FIRST TAKE
As I sat down to write this month’s column, I did so in the comfort of my living room. Tere I sat in front of my laptop and thought, “Well isn’t this is apropos?” Doing work
remotely on the very thing that is the underlying subject of so many articles in this an- nual edition dedicated to school bus maintenance. Bringing one’s work home with them is nothing new. Many employees follow up a
The Slow Online Revolution
By Ryan Gray
10- or 12-hour day by retreating to the glow of the personal computer to catch up on items that were pushed aside earlier by meetings, a last-second request for proposal or some other fire that needed to be extinguished. Laptop computers have become the business person’s best friend, despite the ever-increasing encroachment of Blackber- rys, PDAs, iPhones and other wireless mobile equipment that can perform many of the same functions. It’s also come to the point that a school bus garage without at least one laptop com-
puter in its arsenal for diagnosing vehicles is few and far between. In fact, it’s becoming a general rule that maintenance staff must rely on computers to fulfill their daily jobs. Like a writer on deadline. Sure, just as good old fashioned pen and paper will always have its role, so too will
wrenches and screwdrivers. But, alongside today’s borescopes and tachometers, the laptop has become indispensable when working on late-model buses. But that doesn’t come as any surprise to an industry that has been ramping up for such technology for the past half a dozen years, if not more. A bit more esoteric to garage operations, however, can be the importance of com-
puters for things other than performing preventative maintenance operations. Most maintenance professionals know of computerized software and portals that can help them purchase and manage inventory. But, outside of the larger fleets, there are seem- ingly, and relatively, few school districts that are regularly using these tools. Is it that there is still a lack of computer-savvy professionals in the school bus garage,
as alluded by one vendor we spoke to? We were discussing why online ordering and inventory management has yet to catch on like wildfire, despite the fact that these tools have been in existences for a good decade and are widely used in other transportation segments. True, there could be a generational divide still prevalent in garages. Yet, by the sheer number of individuals you can encounter online with personal Facebook and Twitter pages and who characterize themselves as pupil transportation professionals, I’d venture another guess. A logical choice could be that many school bus technicians don’t have time during
their busy day to jump online, unlike others who sit behind a desk. Another school bus vendor said he sees a lot of Web activity — though not necessarily actual orders — oc- curring at night, and likely at the individual’s home. Te vendor said he assumed these Web surfers were using their downtime at home to catch up on researching parts. Te obvious reason could be economics. More often it is that small- and medium-
sized school districts lack the infrastructure to support additional computer terminals in school bus garages to allow technicians a portal into a manufacturer’s parts inven- tory, for example. Operations are struggling just to purchase new buses, as a general trend across the country has become to extend bus life cycles. Tat could be good news for the emissions retrofit companies, but certainly the economy is doing everything in its power to nickel and dime the industry in other ways. Schools just can’t afford neces- sary extras, and more computers for the shop could be considered just that. And it’s not just the garages that are being short-changed, as for years and years computers for classrooms has been a challenge. So much more is possible online than buying parts and managing true vehicle costs.
Tose things are vital, mind you, but so are the training opportunities that abound via mechanic blogs, YouTube posts, and distance-learning Web sites. We live in an age of instant information. But for school transportation, it appears today’s local and state budget cuts are blocking necessary on-ramps to that superhighway. ■
12 School Transportation News Magazine March 2010
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