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Bus driver: what the job actually is

Driving a large vehicle full of other people's passengers to a schedule, through traffic and weather, and answering for all of them.

Published Last reviewed How we research and correct this

Bus driver: quick facts

Bus driver salary in Ontario: the median pay is $22.43 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024). Its three-year outlook in Ontario is good. The job usually needs a shorter college programme or apprenticeship, or over six months of on-the-job training.

Median pay in Ontario
$22.43 an hour
Pay range (low to high)
$17.95 to $38.00 an hour
Job outlook, 2025-2027
Good
People working in it in Ontario
39,400
Usually needs
Usually a shorter college programme or apprenticeship, or over six months of on-the-job training

Source: Job Bank wages (updated 19 November 2025) and job prospects (updated 10 December 2025), NOC 73301. Pay varies by region and experience.

The work

What this job actually is

  • Driving a bus on a fixed route or charter to a timetable, and being responsible for the people on it. The Job Bank group is bus drivers, subway operators and other transit operators, and it reports one wage and one outlook for the whole group, so the figures on this page are not for school buses alone.
  • Two quite different jobs sit under the title. A transit driver works a city route with hundreds of passengers a day. A school bus driver carries children on a route twice a day, with long gaps between, and the rules are different.
  • The Ministry of Transportation's bus handbook sets the licence class: school buses are Class B or E, and other large buses are Class C (more than 24 passengers) or F (10 to 24 passengers, and ambulances). Each has its own tests.
  • Your job is not only driving. You watch mirrors, passengers, fares or children, the time, the weather, and the people who step in front of the bus.
  • Job Bank says bus drivers are not a regulated occupation in Canada, but the licence is a legal requirement. You cannot drive any of these buses without the right class.

A Tuesday

What a normal day looks like

Not a good day or a bad one. The ordinary version, which is what you would actually be living.

  1. 5:40 — Sign in and do your pre-trip inspection: lights, tyres, mirrors, brakes, doors, emergency exits. Write it down. This is the legal check that protects you and the passengers.
  2. 6:15 — First run. Dark, cold, and the first passengers are tired and not interested in a conversation.
  3. 7:30 — Rush hour. A full bus, a driver cutting in, and a passenger arguing about a fare. You stay calm because you have no choice.
  4. 9:00 — A school route, if you are a school driver: the first children get on, and you are watching the mirrors and the front stairs the whole time.
  5. 10:30 — The split. For many drivers there is a long gap between the morning and afternoon runs that is unpaid or only partly paid, and you cannot easily do anything else with it.
  6. 12:30 — Washroom break at a layover. You get a few minutes, not an hour, so you eat in the bus.
  7. 15:00 — Afternoon run. Slower traffic, heavier bus, a snowy corner.
  8. 16:45 — Fuel, clean the bus, report the mirror that is cracked.
  9. 17:30 — Paperwork: incident report for a passenger who fell when you braked, written carefully.
  10. 18:00 — Off. Your shoulders hurt and your attention has been on for the whole shift.

Honestly

Who loves this, and who should not do it

The second list is the useful one. Nearly every careers page leaves it out, which is why nearly every careers page reads like an advert.

You may like this if
  • You are calm in traffic and can stay focused for hours while other people are impatient.
  • You like the independence of being alone at the wheel with a route and a schedule, and you are fine being the one in charge.
  • You can deal with people politely when they are rude, late, drunk or upset, and not take it home.
  • You want an entry route into a job that does not need university and where Job Bank's outlook for the group is Good.
  • You are responsible by nature, and a pre-trip inspection does not feel like a chore.
You may hate this if
  • You do not want to carry the responsibility. You are driving a vehicle full of strangers or other people's children, and a mistake can seriously hurt people.
  • You need a regular day. Early starts, split shifts, evenings, weekends and holidays are normal, and the long unpaid gap between runs can make a full day out of a part-time wage.
  • You dislike conflict. Passengers argue about fares, refuse to move, abuse drivers and sometimes become violent, and you are alone.
  • You find sitting for hours hard. Back, hips, shoulders and wrists take the strain, and a driver cannot just stand up when it hurts.
  • School bus work specifically: managing noisy, misbehaving children while driving safely is the hardest part for many drivers, and you cannot stop the bus every time it happens.

The route in

How you actually get there in Ontario

  1. Get a regular licence first

    The Ontario bus handbook says both school bus and other bus classes require you to hold a valid Ontario Class G or higher licence. Class C and F applicants must be at least 18. School bus Class B and E applicants must be at least 21.

  2. Meet the medical and vision standards

    The handbook says applicants must meet medical and vision standards, which includes a physician's examination. Check the current standards on ontario.ca before you pay for a course: a condition you did not know about can end this route.

  3. Pass the tests for your class

    For Class C and F, the handbook lists a vision screening, a knowledge test and a driving test in a bus of the right size. For a school bus (B or E) you must also complete a school-bus driver improvement course approved by the Ministry, and the handbook says the certificate is valid for five years. It also sets limits on demerit points, and bars people with certain driving and Criminal Code convictions in the past five years.

  4. Get hired and trained

    Job Bank says on-the-job training with classroom instruction, up to three months, is usually provided, and that at least one year of safe driving experience, an air brake endorsement and a first aid certificate may be required. Transit agencies and school bus operators set their own hiring steps. Ask each one what they require.

  5. Keep your record clean

    A school bus driver may not accumulate more than eight demerit points while holding the licence, according to the handbook. For this job a driving record is your career, so build a clean one from your first day on the road.

Where this comes from: Ontario — Official MTO bus handbook: school bus licence classes B and E · Ontario — Official MTO bus handbook: bus licence classes C and F · Job Bank — Bus drivers and other transit operators (NOC 73301), requirements

The money

Bus driver salary in Ontario

Job Bank's own figures, quoted rather than summarised, with the period they describe — so you can tell how old they are and go and check them.

$17.95
Low (hourly)
$22.43
Median (hourly)
$38.00
High (hourly)

Ontario, NOC 73301. Reference period 2023-2024, last updated by Job Bank on 19 November 2025. Wages vary a lot by region inside Ontario and by how long you have been doing it — the low figure is roughly where you start, not what the job is worth.

Source: Job Bank — Bus driver wages in Ontario

Where it is heading

The outlook for the next three years

Job Bank publishes a three-year outlook for every job in every province. It is the closest thing to an honest forecast, and it moves, so read it as a weather report rather than a verdict.

Ontario, 2025-2027

Good4 out of 5 stars

  • Employment growth will lead to a moderate number of new positions.
  • Several positions will become available due to retirements.
  • There are a small number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation.

What that rating means: how many openings Job Bank expects in Ontario for this kind of work against how many people are likely to be looking — not whether it is a good job. A “limited” rating means more competition for each opening; it does not close the door, and it can change before you are ready to walk through it.

39,400
people work in this job in Ontario
35%
are women (48% across all jobs)
5%
are self-employed (15% across all jobs)

Source: Job Bank — Bus drivers, subway operators and other transit operators job prospects in Ontario (NOC 73301). Outlook updated by Job Bank on 10 December 2025; read by us on 5 October 2026.

Before you leave school

Things you can do now

  • Get your G licence the moment you can and keep it clean. Everything else on this route is built on it.
  • Ask your guidance counsellor about the courses that will matter: co-op in transportation or with a local transit agency, and any driver education programme.
  • Ride the bus you already take, watch the driver for a week and notice what they do that you never saw before: mirrors, doors, passengers, timing.
  • Practise being calm. Take a part-time job in a shop or on a team where you serve the public and have to stay polite when someone is not.

Test it

Do this before you decide anything

Reading about a job tells you almost nothing. This is designed to be done alone, this week, for free.

Watch a bus driver work for a full route, from a seat

About 90 minutes
  1. Take a full local route from one end to the other and back on a weekday, sitting where you can see the driver's mirrors and the door. Do not talk to the driver while the bus is moving.
  2. Count what the driver has to do apart from steering: stops, doors, fares or passes, questions, watching pedestrians, keeping time. Write each one down.
  3. Note one moment when the driver stayed calm with a difficult passenger or a bad driver. Write what they did.
  4. At the end of the route, look up the Class C and F requirements on the Ontario bus handbook page and the school bus Class B and E page, and write down which one you would need and what you would have to do first.

What it tells you. If the constant watching, the timetable and the passengers felt like something you could do for an eight-hour shift, and the licence steps looked doable, this is a real entry to explore. If you spent the trip thinking about how tired the driver must be, or the traffic stress made your shoulders tense just watching, trust that: it is the whole job.

Better than any article

Questions for somebody who does this job

Most people say yes to a teenager who asks good questions. These are the ones that get real answers rather than encouragement.

  1. “What is the worst part of a split shift, and how do you use the gap?”
  2. “How did you handle your first difficult passenger?”
  3. “What does your employer do when there is an incident on your bus?”
  4. “What is the training like, and how long before you drove alone?”
  5. “What do you wish you had known before you started?”
  6. “Would you rather drive a school bus or a transit route, and why?”

Could you own one of these?

The part other career sites never mention

Sometimes, but not early. Charter and school bus companies are small businesses with expensive vehicles, insurance and contracts with school boards or customers. Most people work as a driver for several years and learn the business from the inside before they consider buying a vehicle and holding a contract.

Business 101 is free and teaches that part

Quick answers

Questions people ask about this job

How much does a bus driver make in Ontario?

The median pay for a bus driver in Ontario is $22.43 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024, updated 19 November 2025). The range Job Bank publishes runs from $17.95 to $38.00 an hour. Pay varies by region, employer and experience.

What is the job outlook for a bus driver in Ontario?

Job Bank rates the employment outlook for this work in Ontario as good for 2025-2027 (updated 10 December 2025). Employment growth will lead to a moderate number of new positions. Several positions will become available due to retirements. There are a small number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation. A lower rating means more competition for each opening, not that no one is hiring.

What do you need to become a bus driver in Ontario?

Job Bank says this work usually needs a shorter college programme or apprenticeship, or over six months of on-the-job training. The usual route in Ontario, in order: Get a regular licence first; Meet the medical and vision standards; Pass the tests for your class.

How many people work as a bus driver in Ontario, and how many are women?

Job Bank counts about 39,400 people working in this job in Ontario. 35% of them are women, compared with 48% across all jobs. That describes who does the work today, not who can.

Not sure this is the right list to be reading

Start from yourself, not from the job.

Future Finder is free, takes about ten minutes, needs no account and stores nothing. It will tell you which kinds of work you lean toward, and which of these pages are worth your time.

Try Future Finder — freeAll jobs

Parent of a teenager weighing this up? Career coaching for teens gets them talking to people who do the work, anywhere in Ontario.

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Wages and training requirements change. Every figure on this page is linked to the body that publishes it, and the review date above says when we last checked. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.