The question is, why are people not signing up for those jobs? Everyone talks about Disney being able to underpay because everyone wants to work there but that is clearly not the case now. Time for Disney to react to the market by making the job more favorable to applicants, which means doing at least one or a combination of this list:
-Raise Pay
-Raise Benifits
-Make scheduling more favorable
There are probably thousands of bus drivers waiting to retire or just tired of running the same roads in their cities day after day. Disney is set up like a municipal bus system, in fact, almost exactly, but the clientele, although containing a number of Karen's, is usually a group in a much better mood then local clientele.
Problem was not the wages, although low, it was in complete alignment with the rest of the south. They had one game stopper, at least for me, I was getting ready to retire and I went to the "Casting" bldg. at WDW to apply. At that time, they told me directly, that if you didn't have a Florida address they wouldn't even consider your resume. So few are willing to just make the jump and pack up and move to a strange place with no guarantee that once you got there you would have a job. That was important to those that either were not retiring yet or not financially able to spend the money to relocate only to be told, nope, nothing for you here. I thought about it seriously, but then life took a different turn before I could act upon it and never tried again. I understood that they probably had a lot of people that applied and once something was offered got cold feet and backed out. But, bus driving is a specialized, trained and tested, specific licensed ability. There was no real guarantee that you might be full time if needed or part time or anyway of having a shift that might work for you. I think they were union, I never asked. That might have given a more solid idea of how the system worked.
It seemed to me that considering the heavy tourist area that Orlando/Kissimmee is would have a massive need for good bus drivers. It's not the same as pointing two fingers toward the closest restroom. Apparently Disney's hiring philosophy has kind of bitten them at the moment. The Pandemic also has depleted the savings of a lot of eligible drivers, both in Florida and the rest of the country that has left them financially unable to pack up and move with no guarantees. The bonus might help, but this would be a significant upheaval for a lot of concerned hard working folks.