DOE must fix Maui school bus snafu

This past week, many Maui children were left without school bus service and parents had to rearrange their work schedules. The Department of Education, meanwhile, made concessions for tardy students. Lowering standards for instruction hardly seemed the right thing to do for our state’s new DOE administration.

The DOE has within its power the ability to immediately correct the school bus driver shortage problem on Maui, but has not yet taken any action by stating the current contractor is in default.

This crisis stems from the DOE’s flawed procurement process and the DOE’s unwillingness to correct the problem. A DOE transportation panel scored Ground Transport, Inc. (GTI) higher than Roberts Hawaii when reviewing proposals for Maui school bus service. Roberts has been servicing school bus routes on Maui for more than 30 years and has a large operation and experienced staff. By contrast, GTI had no operating experience, no drivers, no support staff, no buses and no baseyards on Maui — and yet was awarded 71 bus routes that represent 65 percent of the routes on Maui.

This prompted Roberts to protest the award since by all indications, Roberts should have scored higher on these service factors. However, the DOE did not change its decision for reasons that still remain a mystery.

GTI blamed its failure to meet its contractual obligations on Roberts. GTI claims it was unable to recruit drivers while the appeals process was under- way. However, the appeals process did not stop GTI from pursuing its employee recruitment efforts, just as the DOE’s notice to proceed did not stop GTI from purchasing school buses for Maui.

GTI also accuses Roberts of using “scare tactics” to keep our employees. We cannot scare our employees to be loyal to our company. They are free to leave at any time to work for another company. In fact, it has long been a practice of GTI to lure away our employees. It currently has on staff 25 former Roberts employees on Oahu, nearly 20 percent of its current driving workforce.

Rather than compounding the problem and enabling GTI to operate at a significantly reduced level, the DOE should immediately place GTI on notice that it is in default of its contract for not servicing its 71 bus routes. The DOE cites legal constraints, but its leaders have many remedies at their disposal, including canceling the contract or procuring the services from other suppliers and charging the cost back to Ground Transport.

GTI has conveyed it is now recruiting drivers, but obtaining a commercial driver’s license can take up to three weeks and is just the first step. By contrast, Roberts spends a minimum of six to 12 weeks to train a commercial driver’s license (CDL) driver before placing them on the road with children.

The DOE is alleging that the cost to replace this service will cause it to be over budget so can’t afford it. If the DOE were to cancel the GTI service for the Lahaina area, Roberts’ cost would be approximately $138,000 more annually to cover this service. It would only cost the DOE annually $100,000 more for the Baldwin routes and $230,000 more for central Maui. This is out of the DOE’s annual budget of over $60 million for student transportation.

Maui families want to know where we go from here. We saw Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa and Maui Rep. Angus McKelvey step into the fray to try to find a solution.

The governor and Board of Education are counting on DOE leaders to take appropriate action. DOE leaders need to take action and stop compromising the safety and education of Maui’s children.

Percy Higashi is the president and chief operating officer of Roberts Hawaii.