivers more. You'll get drivers that are more skilled and care more. Do you really want the equivalent of an Uber driver taking your kid to school each day?
- dstaley 5y ago
  I think the idea is just a larger number of drivers driving smaller, typical vehicles, not literally using Uber/ride-share drivers.
- AnthonyMouse 5y ago
  > If you're going to hire more drivers, might as well instead pay your existing drivers more. They already get paid more than Uber drivers. The problem is that "more" isn't enough right now, and there comes a point where the alternative is less expensive. > You'll get drivers that are more skilled and care more. There isn't a "caring" section on the CDL test. Why is the assumption that anyone without a CDL is some kind of negligent drug addict?
  - cmeacham98 5y ago
    The assumption is that drivers that are paid more are more caring.

Supermancho 5y ago

This is accurate.