The greatest barrier to becoming a bus driver in the West Kootenay is the cost of training.
The enrolment fee for Class 2 license training is $3,750, available at Mountain Transport Institute in Castlegar, the only trainer in the region.
Trevor Stack, who runs NextGen, the company that contracts rural bus services in the region from BC Transit, says the cost is a significant barrier.
“We definitely have more drivers on the road than we’ve had in the last year,” he said. “But we’re still short and struggling, trying get everything covered.”
NextGen runs all rural bus services between Golden and Rock Creek. It also collaborates in some of the city-run routes within Nelson. NextGen works under a contract with BC Transit.
The bus route that gives Stack the most trouble is the run between Nelson and Salmo, which still suffers from occasional missed shifts due to lack of drivers. At a Sept. 26 Nelson council meeting, Councillor Rik Logtenberg said there have been several reports of people taking the bus to Salmo then being unable to return because of a cancelled bus.
In December 2021, BC Transit introduced a requirement that drivers must be vaccinated for COVID-19. The Nelson area rural routes lost 40 per cent of their drivers as a result and NextGen has been trying to catch up ever since.
“That’s what really put us behind the 8-ball. Coupled with a very challenging job climate, and the need for them to be certified, it was extraordinarily difficult for us to be able to fill that void.”
Stack said that last Christmas their route coverage was about 90 per cent in the Nelson area, and now it exceeds 98 per cent.
Logtenberg, who chairs the West Kootenay Regional Transit Committee, told city council meeting there is funding available from the Economic Trust of the Southern Interior to subsidize driver training. He said the city intends to apply, and Stack said he will do the same.
Transit drivers at NextGen are members of the Canadian Union of Public employees and make $24.42 per hour, rising to $25.64 in April 2024, plus benefits. Stack says this can be an attractive job for a professional driver because it does not involve long-haul work.
As for the buses in the city run by the City of Nelson, fleet and transit supervisor Jody Koehle told the Nelson Star that there is a potential shortage of drivers but “we are not desperate yet.” But this will depend on whether several current candidates make it to the hiring stage, and also on some casual drivers who may not continue working much longer.
Koehle says there is more to being a driver than just receiving a Class 2 license.
“It takes a certain individual that is able to communicate with the public in a tactful and courteous manner and able to manage the stresses of operating under a tight schedule.”
READ MORE:
• Nelson-based group advocates for province-wide transit service
• Nelson to lobby province for doubled rural transit funding
• Changes to West Kootenay transit payment methods, fares proposed
