What to know about Transdev, the transportation company involved in a deadly school bus crash in Boston

Boston Globe

21-05-2025

What is Transdev?
In the United States, Transdev operates public transportation services in 46 states, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, with about 32,000 employees (about a third of its global workforce), according to the company.
It is a privately owned French transportation company with US headquarters located about 20 miles west of Chicago. Boston Public Schools contracts with Transdev to maintain the district's fleet of about 740 buses, manage three bus yards, and hire and manage school bus drivers, according to the district. The company employs about 1,000 staffers in Boston, including about 750 bus drivers, BPS has reported.
On April 28, a Transdev driver — who resigned last week — operating a BPS bus struck and killed
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A few minutes before the deadly Hyde Park crash, Charles also struck another vehicle in Mattapan, and failed to report it to a Transdev safety officer before leaving the scene, officials said. Charles resigned on May 14, shortly before a scheduled termination hearing, city and school officials said.
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Transdev declined to respond to Globe questions and repeated requests for comment.
Police were on the scene of a school bus operated by Transdev that struck a child in Hyde Park on April 28.
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
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For years, late buses and no-shows
One of the requirements in the contract with Veolia called for a minimum 95 percent on-time performance for Boston's school buses, a threshold the buses have struggled to reach.
Veolia began work in July 2013, but that October, Boston school
Boston's school bus drivers have a contract with the transportation company, and not the school district. They accused Veolia of not meeting with them over issues like pay and benefits.
Over the coming years, the company faced challenges making sure
Among those problems: Dozens of school buses failed to show up at stops, or were late amid contract talks with the union in 2014. An MIT computer model intended to improve arrival times failed to do so in 2017, as less than half of buses arrived before schools opened. And in 2018, many buses were late, as drivers failed to report for work.
In 2023, the state determined that
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State demands fix to late school buses
The district's perennially late school buses in 2022 led Jeff Riley, then the state's education commissioner, to order the school district to improve the on-time arrival of buses.
The order,
Staffing shortages for bus drivers have been a long-standing obstacle to improving school bus arrival times. But even after the plan went into effect, buses would still run late: about two-thirds of school buses didn't make it to school on time for the first day of school in September.
This spring, as state and school district officials prepared to allow
State issues warning about BPS contract with Transdev
In 2023, state Inspector General Jeffrey S. Shapiro warned BPS about pursuing a new contract with Transdev, which had emerged as the only bidder when the district sought proposals from vendors to provide BPS transportation services.
The warning followed concerns raised by the Boston Finance Commission that the agreement was
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The $17.5-million-per-year agreement
If the service gets bad enough, the company could stand to make nothing at all. Some school officials, like School Committee member Brandon Cardet-Hernandez, raised concerns in March 2023 that the new contract wouldn't be enough to improve service.
'What if it doesn't work?' Cardet-Hernandez asked at the time. 'I'm a parent whose kid gets busing, and I don't trust the system enough to use it. It's not reliable enough for us as working parents.'
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