Shortages of bus drivers: school trips and colonies threatened?

Noa Moussa, edited by Solène Leroux 06:31, May 20, 2022

Summer camps and school outings for children will not escape the consequences of the shortage of coach drivers this year.

A situation that sometimes turns absurd.

"We once had a driver who stopped driving at a rest area because he had exceeded his quota of hours for the day. But there was no second bus driver so we had to call the company, negotiate, they had to bring a driver", says Matthieu, the director of the social center who organized the trip.

"So we found ourselves waiting four hours at a rest area because they hadn't provided two drivers. We understood afterwards that it was really a problem of lack of staff," he says. at the microphone of Europe 1.

This misadventure experienced by a group of young Parisians a few weeks ago is not an isolated case: a shortage of drivers has been observed everywhere in France.

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The fault of the Covid

According to Jean-Sébastien Barrault, president of the National Federation of Passenger Transport, the lack of drivers is caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It is estimated that 7,000/8,000 drivers are missing in companies in the sector,” he explains.

"The aggravating phenomenon was the health crisis because for two years, we had very little work. We have a lot of drivers who left our sector to drive, especially in the road freight sector", explains he. 

Professionals warn that this shortage is likely to last this summer, when requests for bus travel to colonies and leisure centers are already numerous.