Part-time Bus Driver: It’s Possible!

At least for civil servants, who will be able to combine their current main job with school transportation.

You have probably heard, seen, or read in many media outlets that France is critically short of bus drivers. There are currently 4,000 positions open as we write these lines. This phenomenon worsened during the COVID crisis and now causes significant delays. Who hasn’t waited more than 30 minutes for a bus or found themselves elbowing to board some overcrowded buses? The causes include low wages and often difficult working conditions according to drivers, with some only holding part-time contracts.

A recruitment campaign is currently underway to address this shortage, but other initiatives are also in progress, such as a new decree published by the government in the Official Journal. It will now allow civil servants to combine their employment with that of school bus drivers. Two jobs, as sadly happens for some students struggling with income.

A relatively high training cost

This so-called experimental initiative will run for three years and will allow employees of the state, local authorities, and hospitals to obtain a preliminary and individual authorization from the public employer, which will not adversely affect the normal functioning, independence, or neutrality of the assigned service of the employee, states the text.

This is indeed the main question raised by this decree. How to ensure schedules match, especially since becoming a bus driver requires a training of at least two months with a cost of around 5,000 euros.

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