2023-08-24 15:48:40
In August 2022, a few weeks before the start of the school year, France discovered the extent of the shortage: 8,000 school bus drivers were missing. A year later, the subject is still on the table, even if things have improved.
“We are approaching this start of the 2023 school year in a much better situation. We have little concern for transport, which will be provided for the 2 million students who need it every day to get to their school,” promised Clément Beaune, the minister delegate for transport, Wednesday August 23, in Paris, after a meeting bringing together the various ministries concerned, the professionals of the sector and the regions, which organize the collection.
Driving license age lowered to 18
To remedy the shortage, the public authorities have, over the past year, deployed several measures: the simplification and shortening of procedures for obtaining a driving license for a school bus or the lowering, from 21 to 18, of the age from which it can be passed.
Similarly, a decree published in December allows civil servants to combine their jobs with driver work, most often exercised part-time (a few hours in the morning and at the end of the afternoon). A practice that remains more than marginal, for lack of a system allowing volunteers to acquire the skills and the license essential to carry out an activity heavy with responsibilities.
A service which, here and there, announces itself ” degraded “
According to Clément Beaune, who is making a trip on this theme to Val-d’Oise on Thursday, August 24, these efforts have made it possible to reduce the number of unfilled positions by 25%. The figure still stands at 6,000. The situation therefore remains tense but, promises the minister, it will be possible, thanks to the mobilization of all, to ensure the return to school ” in good conditions “.
At least initially, school transport companies should call behind the wheel all their employees qualified to drive school buses, even if they have held another job for a long time… But, after the start of the school year, it is necessary expect, here and there, like last year, to “degraded service”, admits Jean-Sébastien Barrault, the president of the National Federation of Passenger Transport. “This potentially means longer pick-up runs or having to wait until 5 p.m. for a bus for students who finish school at 4 p.m.,” he explains.
Regional disparities
Some regions may be more affected than others by the lack of drivers. This is the case of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The case also of the Grand Est region, because some of the drivers are tempted to go to work on the other side of the border, in Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, where the remuneration is generally higher.
Suffice to say that players in the sector must continue their efforts to enhance the attractiveness of the profession and expand the recruitment pool. This involves, for example, continuing to deploy a brand new driver’s CAP. It is also a question of limiting the part-times suffered and of annualizing the working hours within the companies of the sector.
Pensioners called to the rescue
The Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt also evokes an experiment which will be carried out in a few departments. “to ensure that future young retirees (Editor’s note: contributing to school transport) can have a combination of employment and retirement” and thus benefit from an additional income.
No solution seems miraculous. It is rather the addition of sometimes modest measures that can contribute to an improvement, recognize the stakeholders. Among the avenues, that of modifying the start and end times of the course so that the same bus can serve several establishments.
A direct partnership with school principals
The Grand Est region has just carried out such an experiment, which in its eyes is promising. To move up a gear, she pleads, it is now necessary that the decision-making power, on the National Education side, descend several levels. Jean-Luc Gibelin, deputy chairman of the mobility commission of the Regions of France, thus demands “a real and powerful logic of partnership between all the heads of establishments and the local organizing authorities that are the regions”.
#school #transport #lacks #drivers