SPS gives Zum bus routes back to First Student; start-up needs more time to build fleet

Some SPS school bus routes impacted by staffing shortage

Washington's largest school district was embroiled in months of debates over who would provide transportation for kids, and how many routes they would cover.

SEATTLE - First Student announced it has agreed to take 78 Seattle Public School (SPS) bus routes previously awarded to Zum. The startup admitted it lacked the drivers and buses to fulfill the terms of their contract, according to a Wednesday news release.

There has been confusion, rather than clarification, about who exactly will be picking up kids on the first day of class for Seattle Public Schools. The reason why depends entirely on two conflicting news releases.

On Wednesday, First Student announced they would now operate more than 260 bus routes in Seattle.

"Seattle School District came to us and said we need some additional help - that Zum was unable to fulfill its contract, and the school district needed us to step up and cover 78 routes that were originally awarded to Zum," said Mark Firmani, spokesperson for First Student.

This was a major reversal for First Student, the company that was formerly the sole bus provider for SPS for the last three decades. Though First Student lost about half of its routes with SPS, coinciding with a tough year of performance issues:

In the early fall of the previous school year, more than 140 bus routes were canceled due to staff shortages.
In February, First Student face hundreds of safety violations and fines – which have since been settled with the state.

Officially, those were not the reasons why First Student lost business to bay-area company Zum. Instead, SPS split the multi-million dollar contract after Zum complained that the district had wrongly scored Zum’s bid in favor of First Student.

The two companies traded barbs all summer about the other’s performance, and in this latest round, First Student seems to come out ahead.

"Our role now is to provided exemplary service for the school district and I think the fact that we’re stepping up and picking up these routes for the competitor who couldn’t fulfill their end of the bargain shows are commitment to the school district", said Firmani.

However, in its press release, SPS says this is all according to plan:

"At the start of the 2022-23 school year, the district requested that First Student take on additional routes while Zum ramps up to its full capacity as anticipated over the first semester."

Zum also said it looks forward to transporting Seattle students at some point:

"Zum stands-ready to get students to school as planned. Our contract was awarded in August with an expectation to ramp to 50% of SPS transportation by January 2023, and we are executing exactly on that plan. Zum is bringing a brand new bus fleet, hiring & training drivers, and introducing technology that makes rides safer for Seattle students and families."

It is undetermined when that will happen. An even more pressing problem, there are still multiple routes that won’t be serviced when school starts, and families are no closer to knowing whether it will be their kids who have to find alternate transportation.

Instead, they say parents will get notified if their kids have a bus or not, sometime before the first day of classes.