“(School district customers) have more control because if you don't like the way it's going, you call the contractor and say, 'Change it.'”
— Scott Allen, TransPar He noted, “Because this is what we do for a living,
we can be efficient with routing, maybe eliminate a bus and save money by being efficient with routing. Not all the time can we save them money, but I’d say eight out of 10 times we can.” Moore expanded on the advantages of contract-
ing services. “Schools’ core competency is educating children. Our core competency is transporting children. We allow schools to focus on their core competency while we focus on doing ours professionally and safely,” Moore said. “Best practices (are) another one. Tat’s true of any contractors whether they’re family-owned companies or First Student. We really make a science of putting together best practices teams to ensure we meet customer's demands today and in the future.” First Student pulls together its top dispatchers,
mechanics, customer service staff and other profes- sionals from nine regions across North America to come up with a best practices playbook from decades of experience and 500-plus locations. Having one main focus of providing customized
transportation service allows a contractor the ability to condentrate efforts on improving ridership levels and helping districts cope with driver shortages. Moore cited the example of a wealthy district in
48 School Transportation News June 2014
a low-unemployment state that was having trouble attracting drivers. “We’re doing things like raising the wage rate and aggressively recruiting from the sur- rounding area, but with our footprint, we can pull in drivers from other parts of the country,” he said. “We’ve even had situations of rampant flu and have brought in drivers from other parts of a state. Tat’s something you don’t get if you’re limited to your own district.”
START SLOW
Allen and O’Sullivan said districts that make a successful transition from district-run transportation to a private firm take very deliberate steps. “Te ones that jump in and say, ‘We’re trying to
save money’ and do it right away are the ones that have a hard time. Te ones that do it successfully are the ones who start the process, talk about it for six months or a year and really sell it, and then go out for bid,” O’Sullivan observed. “Tey’re the ones that say,
‘We have a community and employees we need to listen to and explain it to them’ so everyone under- stands the direction they’re going.” Allen emphasized buy-in is just the first crucial
step. “One other thing that’s key to success is a true partnership between the district and contractor. I’ve seen
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