as a transportation director at Bethlehem Central School District in Delmar, N.Y. He was introduced to Total Quality Management, a management sys- tem approach that uses strategy, data and effective communications to more efficiently run operations. “It was a statistical approach to collecting and


A


analyzing data, and then putting plans into action,” Karam said. “Tat had opened up my eyes to the so- called KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).” Of course, not all transportation directors have


a background in the military or were previously introduced to some type of formal metrics program. Edie Dunbar is one of them. Yet, the transportation director of School District 27J in Brighton, Colo., embarked on her KPI journey slowly but surely and has seen tangible results. She said before she began implementing KPIs,


the school board “was not proactive with transpor- tation, they focused more on the school buildings, other things. Now they’re more proactive. Now we’re talking at a different level.” Regardless of the size of their departments and


fleets, more transportation directors are chanting Key Performance Indicators because they are seeing good numbers rise and bad ones drop in terms of money, time, manpower and overall efficiency. Some directors and supervisors are already versed in what KPIs entail while others are barely wrapping their heads around the concept, particularly on how to begin the process. However, transportation professionals agree that this method of documenting and analyzing a set list of data over time will be the way to operate permanently. Supporters say KPIs will help present the value of a transportation department to the school board through numbers, not by “that’s how it’s always been done.”


STARTING SMALL


KPIs are a big part of what Karam does daily. “KPIs allows me to paint a picture of the opera-


tions, and numbers do paint a picture, especially for those who have the final decisions in operations but they aren’t transportation experts,” he explained. He had a business-centric mindset when he


started at the district as a transportation assistant in 2000, and began collecting data on a limited scale. In 2002, he became director and created a simple Excel spreadsheet to track more data. “I went back to 1997 and found out the number of students, number of buses, our mechanic com- pensation, parts costs, cost per mile, cost per route bus and recreated that up until 2002 and every year since,” he said.


www.stnonline.com 51


lfred Karam didn’t know in 1994 that what he was learning in the U.S. Ma- rine Corps would help him years later


After utilizing his KPIs, Karam saw a change on the maintenance side of his operations. For exam- ple, the out-of-service rate of his school bus fleet began to drop incrementally. He first collected the number of maintenance


work orders per day, per month, and the number of his mechanics and workspaces in his yard, and dis- covered that the rate was at a whopping 25 percent. “We realized we didn’t have the proper man-


power, so I had to show my superiors that I needed more mechanics,” he said. Karam was able to hire more mechanics, and as time went on, he had fewer buses out of service. “Instead of asking for more money on buses, we began to stabilize the expendi- tures on the maintenance side.” Karam said he’s a happy camper so long as his


department is under 5 percent in out-of-service rates. But he’s far below that number. “Now, after all these years, our out-of-service


rate is 0.7 percent, but we didn’t get to this point because we’ve been doing things like they’ve always been done.” Before Dunbar became transportation director


in 2004, she worked within the department as a routing specialist and a trainer. No one was talking about tracking data or KPIs. Te department didn’t even have routing software until three years ago. Once she took on her new role, she discovered she needed emergency buses due to the developmental boom in the district’s surrounding areas. “We just boomed quickly with the student population,” she said. “We are located in good, ole country-boy area, but it takes in the surrounding cities. It was something we weren’t ready for.” Dunbar took whatever data she could get at the time to determine her next move. She worked with her business manager and planning manager, who were then projecting student growth numbers based on new housing permits sold in surrounding areas. Te numbers were fairly accurate, which showed administration how transportation was scrambling


Alfred Karam of Bethlehem Central School District in Delmar, N.Y., uses this spreadsheet to track his KPIs.


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