by searching “engine repair,” “brake adjust- ment,” or “mirror replacement.” STN contributor John Whelan, a
school bus shop foreman for School District No. 73 in Kamloops, British Columbia, has been contributing to the online discussion on his blog site,
www.schoolbusmechanic.blogspot.com, since his first post in 2005. Since then, he
has discussed a wide variety of yellow bus issues, including sharing some “AHA! mo- ments,” as he called them in his first post. Whelan also contributes to another on-
line forum,
MechanicsHub.com, created by Ron Maizis, who has spent the last 16 years in the transportation staffing industry. Te idea for the site occurred when he was watching a scene in the 1996 movie “Jerry
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Maguire” when Tom Cruise’s sports agent character decides his industry must evolve. “I started thinking, why doesn’t this
concept apply to all other trade disci- plines?” said Maizis, GM of Maizis & Miller Consultants. “We decided to focus on this one niche, which we refer to as diesel ma- chinery professionals.” In just two years, his site has grown to 7,500 Web pages, including a school bus mechanic section, and it currently hosts 2,200 members. “People talk about the trade, how they got into it, why they like it and so forth,” added Maizis. Technicians not only have the power to
search sites like Google, Bing and Yahoo!, they also get a helping hand from manufac- turers, essentially all of which offer training directly or through dealers. Blue Bird, IC Bus and Tomas Bus all offer on-site train- ing several times a year at their respective plants. William T. French, assistant director of fleet and finance for Volusia County (Fla.) Schools, uses online training programs from IC Bus, Ricon, Bendix and Arvin Meritor. “We like to think we’re leaders in techni-
cal training for our shop staff,” said French. “Last year we conducted a competition among our shops
that included rigging
buses with faults, and they had to compete in teams diagnosing issues against the clock. Te parts staff was also challenged with do- ing research for parts on vendor Web sites as well as written tests mirroring ASE.” BJ Henderson has ASE Master Auto-
motive, Medium-Heavy Duty Truck and School Bus Certifications and is a former instructor at a technical college. He also keeps current with iATN (the Internation- al Automotive Technician’s Network) as well as with manufacturer training. “I understand the importance of keep-
ing up with the new technology as much as possible, and adjusting old practices to make more efficient use of manpower, parts, or tooling,” said Henderson, assis- tant fleet manager for ACHR Inc., a Head Start agency in Auburn, Ala. n
Do you utilize social media sites for work- related networking? Vote in the STN Web Poll at
stnonline.com.
www.TransTechs.com 888-637-3776
42 School Transportation News Magazine March 2011
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