INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS
£ Brandon Bryson of Bryson Sales and Service of Washington presents the keys to the 550,000th Blue Bird school bus to Cindy Steigerwald, Mukilteo School District’s transportation manager.
BLUE BIRD CELEBRATES MILESTONE WITH SCHOOL BUS NO. 550K
As Mukilteo School District in Sno- quamish, Wash., prepares for the coming school year with a new model-year 2014 All American, rear-engine school bus from Blue Bird, the manufacturer was celebrating its 550,000th bus to roll off the assembly line in Fort Valley, Ga. “Te hard work and dedication that Blue
Bird employees have exhibited throughout our 86 years of manufacturing has contributed to this significant milestone,” said Phil Horlock, president and CEO of Blue Bird Corporation. Founded in 1927, the company stated that more than 200,000 of the 550,000 school
buses it has manufactured remain on the road in some manner. Founder Albert Luce mounted the company’s first school bus on a Ford Model T chassis for a school district in Marshallville, Ga. “Blue Bird No. 1,” which is on display at Te Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., featured a solid, one-piece roof bow design that ran from one floor line over the roof to the opposite floor line. Te company said this same characteristic that optimizes structural integrity continues to define today’s models. In addition to the one-piece roof bow, Blue Bird said the newly redesigned 2014
All American unveiled last year offers improved fuel economy and turning radius, an ergonomic driver’s cockpit and enhanced parts commonality with Blue Bird’s Vision conventional school bus. Te All American was one of 13 new Blue
Bird’s delivered to Mukilteo by dealer Bryson Sales and Service of Washington. “Like Blue Bird, Bryson Sales and Service
believes in providing quality products that deliver the greatest amount of benefit to the customer while offering superior training, ser- vice and support,” said Brandon Bryson, VP of Bryson Sales and Service of Washington.
NEW LAWS GIVE HAWAII DOE MORE CONTROL OVER BUSING Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed two bills at the July 2
Board of Education meeting that are designed to bring down the high cost of transporting public school students in the island state. Senate bills 1082 and 1083, which take effect immediately, allow the Board and Department of Education (DOE) more flexibility in managing school bus contracting and procurement. “Tese measures will help to control the escalating cost of student
transportation,” Abercrombie said. “Tese laws were established with the cooperation of the BOE and DOE, which will provide more control for fiscal responsibility.” It has been one year since retired Marine Corps Col. Ray
L’Heureux took the reins of the DOE’s Student Transportation Services Branch and commissioned Management Partnership Services Inc. (MPS) of Maryland to conduct an in-depth study of its out-of-control school bus operations. Te newly enacted measures reflect key recommendations
28 School Transportation News August 2013
included in that final report, which found that Hawaii spends about $1,750 for every student rider — much more than national norms. It also found that school bus contractor costs skyrocketed between 2006 and 2010 primarily because of contractors’ rate increases. Now, SB 1082 provides the DOE with a tool to control these
escalating costs by revising the competitive procurement process. MPS had identified problems in the current request-to-bid process as well as geographic problems inherent to Hawaii that have restricted competition among bus contractors for several years. Under SB 1083, the DOE will not need to require contractors
to certify that they pay the same wages as public officers and employees. Te bill states that the MPS report cited statutory compensation requirements as a constraint on contracting for bus services. It also noted that “removing this requirement will stimulate competitive bidding, which will help to reduce escalating transportation costs.”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76