A Different Kind of Vehicle
Part and parcel with the optimized routing is the new clas- sification of “School Pupil Transport Vehicle,” which was first established in 2008 by the legislature to address the rising costs of using school buses to transport students with disabilities and homeless students. Te current iteration is still in its infancy, said Brown, but it’s expected to soon grow. Te state’s allowable School Pupil Transport Vehicles are designed and constructed to seat no more than eight student passengers, not including the driver. Te vehicles can be vans or SUVs. Similar laws exist in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. New Mexico currently is considering legislation. Te Rhode Island law gives school district’s leeway in hiring operators for these vehicles, only requiring a specially designated pupil transportation chauffeur license. While there are the obvi- ous benefits of fuel savings and lower purchase price by utilizing these vehicles, Brown said keeping down costs, while “critical,” is not the only reason vans have been added to the statewide fleet. “Work on this initiative actually began several years ago
when we issued our last Request for Proposals for transporta- tion,” she explained. “At that time we incorporated vans into our fleet request. Tis was based on situations where very small numbers of students needed transportation to schools that were either further away, or at times of the day where greater flexibility was needed.” Of course, since the vehicles are not school buses and not manufactured to the same federal standards, the argument can be made that they are not the safest mode of school travel for these students. Brown pointed to the legislation, which states that the vans or SUVs are only allowable “provided that these vehicles meet the highest crash worthiness standards for these categories of vehicles.”
Tough they do not need to be painted yellow, the vehicles must have stop arms and adhere to the same requirement as school buses to stop at all railroad crossings. Tey must also be equipped with first aid kits, fire extinguishers mounted next to the driver, heating systems and “school bus power equip-
ment,” defined as dual braking systems, power braking systems, power steering and an interlock system that requires the driver to depress the brake pedal to deactivate the emergency brake. Brown added that Ocean State Transit led a pilot program and worked with the Department of Motor Vehicle on both vehicle and driver licensing requirements. As for driver safety, the pupil transportation chauffeur license
requires applicants to file with their local police department and submit for a criminal background check. Additionally, Brown added that these drivers must supply a letter from a doctor that states they are physically able to transport school children before they can take their chauffeur and pupil certificate exams. Te drivers are also required to participate in the same training throughout the course of the year as do CDL school bus drivers. Rhode Island law also requires school districts and bus compa- nies to follow national training standards. Applicants who already hold an active CDL with the Rhode
Island DMV may operate one of the vehicles with an active pupil transportation certificate. “Districts are very interested in the program and hopeful that they may be able to offer it as part of their local transportation in the near future,” Brown added.
—R.G.
First Student and Ocean State Transit, a subsidiary of Student Transportation of America. “(Te program) is small in terms of numbers but still it’s a very costly form of transportation,” Forsyth said. “It requires a tremen- dous amount of attention.” Tough First Student and Ocean State Transit provide the buses,
drivers and maintenance, Transpar Group creates, reviews and manages all routes for the contractors that are operated daily out of 13 locations. It also oversees a new albeit small fleet of allowable vans and SUVs for student transport (see sidebar). “We provide routing services for the statewide program to ensure that student needs are met related to reasonable run times, on-time
drop off and pick-up and that routes are operating as efficiently as possible in accordance with RIDE’s guidelines,” explained Nicole Martin, Transpar’s manager for the statewide program. She and her team also oversee vendor contract compliance and
coordinates all student registration, routing and customer service. RIDE’s Brown said she appreciates the checks and balances, which directly keep costs down as students are transported to 187 different school campuses across Rhode Island, and even a few in Massachusetts. “By doing so, the vendor providing the buses is not determining
how many buses are needed, which is the situation when a vendor creates the route,” she added.
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