best practices,” she added. Tose practices, she said, would not have been possible without the culture change. But true organizational transformation is not that simple.
FINDING ITS “WAY”
Drivers and trainers (in orange vests) at the Sewickley, Pa., location show their commitment to the DriveSMART campaign by signing a poster that outlines fuel-saving techniques. The efficiency program is just one example of how employee-led teams are identifying and creating best practices companywide.
Te result was a hodgepodge of values
that gave way to a certain mentality that Burtwistle termed a longing for “the good old days.” Employees remained fixated on the way things were under the management of Ryder or Mayflower or any other com- pany that had been purchased. Meanwhile, First Student had to learn how to use its size and experience to its advantage. “We finally leveraged our size to get to
Roger Moore, a retired transportation and logistics officer in the U.S. Army, worked at Laidlaw in various business development, marketing, government relations and charter operations roles before the acquisition by First Student. He said the entire company has undergone a “powerful” transformation in the past two years. When he first came on board, he encountered many employees inherited from Laidlaw as well as dozens on dozens of other companies who were “still doing things their own way.” First Student was, and is, the largest in the industry and boasts a leading safety record. But what was its identity? “We are an amalgamation of different
companies that have been brought together and labeled First Student, but are we really going to become one culture; are we really going to be the best in all facets of the business?” Moore recalled during an interview at the National Conference on Education in February.
FIRST TIMELINE
36 School Transportation News June 2013
1913: Newman City Schools contracts with Patchett Bus and Transportation Company. Over the next 100 years, bus company ownership changes to First Student.
1914: Swedish immigrant Carl Eric Wickman opens the Mesabao Transportation Company to transport miners between the towns of Hibbing and Alice, Minn., for 15 cents a ride. The company in later years becomes Greyhound Lines.
1924: Robert Laidlaw creates Laidlaw Transit, a trucking service company in Windsor, Ontario.
1955: American Transportation Enterprises, later known as ATE Management and Service Company, is founded in Cincinnati.
1979: Laidlaw Transit, later known as Laidlaw International, enters the school bus business.
1986: Ryder acquires ATE Management and Services Company to form Ryder/ATE. In the same year, Ryder/ATE acquires Managed Logistics Systems to create Ryder/MLS.
1994: L&E Mobile Computer Mounts is founded. 1998: Greyhound merges with Laidlaw.
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