Friday, March 29, 2024

Rural bus routes secure for now

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Rural school bus routes around the country appear reasonably secure despite the loss of drivers due to the covid vaccination mandate becoming effective from November 15.
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GoBus operations manager Nigel Piper says his company has lost 40 drivers who did not wish to be vaccinated.

Rural school bus routes around the country appear reasonably secure despite the loss of drivers due to the covid vaccination mandate becoming effective from November 15.

Nigel Piper, operations manager for GoBus in Hamilton, says the company’s resources have been stretched by the mandate which has resulted in the loss of about 40 drivers from the company which operates 300 school bus routes nationally.

The mandate requires all staff in the education system to be vaccinated, including not only teachers but also administration, contractors, and bus drivers.

“Some for whatever reason have chosen to resign and we are also working through the implications of it with others in terms of their employment contracts,” Piper said.

He estimated the loss amounted to 8% of the company’s drivers.

“What it has done is tap out all our spare capacity on some routes. We will have to go out and recruit more drivers,” he said.

The pressure came as the company was already poised to ramp up its staff numbers, having secured preferred supplier status for many more school bus routes next year. This will take its route number to 679 nationally and add three new regions, including Manawatū, Wairarapa and Marlborough.

This will require an additional 379 buses operating from the new school term in 2022.

Piper says the company has been going out of its way to ensure staff had every opportunity to be vaccinated, including time off work and getting them to vaccination stations.

He thought it was unlikely the staff being negotiated with at present would change their minds.

“If they have not done it by now, I think they are unlikely to change,” he said.

It had proven somewhat surprising what areas were and were not problematic for staff vaccinations.

“Our drivers in Gisborne have a very high vaccination rate; the health board came out early and identified drivers for an early vaccination.”

King Country, central North Island and Hawke’s Bay drivers were also now 100% vaccinated.

King Country has been identified as an area where teacher vaccination rates are highly variable.

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