particular area for things they requested — look, feel, comfort level, etc.,” he continued. “Te purchasing coordinator is there to ensure we are clean and above board.” Simmons noted that in most of the larger
districts, RFPs are handled by purchasing departments that write them up with legal- ese and receive input from transportation directors about their needs. “But if you’re a smaller district, you can
use your KPIs to compare yourself to other districts,” he advised. “If your average mpg is 3 to 4, and a comparable district is getting 9, that could help you make a decision about what kind of bus to purchase because of the engine and transmission you need to increase the mpg.” With his own RFPs, he said his chief
concerns are warranties, miles per gallon and total cost of a bus. One 65-passenger school bus might cost $90,000 with a cer- tain engine or wheel base. Yet another bus with the same basic specs could be $95,000 because it comes with air-conditioning. “You have to remember that, with each
KPI you take into consideration, every state has its own school bus construction standards,” said Simmons. “Florida now requires A/C on school buses, and Ohio does not. Tis is a $20,000 add-on per bus … not too many people put extra options on their buses that aren’t required by their state school-bus construction standards.”
BEING BUSINESS-MINDED Robert Streeter, a retired transportation
director who served on NAPT’s KPI Com- mittee and presented the benefits of metrics to Summit attendees last fall, told STN many transportation directors don’t have a business background like he did when he took over student transportation at Dysart Unified School District, northwest of Phoenix. Early on, he recognized the value of KPIs in managing expenditures. “It would be good idea to explain to pur-
chasing people how to analyze and develop bids using KPIs,” said Streeter, who retired from Dysart after five years. His eclectic background includes another five years at Arizona’s Department of Corrections and 10 years as an international buyer of fuel-in- jection system components. Because of his business experience,
Streeter already knew how to apply metrics to a business operation. Like Shields, he relied on his “support group” of maintenance and safety supervisors in measuring every aspect of the bus operation — fuel usage, ridership, maintenance costs and more.
“We tracked everything to get data to see where we were at. You need this data to show where you are, before you figure out where you need to go,” he continued. “We brought transportation in-house and actu- ally exceeded expectations — service-wise and cost-wise.” Te successful turnaround culminated in
Streeter’s district winning NAPT’s Larson Quality Award, which recognizes operators for high-quality customer service and safe- ty-centered operations. When he first came aboard, Dysart was one of the country’s fastest-growing districts, and he recalled using KPIs to streamline his RFPs when he bought 60 or so buses within three years. “We changed the way we bid and we set
our criteria differently. We looked at it more functionally — it wasn’t as much about the ‘bells and whistles,’ which were nice to have but not necessary,” Streeter explained. “If your people say you don’t need it, then why should you have it? Work with your fleet managers and safety managers because they’re the guys who have to maintain the buses.”
Does your operation utilize Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)?
No = 50% Yes = 21%
I don’t know = 29%
Out of 185 responses to this month's survey
ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS Robert Pudlewski, a veteran industry
consultant and STN’s technical editor, noted that major school bus contractors also utilize committees during bus bidding and purchasing. First Student, National Express Corp., and Student Transportation Inc., have used KPIs in their purchasing deci- sions for years, he said, because they spend millions each year on new buses. Tese three operations make up 20 percent of the U.S. school bus industry. “Tey have the resources. Tey are forced
to because of the way they budget costs,” said Pudlewski. “You are what you measure. If you are big, you need to measure every-
thing to make sure you don’t have anything fall through the cracks.” He added that even small and midsized
school-bus operators should use some kind of measurement to determine life-cycle costs. “Ask yourself: Am I getting 25,000
miles on this brake system versus another system? Am I going to recoup my capital investment, and how do I measure that? Say a school bus costs $100,000 and air brakes would be $4,000 — is that justifiable? Will I recover that investment over the life of the vehicle? Look at total cost of ownership,” he advised. “I would say 80 percent of our industry doesn’t consider KPIs for decisions on buying a bus.” But KPI Committee member Lawrence has seen a rising interest in KPIs among transportation supervisors in upstate New York. Te Rochester Area Transportation Supervisors Association has hosted two meetings on KPIs, he said, with the first providing an overview of metrics and the second focusing on KPIs that school busi- ness officials want supervisors to use. “Te more we use KPIs, the better
informed we are when making decisions,” stated Lawrence. “I am hopeful that more and more of our colleagues will continue to use and share their KPIs with others, as they are a great way to compare similar processes and make informed decisions for our districts and operations.” Paul Mori of Huntington Coach in Long
Island, who is on the New York School Bus Contractors Association’s board of directors, credits Lawrence for increasing KPI aware- ness across the state. He applauded his long- time colleague for doing an “excellent” job with KPI presentations at NYAPT meetings in Suffolk and Nassau County last year. New York has the largest school bus
system, transporting 10 percent of students nationwide, and Mori said it may just be the most progressive system as well. “We don’t sit back and say, ‘Te feds are
suggesting this,’ so we’ll just do that … in New York, we use BUSNET scores,” Mori noted, referring to the New York State Department of Transportation’s Bus Safety Information Network that tracks and publishes operators’ inspection records. “I’m against people bidding just on price because often you get what you pay for. I want to do it right because that’s the way I was trained. I would rather lose money on a bid than not do it safely.”
Read more about how contractors use KPIs during the RFP process in our Web Exclusives section at
stnonline.com.
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