MAILBAG SELECTIVE SERVICE?
I just read with great interest the response from the ASBC to the DOT 2010-2015 Strategic Plan. I also finished reading the June issue of STN and was drawn to the articles discussing what the school transportation in- dustry needs to do to increase ridership (page 28). I am afraid that as an industry we are turning to the wrong people for the answer to this prob- lem. We do not need to go outside the industry to protect the industry. I remember years ago when I first started as a school bus driver for
a little contractor in Northern Vermont, how my boss would tell me, “Whatever the customer wants, whatever the customer wants”. Ten I moved into the office (which means I still drive the bus, but now I answer the phone, too), my boss would say to me, “Don’t say no. Never say no.” He was building a company and I needed to learn a lot about the school transportation business. But, what I learned had little to do about school transportation and a lot to do with human relations. We knew that school districts, and by extension parents, would only continue to use our ser- vices if we provided what they needed at a reasonable cost and stayed off their radar. Tis business model grew the company. I agree with John Matthews who said in the June issue of STN, “…his goal
was to transport as few students as possible with an infrastructure in place to get them to school safely, so less resources were spent on transport- ing them and more on educating them!” He reminds us that our industry began by helping those that could not get to school any other way and as a convenience for parents. Today, we seem to be suggesting that everyone should be riding the bus. Te cost to create, maintain and operate that size of a system is getting too expensive for parents to foot the bill. Having a bloated system and explaining by saying that more students should be riding is not good for the industry. Let’s face it, school buses are getting more and more expensive. Driver pay, insurance, repairs, fuel all continue to climb. It is no wonder that parents are having second thoughts about funding an expensive program that serves fewer and fewer students. Many systems are going to pay-to-ride plans for this reason. Te idea of “downsiz- ing” our fleets to assist only those that choose to ride or that have no other means to get to school may be a prudent business plan. When economic times are better, we expand our service if that is what the customer wants. In conclusion, I have never been an advocate of a top down approach.
Lobbying Washington to spend taxpayer money trying to convince tax- payers, who are already feeling overtaxed, to ride the bus will have limited success. Te industry will survive and prosper by being safe, flexible, ef- ficient, which will invite riders to the bus and parents to the budget meetings to support the transportation system. Once we make the leap from providing a service people want to use, to telling them they should use it, we have lost. Remember, “Whatever the customer wants.”
Rick Soules Augusta, Maine
5334 Torrance Blvd., 3rd Floor, Torrance, CA 90503 Tel: 310/792-2226 Fax: 310-792-2231
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Editorial Advisory Board:
Denny Coughlin, Minneapolis Public Schools; Judith Dupille, Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles; Dick Fischer, Trans-Consult; Ron Love, Delaware DOE; Randy McLerran, Oklahoma DOE; Pete Meslin, Newport-Mesa Unified; Nancy Netherland, Migrant-Seasonal Head Start; Robert Pudlewski, First Student; Alexandra Robinson, San Diego Unified; Launi Schmutz, Washington County Schools
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10 School Transportation News Magazine August 2010
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