and meticulous. Tey are familiar with what they are looking at and knowing what they are looking for. You literally have to put your hand on every part of that bus,” Casey said. “Tey don’t assume a bolt is tight. Tey are very, very thorough.” He noted that one of his tools during his time with the
nation’s only state-owned and operated school bus system was a re-inspection system to backstop frontline personnel. A team of field engineers would ask shop managers for a list of the buses that had just been inspected and accompanying inspection sheets. “Ten they’d go over to those schools and re-inspect each
bus,” Casey recalled. “Te reality is you cannot afford to over- look anything.”
THEY BLEED YELLOW Joe Scesny, former supervisor of inspection at the New York
State Department of Transportation and an industry consultant who co-founded the America’s Best skills and training competi- tion with Casey and former NAPT President William Tousley, noted that inspections also need to take into account different conditions across the country. In mountainous states like Colorado, mechanics and inspec- tors need to keep a closer eye on brake systems. In seaboard states and states that use large amounts of salt on roads during the winter, the watchword may be corrosion. No matter what challenges a particular area may pose, Scesny said school bus mechanics are usually up to the task.
“The key to being a good inspector is being detail oriented and meticulous. You literally have to put your hand on every part of that bus.”
- Marshall Casey, Consultant “Most of them have a certain pride; we say they bleed yellow
because they do care and they take a lot of pride in what they do,” he contended. No matter where they are, Scesny said districts with out- standing inspection programs have certain things in common, including a structured preventative maintenance program with components consisting of safety inspections, daily trip inspec- tions, special projects, maintenance records and agreement in qualified maintenance personnel. Ultimately, the role of mechanics and inspectors, in Scesny’s
words, is to “prevent tomorrow’s problems today.” Casey agreed. “One thing we have to remember about making buses safer is that we have to do it by making one bus safer at a time,” he concluded. “If we have a goal of one bus every day, think of where we are a year from now and how much of an impact we can have. I think that’s where our focus needs to be every day and you don’t get a day off from that.”
See Us At Booth #906 64 School Transportation News October 2013
See Us At Booth #938
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