The alert came from the president of the national federation of passenger transport (FNTV) in early June. At the start of the school year in September, one in five children in France could find themselves without a school bus. The sector lacks 8,000 drivers to provide services throughout France.
No territory is spared. In Indre-et-Loire, Transdev Tourainewhich provides 90% of school bus service in the department, is experiencing the same problem. Of the 200 drivers the company needs, it still needs to find around 30, including around 10 just for school lines.the others being affiliated with its regular lines.
Positions mainly filled to supplement retirement
“It’s an unprecedented, exceptional situation, no one had ever seen that”, explains Lucie Roullier, director of Transdev Touraine. This shortage, she attributes to the lack of attractiveness of the profession. “It’s rarely a first vocation to be a school drivercontinues the one who is also president of the FNTV in Indre-et-Loire. These are very often people who want a supplementary pension or for whom they miss a few annuities to receive a full pension, because these are part-time contracts of 550/600 hours per year, which is very little. But now, very clearly, they tell me that it no longer interests them, that they prefer to complete their retirement in another way, because it’s a bit disabling to get up early in the morning to start their rounds at 7 a.m. and to come back at the end of day to end at 7 p.m. There has always been a high turnover, around 10%, but I still have the impression that Covid-19 has accelerated this trend.
Lucie Roullier also comes up against the lack of enthusiasm among young people for the same reasons. During a last training, conducted in partnership with the Centre-Val de Loire region, only one candidate out of ten went to the end. And the salary is not sufficiently motivating, she admits. “We are on grid trades. We have a basic grid on which each carrier must model itself at least. It fluctuates between 11.80 and 13 euros gross per hour, which is not huge. And the benefits, like the thirteenth month, that the profession offers, that’s not what interests young people today.”
Circuit changes?
For the start of the school year, Transdev Touraine must provide 150 journeys per day, round trips included, for school bus service in Indre-et-Loire. It is in the contract with the Region, which was renewed a few weeks ago. But some circuits may need to be optimized. “We are learning a new trade, believes Lucie Roullier. HASPreviously, we only had one plan A. Now, we have plans B, C and D. It is possible to group together, for example, two circuits close to each other. One that is 1.5 kilometers and the other 3 for example. But that means longer journey times, children who will have to be picked up at places earlier than usual and brought home later in the evening. These are consultations to be carried out with the Region, schools and parents of students. Everything is possible.”
Because if today Transdev Touraine lacks about ten drivers, it is not excluded that this figure increases during the summer. “I don’t have a magic ball because the problem is that these drivers who are in school have contracts that are renewed every year. However, they will soon be going on vacation, I don’t see them for a month and half and I’m not sure that they will all return. That’s what happened last summer. Many drivers did not return to their posts.”explains Lucie Roullier.
In Indre-et-Loire, 25,000 pupils are taken to school, college and high school every day thanks to coaches chartered by the Region.