I was a school bus driver (and trainer) until I retired Jan 1 2024. I will be returning to driving school bus, likely on December 1 2024 .... no need to ask about the reasons, I won't provide that.
I am trying to work for a good company, though. I decided to look driver reviews on Indeed as a guide of where to focus. Here's the results as of Oct 26 2024. Note: this is for south-central Ontario that includes mostly the GTA up to the southern edge of Lake Simcoe. It also includes some portions of Simcoe region, mainly along the Hwy 11 corridor to Huntsville Ontario. Ratings are based on a scale of 1 to 5:
Switzer-Carty: 4.6
Parkview Simcoe: 4.0
Campbell: 3.9
Landmark: 3.9
Hammond: 3.7
Stock: 3.6
First Student: 3.5
Sharp: 3.4
Attridge: 3.3
WAT (Wheelchair Accessible Transit): 3.1
Voyago: 3.1
Methodology: Google search, "indeed reviews " + company name (must be logged in to Indeed.ca to view more than two results). And note again the scale is from 1 to 5. That means that the mid point – a passing grade – is 3.0.
I am a bit surprised at the last one, Voyago. During the early part of the 2023 school year, they ran a contest to increase their Indeed reviews, offering prizes to current drivers for good reviews on Indeed. To enter the contest, you had to send an email with the comment you posted. For a time, their results increased to 3.4 ... so to get back down to 3.1 (as of Oct 26 2024), they had to get even lower results (since the contest) for the averages to work out so low. Thinking about this again, maybe it's not so surprising. I do know they did a survey to get an industry certification as a good place to work ... the survey result was cooked in my opinion. They did get their certification, but the survey results they circulated clearly showed school bus driver response was below 50% (47% to be exact). When most of your responses are from management and administration, is it relevant to drivers?
In my case, Switzer-Carty does not provide any services in or around my location, so that's out. I have contacted (or will) two of the top listed. Also note that I included four others that also do not offer services near me: Attridge, Hammond, Campbell, and Stock.
Hammond and Campbell are two companies in the Muskoka area. I drove in Bracebridge on a temporary basis while also conducting driver training. The company I was working for at the time was having problems retaining staff. They offered substantially higher pay than the other companies. Easy enough to do ... but they often shorted on reimbursements, charters and pay. It's just my onion, but I think this company was chronically on the financial edge. I do know they were evicted from their head office shortly after I left (over management, toxic environment and pay issues).
Sad to say that I did work for the two lowest rated companies. Wish I would have done this review comparison prior ... and, I concur with the results for those.