BILLINGS- — First Student, the transportation contractor for Billings and Lockwood public schools, is hiring bus drivers.
“All summer long we continue to recruit, and we can never have enough bus drivers, so we continue to recruit year around,” says Larry Fielding, the Billings location manager for First Student.
Fielding says last year they had 136 drivers, and most of them are returning, but he says that he would love to have 160 drivers.
Pay for bus drivers starts at $17.75 an hour and a three-week training is needed to get a Commercial Driver’s License.
First Student in Billings does this training, as well as personalized training, to help drivers prepare to handle dozens of students at once.
“It’s a split shift, a couple hours in the morning, a couple hours in the afternoon. There are some routes that have a midday route so they could have an hour or two midday as well, but we guarantee 20 hours a week,” said Fielding.
First Student says they can teach anyone to drive a bus and invites anyone interested to their hiring event on July 30.
The event will be held at First Student in Billings from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Those who attend will have the opportunity to drive a bus under supervision from a First Student instructor.
