Operations Manager, Student Transportation, Grey Bruce (Hanover)

Voyago is hiring a dynamic and highly effective Operations Manager for our Student Transportation division in Grey Bruce, Ontario.

Your Role:

With a large emphasis on training and orientation, Voyago dedicates itself to supporting the growth of our employees by allowing them to develop the necessary skills in order to be successful. We provide our employees the necessary training tools to service our customers and clients more effectively. We remain true to our value-added services, commitment to our community, and our continued services provided by our long-term standing employees.

 Position Overview

Reporting directly to the VP of Schools, the Operations Manager is responsible for the daily operations of the Student Transportation Division. This role will manage and oversee compliance of the Key Performance Indicators while influencing customer satisfaction, increasing revenue of the division and overseeing operational effectiveness and quality. The successful candidate will be an important contact for management in key accounts and therefore a high degree of diplomacy and tact will be required.

 Service Delivery & Daily Operations

·        Manage efficient vehicle utilization, minimize deadhead

·        Ensure compliance with contract requirements

·        Direct activities related to dispatching, routing, and tracking transportation

·        Plan, organize and manage staff to ensure that their work is accomplished in a manner consistent with organizational requirements

·        Implement schedule and policy changes

·        Oversee effective school year start-up and shut-down

·        Collaborate with other managers and staff members in order to formulate and implement policies, procedures, goals, and objectives

·        Work with Health & Safety team, in cooperation with government agencies, to conduct investigations in order to determine causes of transportation accidents and incidents, to improve safety procedures

·        Follow up on all manners of progressive discipline

·        Ensure safe, reliable, on-time transportation for all assigned routes.

·        Oversee daily dispatch, driver assignments, route coverage, and service adjustments.

·        Manage spare allocation, minimize service failures, and ensure contingency plans are in place.

·        Monitor weather impacts, road conditions, and communicate timely operational decisions

Route Planning & Efficiency

·        Work with routing teams and boards to ensure accurate, optimized routes with minimal deadhead.

·        Manage route changes, load balancing, school bell-time adjustments, and seasonal updates.

·        Monitor spare ratios, route utilization, and opportunities for optimization or cost savings.

Customer Relationships & Communication

·        The Operation Manager is the main point of contact for daily operations

·        Is integral in the quoting of new business

·        Ensures compliance to contracts

·        Oversees daily operation’s communication re: STS portal information, maintenance of process, validity of data within the dispatch system

·        Maintain strong relationships with school boards, principals, consortium partners, and community stakeholders

·        Respond promptly to incidents, parent concerns, school inquiries, and performance updates

·        Represent the company in consortium meetings, audits, and partnership discussions

Reporting

·        Track and report KPIs such as:

-On-Time Performance (OTP)

-Spare utilization

-Driver/monitor counts

-Deadhead km

-Maintenance downtime

-Charter % vs student revenue

·        Customer satisfaction survey

·        Provide accurate and timely reporting to senior leadership

Incident & Crisis Management

·        Lead or support the response for collisions, injuries, breakdowns, and emergency events.

·        Ensure full documentation, investigation, follow-up actions, and reporting to consortiums and leadership.

·        Communicate clearly and professionally with all stakeholders during high-stress situations.

Fleet & Maintenance Oversight

·        Lead or support the response for collisions, injuries, breakdowns, and emergency events.

·        Ensure full documentation, investigation, follow-up actions, and reporting to consortiums and leadership.

·        Communicate clearly and professionally with all stakeholders during high-stress situations.

Safety, Compliance & Training

·        Enforce a Safety-First culture across all staff, ensuring adherence to company and regulatory standards.

·        Ensure all drivers complete AFA/ADA evaluations, PRIDE training, refreshers, and compliance requirements.

·        Conduct and document park-out visits, safety audits, incident reviews, and corrective actions.

·        Maintain compliance with legislation (HTA, MTO regulations, accessibility standards, school board policies).

Drivers

·        Ensure proper levels of employees, work with the Talent Acquisition team to attract new candidates

·        Manage Deficiency list

·        Set up safety meetings

·        Help plan and facilitate bi-annual driver’s meetings

·        Lead, mentor, and support drivers, trainers, dispatchers, and office staff.

·        Schedule regular 1:1s, ride-alongs, coaching sessions, and performance reviews.

·        Address employee concerns, attendance issues, and support progressive discipline when required.

·        Support recruitment, onboarding, and retention initiatives to maintain adequate staffing levels.

Finance & Budget Accountability

·        Monitor spending and oversee divisional budget to ensure all expenses are consistent and in-line with approved budgets.

·        Oversee payroll administration

·        Monitor and control divisional expenses:

-Labour Costs

-Overtime

-Maintenance

-Fuel

-Parking

-Supplies

·        Understand the division’s budget, monthly forecasts, and variances, and work closely with Finance

·        Support capital planning (fleet age, replacement schedules, facility needs).

·        Track charter revenue and ensure targets are being met

Other

·        Acts as an ambassador for Voyago on and off company property

·        Helps increase Voyago's visibility within the community by participating in company sponsored events

·        Is willing to participate in education upgrading as required

·        Helps increase VTS’s visibility within the community by participating in company sponsored events

·        Support company initiatives (e.g., Kids Matter Too, employee development programs, DRIVEN

·        Promote consistency, fairness, and transparency across all operational decisions.

·        Model professionalism, accountability, and employee respect

·        Build a positive team culture focused on safety, reliability, and continuous improvement

Requirements

Your Profile
The ideal candidate will hold the following qualifications that include, but are not limited to, the following:

·        University Degree, College Diploma or Equivalent

·        Minimum 3 years experience in a supervisory/management role in operations environment

·        Experience in Student Transportation, Medical Transport or Transportation industry preferred but not mandatory

·        Ability to obtain a B class License

·        Clean Drivers Abstract

·        Clear Criminal Record Search with Vulnerable Sector Search

·        Excellent verbal and written communication skills

·        Previous experience working in a dynamic, high demand work environment with specific deadlines, where the role required handling and maintenance of confidential and sensitive materials

·        Advanced skills in all Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) as well as Adobe Acrobat

·        Ability to participate in and facilitate group meetings

Benefits

The perks:

• We offer free licence upgrade

• We offer comprehensive benefits packages for full time employees with an Employee and Family Assistance Program, a great company perks program and an Employee Referral Bonus for all staff
• We are an Award Winning company
• As a subsidiary of Transdev, we provide opportunities for a rewarding career with a growing, global transportation provider
• We focus on innovation and sustainable environmental initiatives
• We support the development, work-life balance and well-being of our employees
• We build a supportive corporate culture that encourages diversity and enables our people to flourish.
• We enable our employees to have a positive social impact by deploying sustainable mobility solutions.
• We offer our employees opportunities to build their own experience within a local, global Group.
  

Voyago is committed to provide accommodation for individuals with disabilities throughout the recruitment process. Accommodations are available upon request of the internal or external applicant. If you require an accommodation due to a disability for an interview, please notify Human Resources directly to make appropriate arrangements when contacted for an interview.

We thank all applicants however only those under consideration will be contacted.