INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS
16TH NCST STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS, AFFILIATIONS
Ben Shew, Chair, NASDPTS Anna Borges, NASDPTS Don Carnahan, NAPT Gary Catapano, NSC Donnie Fowler, NSTA
Dan Kobussen, NSTA David Koskelowski, NASDPTS Leon Langley, NASDPTS Bill Loshbough, NSC Bruce Miles, SMBTC
Gena Spence, UCM Bill Tousley, NAPT Ken Whisnant, SBMTC
NASDPTS = National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services; NAPT = National Association for Pupil Transportation; NSC = National Safety Council; NSTA = National School Transportation Association; UCM = University of Central Missouri; SBMTC = School Bus Manufacturers Technical Council
“Te NCST wants to get information out to states and local educational agencies that this (NSTSP) manual is available — and to use it and try not to abuse it. Abuse would be to start ordering things that are not necessary,” Shew continued. “If you want to purchase them, buy them on your own without the OEM providing it. Tey have to keep products in stock that take up inventory, and inven- tory is expensive.” He noted there are dozens of items that could be standardized, from 36 different first-aid kits to state-specific labels and wording. Nationwide he has
“People need to start using the national standards document for writing specs on school buses —
that’s what it’s there for.” — Mike Kenney, NCST Specifications Writing Committee Chair
found more than a dozen types of lettering, lighting and wording on the back of yellow buses that say the same thing: Stop when the bus stops. “Tis is really a safety issue, more so than some
others,” Shew stressed. “It’s important to communi- cate to the LEAs and states that you don’t have to necessarily adopt the national specifications in its entirety, but try to use the most common things, and we can all benefit.” Mike Kenney, chair of the School Bus Specifica-
tions Writing Committee, told STN he is pleased that more state directors of pupil transportation are getting involved and attending meetings. Tis is important because the information they have will “trickle down” to fleet managers who are writing specs and even members of state specification committees. “People need to start using the national stan- dards document for writing specs on school buses
16 School Transportation News August 2013
— that’s what it’s there for,” said Kenney, who is regional transportation coordinator for Educational Service District 101 in Spokane, Wash. As chair of the specifications writing committee, it is his job to bring proposed changes and inqui- ries to meetings that are increasingly held over the Internet in between industry trade shows. In addition, Kenney is researching proposed chang-
es and working with spec engineers for the school bus OEMs and aftermarket manufacturers on such items as ventilation fan locations and the flammability of floor coverings. “Anything we can do to bring down the cost of buses is good. Te manufacturers realize that, and they are all over this (issue),” Kenney said. Marshall Casey has joined the NAPT Fleet Ser-
vices Advisory Panel established at the 2012 Summit. Te panel has formed five subgroups to address fleet management, specs, service and repair, inspections and America’s Best. Casey, an industry veteran formerly with the South Carolina DOE, is focusing on the latter two areas. He emphasized that standardizing specs would make it much easier to do school bus inspections because of the consistency. “Te overall goal with any of the work we do is
to improve safety. Te more familiar you are with inspecting an item, like the brakes or whatever it is, theoretically the better job you should do on that, which overall would make the buses safer,” he explained. Casey, who first became involved in NCST in
1990, recently began working with Kenney to define the subgroups and to create databases of members’ contact information to increase communication and obtain more feedback. “With the way things are changing in the indus-
try, we have to be more progressive in getting the word out and getting changes made,” he added.
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