MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Bus drivers who have been off all summer long got back behind the wheel Monday, ahead of the start of the new school year.
Dozens of Miami-Dade school bus drivers rolled out of the bus depot Monday morning.
"I'm excited. It's the first day we (are) doing the dry run, making sure that everything runs smoothly," Alba Maza said.
The goal of Monday's test run is to make sure that drivers are familiar with their routes before the first day of school.
"They'll get there a lot more sooner than to have to be searching and looking for different stops," bus driver Greg Allen said. "If they know which house they going to, they'll get there a lot easier and a lot quicker."
The dry run also helps drivers catch other potential problems.
"For example, I got one stop that goes all the way and then I got to come back for the other stops," Maza said. "What we do is we put it in order. We come to our supervisor. We tell them and we fix it, so on Monday, everything's going to be fine."
"(I) hope we have a good year this year, and (I) hope we can please all the parents and kids," Allen said.
All 929 bus drivers throughout the county will test their routes by the end of the week.