Corporation Timeline August 1998
National Express Group enters U.S. transportation market as National Express Corporation, acquires Durham School Services.
July 2002
National Express Corp. acquires Stock Transportation in Canada.
January 2011
National Express names John Harvey chief financial officer, Timothy Canavan senior vice president of maintenance, Timothy Walter senior vice president of safety and Kim Worster vice president of operations for Canada.
June 2011
David Duke is named chief executive officer of National Express Corp., overseeing Durham School Services in the United States and Stock Transportation in Canada. Interim President and CEO John Elliott remains with National Express to focus on customer and employee relations as well as represent Durham School Services and Stock Transportation within the industry.
September 2011
National Express announces its intent to acquire Petermann Partners Inc. of Cincinnati, the fifth-largest student transportation provider in the U.S.
February 2012
Charlie Bruce is named chief operating officer of Durham School Services and Stock Transportation. He is joined by Carey Paster, who is named vice president of mergers and acquisitions of National Express.
May 2012 National Express completes Petermann acquisition. 42 School Transportation News Magazine June 2012
awareness and education to district customers about the company’s anti-idling policy and practices. Tese initiatives are part of National Express’ progressive discipline approach to the issue of idling. Just as school district face new pressures, so do con-
tractors, Duke said. “As districts have looked more to find efficiencies, it has challenged us in different ways.” As the economy begins to recover, driver availability is be-
coming an issue in certain markets. A misconception with districts when they contract out bus drivers is that the local contractor may not consider hiring those drivers. Duke said that is not the case at National Express. “We need people in that community and those are the
folks we want to hire and work with. We want to be mem- bers of that community. Tat the drivers will go away, that is false. Tat we (as a contractor) are less safe, that can be farther from the truth.”
PARENTAL SUPPORT BEHIND THE CHANGES Behind the scenes, National Express Corp.
is pushing
through its key initiatives that coincide with its United King- dom-based parent company, National Express Group. NEG Chief Executive David Finch stated key corporate values cannot be accomplished without having the right people in place, which is why he was so keen to recruit Duke as CEO of NEG’s North American operations. “David brings a wealth of industry experience and dy-
namic leadership that has helped deliver the significant improvements we have seen in recent years,” he said. Being part of a global entity, purchasing power is also an
important benefit. Te company recently flexed its purchas- ing power when it acquired Cincinnati-based Petermann Partners Inc. for $200 million. Te deal was finalized in early May, shortly after National Express and Petermann divested eight contracts to Student Transportation of America in Texas and Washington state. Te move was per a U.S. Jus- tice Department order to ensure continued competition for school bus contracts in those states. Finch said the Petermann acquisition “is a clear demon-
stration of the opportunity we see in the school bus market.” He added he is optimistic about NEC’s future. “I am sure that under David’s leadership, we will continue this strong prog- ress,” he said. Being part of a global entity also provides National Express
its economies of scale while simultaneously focusing on its core service of transporting students safely to and from school. “When we get up every day, we think about one thing and
one thing only: delivering (school districts’) students,” Duke said. “When school district officials wake up every day, deliv- ering students is one of the things they think about. We’re able to take away that worry from them.” We’re going to care about those students and get them to
school and focus all of our energy on it, and do it less expen- sively because that is our focus.” n
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