Stock Transportation ‘deeply disappointed’ as province plans to cancel Halifax school bus contract (update)
Posted Jun 6, 2019 09:19:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It appears new service providers will be busing 23,000 students to and from school in the Halifax area starting in the fall of 2020.
The Halifax Regional Centre for Education has notified Stock Transportation it will be ending its contract early.
This comes after an online school bus consultation survey conducted by Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, which found most living outside of the Halifax region were satisfied with Stock's service.
However the story was different in HRM, where several concerns were expressed, including communication, safety and service reliability.
At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Education Minister Zach Churchill said this change was a long time coming due to “numerous serious customer service issues this past fall and winter.”
“Despite repeated attempts to prevent and resolve issues, these issues continued to happen,” he said. “Each time there were issues, students were impacted.”
“This is completely unacceptable, in my estimation, for families who depend on bus service to safely and reliably deliver their kids to and from school.”
Stock is currently in year three of a 10 year contract in the Halifax area and will continue to provide school bus service for the 2019-2020 school year.
In July, HRCE will be issuing a request for proposals from other companies to start busing students starting in September 2020, with a decision expected by the end of the year.
Churchill said it's possible more than one company will be picked.
“The [current] contract relies on a single service provider for a large service area,” he said. “Based on a jurisdictional review of other provinces and best practices in bus transportation service, that has led us to believe that several service providers for this area would be a better model.”
He added, going forward, there will be no more 10 year contracts. Instead companies will sign on for between 3 and 5 years, which he said is the industry standard.
“This allows HRCE to more frequently review and improve the service agreement, if needed.”
Once the new contract takes effect, HRCE will also take over communications and bus routing, which will create seven new positions at a cost of about $464,000.
“A lack of appropriate oversight in those areas have led to most of the complaints that we heard earlier this year, and in years past,” Churchill said.
Stock Transportation says it only found out their contract would end prematurely moments before Churchill's news conference.
In an emailed statement to HalifaxToday.ca, the company says it is “deeply disappointed” by the decision, but agrees the system has “deep systemic flaws that only government can address.”
Stock’s Director of Atlantic Canada, Patrick Meagher, said on-time arrival rates of students in 2019 ranged from 96.8% in the worst weeks of winter weather to 99.3% last week.
“Our team members have been able to offer continual improvement in on-time delivery of students under the existing structure,” he said.
Meagher added the company is proud of their employee’s performance and they plan to continue providing a safe and reliable service in HRM for the rest of this school year and next.
“With a 20-year history of service in the area, we are committed to Halifax and look forward to the opportunity to have our safety and on-time delivery record act as the standard by which the new system is judged,” said Meagher.
