Company slowly hiring more Maui school bus drivers

Ground Transport Inc., the state’s new school bus contractor on Maui, says it’s slowly making progress in hiring bus drivers on the island, but hundreds of Maui students still will need to find alternative rides to school for at least a few more weeks.

Louis Gomes, president of the Honolulu-based company, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that as of Wednesday his company is short 10 qualified drivers on Maui, down from 15 last week.

The shortage prompted the Department of Education to announce last week — days before the new school year started — that bus routes serving grades nine to 12 for Lahaina­luna High and Baldwin High, and grades six to eight for Iao Intermediate, would be temporarily suspended. Elementary students and curb-to-curb bus service for special-needs students are not affected.

The DOE awarded Ground Transport three seven-year contracts, effective July 1, to serve Wailuku, Kahului and Kihei — routes previously held by Roberts Hawaii. Roberts was awarded the fourth Maui contract serving Upcountry schools; its routes are not affected.

Roberts executives say they are ready and willing to take back the Maui routes the company lost. Roberts’ original bids for the three areas were 7 percent to 9 percent higher than Ground Transport’s bids.

“How long will we continue before the DOE is willing to call this a breach of contract and allow us to alleviate the situation?” Percy Higashi, president of Roberts Hawaii, told the Star-Advertiser on Wednesday. “We have the drivers. We are ready.”

Gomes, meanwhile, said he has 13 applicants working toward the specialized driver’s license and other requirements for school bus drivers, but training and certification can take up to three weeks. He’s also relocated a few of his Oahu bus drivers to Maui to help out.

“Our whole team is working very, very hard to move forward and recruit and hire and train people so we can restore the services that are being affected right now on Maui,” Gomes said in an interview.

Starting pay for Ground Transport drivers is $24 to $27 an hour. The company is also offering hiring bonuses.

State Rep. Angus McKelvey (D, West Maui-North Kihei) on Wednesday called on Gov. David Ige and the Board of Education to remedy the situation by either issuing supplemental contracts or rescinding Ground Transport’s contracts “for failure to perform.”

McKelvey said Lahaina families are especially affected because of existing traffic problems. “This is having a domino effect right now: Parents are now late getting their kids to school because of the traffic jam with all of these cars now on the road, then they’re late getting to work,” he said.

Gomes contends he has not defaulted. He said there is a driver shortage nationally and locally, and that the problem has been magnified due to what he alleges are “scare tactics” by Roberts to hold onto its drivers. He also says his recruitment efforts were stalled for eight months while Roberts challenged the contract awards in court.

The governor’s office said while Ige sympathizes with families, the governor does not have the authority to cancel awarded contracts.

“The governor recognizes the hardship caused by the school bus crisis on Maui,” Mike McCartney, the governor’s chief of staff, said in an emailed statement. He said the DOE has assured him “they are doing all they can to remedy this urgent situation.”

BOE Chairman Lance Mizumoto said the board does not get involved with contract discussions between the DOE and vendors. “My hope is that the DOE can work out a more viable situation,” he said in an interview. Speaking in general terms, he added, “until a vendor actually defaults on the terms of a contract, you can’t withdraw the contract.”

Schools Superintendent Christina Kishimoto apologized to affected families.

“The shortage of certified drivers on Maui remains a challenge and I am meeting with Ground Transport on their action plan towards a solution. … My commitment is to protect instructional time, and I thank the impacted families for working with their schools to ensure that students are in class,” she said in an emailed statement.