Bus company makes a U-turn to adapt to COVID-19 realities, allowing drivers to regain work
By: Bo Evans
and last updated 2021-02-18 20:34:52-05
MODESTO, Calif. â Michelle Hodge has worked as a school and charter bus driver for 23 years. But last spring, she found herself like millions of others, out of a job.
âI actually had to move into my sonâs house, being on unemployment, because itâs just not enough to provide for yourself on your own. Itâs devastating,â said Hodge.
Hodge was one of 400 employees laid off by a California-based bus company.
âIt was horrible, it was very, very depressing. I would call Donald and Sarah Storer quite often, asking them if they came up with anything. Do you think that our jobs are coming back anytime soon? Because sitting at home [was] awful and it was very terrible financially,â Hodge said.
Bus company makes a U-turn to adapt to COVID-19 realities, allowing drivers to regain work
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From charter buses to mobile health clinics, a Modesto-based company found a way to save jobs and lives.Storer Coachways launched The Bus Test Express, a bus-based medical facility. Sarah Storer, the vice president of Storer Coachways, said the buses have been deployed statewide, from Los Angeles to Sonoma counties, and serves hundreds of patients daily. Be truly mobile, provide healthcare services to the communities and the rural areas and the regions that need them the most, Storer said. The buses are converted charter buses. Storer said the idea for Bus Test Express was first realized when the pandemic first hit, after she and her father were faced with a heartbreaking decision to lay off 400 drivers.Instead, they devised a plan. My father Donald Storer and I, we developed Bus Test Express to bring mobile testing and vaccinations to the marketplace, she said.The interior of the bus is patent-pending, but Storer shared some of the transformations which included: removing sea