Independent school bus operators stage day of action

Jeff Green | Jun 03, 2010

This week, members of the Independent School Bus Operators Association (ISBOA) took their fight with the Province of Ontario over plans for open tendering of school bus contracts by 2013 to Queen’s Park, and to Education Minister Leona Dombrowsky’s riding office in Belleville.

The ISBOA was formed in 2008 in response to government plans to change from the current bus contracting system whereby school board transportation services negotiate directly with suppliers, many of whom have maintained the same bus routes for two or more generations.

“The way it works now is the school boards dictate the price, and we accept it. It couldn’t be more simple than that,” said ISBOA Secretary Mary Stinson of Stinson Bus Lines.

According to ISBOA president Sean Payne of Martin Bus Lines, the impact of tendering for school bus services throughout Canada and the United States has been lower prices at first, followed by increases over the medium to long term as smaller companies are forced out of business and the major players are then able to name their price.

In a speech he delivered at Queen’s Park on Tuesday, June 1, Payne cited what has happened in Sudbury, which went to a tendering process in 1998.

“Twelve years ago, Sudbury School District began tendering school bus routes. At the time they had contracts with 23 independent school bus operators. In the first round of tendering, rates decreased significantly. But by the time of the second round, in 2001, when only 10 companies were left, rates went up 3%. And in 2009, when only three companies met the grade, rates went up 13%,” Payne said.

While there are three major multi-national corporations that dominate school bus delivery in North America, rural school bus services still contract services to small, local companies with one to ten busses. Of the 140 members of the Independent School Bus Operators Association, half of them drive for the Tri-Board Transportation Service, which serves the Limestone, Algonquin & Lakeshore Catholic, and Hastings District school boards in Eastern Ontario.

These drivers are concerned that once the tendering process is established they will be forced to either bid too low to make a viable living driving bus, or lose their contracts to larger players.

“Once we lose a contract, we are out of business” said Mary Stinson. “We are not in a position to just move our equipment to another city where we can bid on a new contract.”

The impact of tendering on rural businesses was the subject of remarks at Queen’s Park by Lesa McDougall of Cook Bus Lines in Mount Forest, Ontario (a small town north of Kitchener). McDougall and her husband purchased the 45-year-old business from her father-in-law when he retired, but after two rounds of tendering in Mount Forest they have gone from operating 19 bus lines to one, and from employing 25 people to employing two people.

This has all happened through a process that, in McDougall’s view, is arbitrary and slanted against independent operators.

“It is hard to understand why our own government is endorsing a process that makes small business investment in Ontario even riskier. Given the current economic climate in this province, one would assume that independent business is a focus for the Ontario government, and that ‘stability’ in small businesses is a priority. Yet, the reality for us is that in spite of our customers’ satisfaction– schools and families who are perfectly happy with our services, we could lose everything by an arbitrary process that does not acknowledge the experience and past performance of our business - all without any level of accountability, as trustees never passed any resolutions to authorize this process,” she said.

Amid the frustration that has been growing among ISBOA members, Mary Stinson said that the fact that the Minister of Education will not meet formally with them does not help. Leona Dombrowsky has met with the rival Ontario School Bus Operators Association, which is friendlier to the government’s tendering plans.

Dombrowsky told the Belleville media that it is important that the government get the “best value for our dollar” with the more than $800 million that is spent each year on student transportation.

Although she has not met with the ISBOA leadership directly, she did meet last week with one of their members, a constituent of hers from Trenton.

The Belleville Intelligencer quotes Dombrowsky as saying “I think what the independent operators are saying to the government is they don't want the system that's been in place up until now to change and what I have said is that our government is committed to being open and transparent and accountable.”

She also said that she wants to work with the independent school bus operators.

Mary Stinson said the ISBOA is ready to start that process, but “first we need the Minister to respond to the letters that we have sent to her. She has not done that yet.”