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Press Release:
School District No. 46 (Sunshine Coast) is pleased to announce that Thirdwave Bus Services is the successful proponent of the recent student transportation contract tender. The school district is required to publicly tender the supply of goods and services valued in excess of $75,000 and proposals received in this tender were evaluated over the summer. Student safety was the first consideration and all proponents were evaluated with this in mind. The evaluation of the proponents further considered the age and condition of buses, the maintenance program, quality of service, price and other factors.
The final rankings were as follows: First Student, Thirdwave, Sechelt School Bus. School District No. 46’s stated goal was to enter into a long-term contract for consistency for staff, students and their families. The District negotiated with First Student as lead proponent initially, but was unable to reach an agreement due to the reluctance of the proponent to sign a long-term contract without the ability to terminate for convenience. The process continued with the next highest ranked company and an agreement was recently signed with Thirdwave Bus Services.
“We are excited to welcome Thirdwave Bus Services as the bus company for SD46 this September,” stated Secretary-Treasurer Nicholas Weswick. “We thank Sechelt School Bus Services and Pender Harbour Transportation for their many years of valuable service to our students,” he added. Mr. Weswick also commented that bus routes would largely remain unchanged for students. Thirdwave has indicated that a fleet of all new buses will be on the coast within a few months. In the interim, the bus company will use an existing fleet, with all buses fully meeting safety standards.
Thirdwave Bus Services is a BC company with an excellent reputation and holds contracts with several BC school districts, including the Francophone Education Authority, Victoria School District and several private schools. The bus company will ensure a seamless transition to the Sunshine Coast School District, with bus drivers who had worked for Sechelt School Bus Services or Pender Harbour Transportation given the opportunity for employment. Students who were previously registered with Sechelt School Bus Services or Pender Harbour Transportation will automatically be registered with Thirdwave Bus Services. New students to the school district may register for busing at: www.secheltschoolbus.ca/form/
The school district is pleased to have negotiated a long-term contract with Thirdwave Bus Services and looks forward to its students being transported safely in September. More information on Thirdwave Bus Services is available at: www.thirdwavebus.com/ or by telephone: 1-855-412-1221. Submitted
I cant believe how biased this article is. I hope everyone realizes what a complete joke this is. This school district is severely incompetent.
I am A driver for sechelt school bus service and you have only half of the story this mess started in march.After several delays the winner of the contract was awarded to first student . At the end of july i got a call fro randy saying that first student wanted to meet all the drivers in 2 days,as i was on the island i couldn’t make it . Randy called me to tell me that he would be staying on at a rather low wage but he felt he could make it work. He said that they were very impressed by the quality of the drivers and would be back for training in the first week of august. So after 3 days of training I was told i was fully qualified and was hired. Forward to Friday the14 th I get a call from one of the other drivers saying that first student has backed out and we no longer have jobs. What the hell 2 weeks to school and no bus company great. Monday randy calls and tells me there is a meeting with the new company and if i could come and represent the drivers.so who shows up but the rep from students first and third wave together.Apparently she had agreed to hand our employment contracts to the new company.I thought indentured servitude was outlawed but maybe they follow the Harper school of employment. Anyway the only way that this has any way of working is for them to hire Randy as manager and as many of his drivers as possible and use his busses, shop and mechanic
1 min · Like
Rick: What we have published so far, as our deadline was yesterday, is a press release from the School District. It is labelled as such, not as a comprehensive news story. Parents of school-age kids have been anxious about the situation and we wanted to alert them that it looks like the buses will be running. I hope to call you later Wednesday for more. Thanks. Rik Jespersen
I hope this situation gets looked into more thoroughly. This article makes it seem as if all is well when there are a lot of unanswered questions. As a parent I was very happy with the quality of service provided by Randy and his drivers and am not happy with the decision to change, or with the way that the district went about doing this (they basically told parents who contacted them that they should just back off..). Not ok!