School bus riders at BV West have had scheduling and consistent driver issues every single day since school started.
When conducting a simple Google search, there were four reported strikes from 2013-2020 by drivers who work for Durham. In addition to unhappy drivers, having drivers at all are an issue leaving students at school for an hour or more after the final bell.
Freshman Rishabh Barve, rider of bus 25 said, “I have heard that our bus driver is on strike, but I do not have any tangible evidence.”
Another bus rider, freshman Alexandria Tan said, “The main driver for 25 was not even there on the first day, and he was replaced by a substitute [who doesn’t] show up anymore either.”
Other options such as students driving themselves and parents picking up students are often not available to those who have working parents or those without a permit or a car.
When asked if there were other transportation options available, Barve said, “Yes, but it puts pressure on others to leave work and have to pick me up.”
To get students home efficiently, the company has taken to merging buses. Drivers first take their assigned rider’s home on their original route and come back to the school to pick up absent drivers’ riders. This process robs students of valuable time after school and creates supervision issues for the school.
“We are left outside of the school for over an hour and a half sometimes,” Tan said.