Vantaggi
Driving a school bus can be very rewarding and even fun. The best part of the job is making a positive impact on student's lives, even if that just means being the one person to have a kind word for them in their day.
Svantaggi
Pretty much everything else. The bus lot environment itself is incredibly toxic. Every lot seems to have a group of very vocal, very nasty people that look to tear down everyone around them, and management turns a blind eye to it. The absolute worst is just how much of your time is wasted. I make $17/hr. This looks good on paper, but when you consider I have to be on the lot by 5:45, then get paid for a run that goes from 6:10-9am, then sit around until 13:10 to get paid until 16:30, at which point I get to leave around 16:45... Not counting my hour commute, I'm obligated for 11 hours but only paid for about 6. This means I'm ACTUALLY making about $8.50/hr. Sure, SOMETIMES I am offered extra work, but it's pretty ridiculous that this is just the expectation for drivers. And THEN you have "vacations". Any time school is out, if you want to get paid, you have to file unemployment for it. This multi-billion dollar corporation has THE STATE paying drivers paid vacation. Getting anything fixed on a bus is like pulling teeth. I routinely had to argue with the shop manager to get things fixed. This isn't safe or reasonable, and putting budgetary concerns over safety and state and federal regulations is sketchy as hell, if not outright illegal.