milestone for ensuring that the city was once again open for business, said Eric Goldstein, chief executive officer for School Support Services, which oversees the OPT. Goldstein noted that bringing in Alexan-


dra Robinson, currently president of NAPT, as executive director of the OPT in January 2012 has resulted in positive, accelerated op- erations, as DOE officials were looking for someone with national expertise to oversee operations.


Having been on the consulting side of the student transportation business in addition to her years as transportation director, Rob- inson said sometimes she and her colleagues act like their own internal consultant team to see what they can improve in a short amount of time. When it comes to technology, she noted


the OPT’s longstanding customer service center, “which is truly run like a major corporation,” and is something she has never seen in transportation before. Amazingly, agents answer all calls within seven seconds. Robinson also works closely with large


internal staffs to help maintain the most efficient routing. Her GIS team, for exam- ple, is a very integral part of the day-to-day operations. She works with a six-staff, state-of-the-art team, which always looks at things from a huge city planning level and works with other city agencies. Tis team also gets help from programmers that help build applications for them for such things as integrated route views, call reporting systems and contract management. Robinson also has 11 permanent in-


ROBINSON


unique. Te city is com- prised mostly of bridges and densely populated cities with both city and highway traffic. Students who are bused attend schools located within the five bor- oughs, as well as some


special needs students attending schools in neighboring counties in the state, as well as in New Jersey and Connecticut. Te depart- ment also provides bus service for more than 160,000 field trips annually. Te DOE can have as many as about 7,700


buses on the streets each day. For the 2012- 2013 school year, the DOE bid out contracts for the first time in 33 years and suffered through a bus strike, which was an important


vestigators on staff to identify any school bus incidents, driver misconduct or other allegations that may cause concern. Te de- partment has its own school bus inspectors who are not affiliated with the New York Department of Transportation. Te DOE trains them to go out into the field and con- duct inspections every year at bus yards. Since she began, Robinson has imple- mented additional training for internal staff as well as for all inspectors, directors and routers. She has also placed a training focus on transporting students with disabilities. Tis is in addition to training done by ap- proved centers not run by the OPT.


PHILADELPHIA — COMPLETE OVERHAUL


Te School District of Philadelphia is the eighth-largest in the country, yet was having challenges with its transportation services before Francisco Duprey became general manager of the transportation department.


In leading up to the


start of the 2012-2013 school year, the district hired a firm to evaluate the district’s operations. Te firm called on Duprey of the TransPar Group, a transportation services advisory firm, for transportation expertise. Before joining TransPar, Duprey had been deputy general manager of transportation at Chicago Public Schools. Te Philadelphia district was so im- pressed with Duprey’s findings, it privatized its bus system and offered him the job of general manager. He began his new role July 14, 2012. Te School District of Philadelphia


DUPREY


currently operates about 355 routes through 407 yellow buses. In September 2012, the district was operating about 400 routes before Duprey transitioned approximately 60 routes to contractors over the past year to reduce costs. According to data compiled through January and posted on the district’s website, Philadelphia transports more than 39,000 students to more than 400 schools. Once on the job, Duprey helped launch a


“successful” school startup. He first set clear management and operational goals, followed by creating measurable goals by establishing some Key Performance Indicators. Duprey said cost per bus operated by the district, rate of driver absenteeism and overtime budget vs. the actual budget were the three KPIs that required the most attention. He next focused on driver training, implementing a school startup orientation for all drivers held days before the school start up. “We are now developing long-term training strategies targeted at specific stu- dent behaviors on board buses,” he noted. In December 2012, the school district


awarded a contract under an RFP to devel- op and implement an automated routing system to upgrade the current semi-manual system. And he also is starting the deploy- ment of GPS for January 2014, beginning with 100 buses operating primarily special needs routes. “Te quality of service has actually gone up significantly, even as costs have declined,” Duprey said.


DENVER — REGULAR BUSING, AUTONOMOUS SHUTTLE BUS SYSTEM


Denver Public Schools isn’t as large in


enrollment as New York City or Philadel- phia, but it is widely recognized as one of the best and fastest-growing urban school


www.stnonline.com 47


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