Roger Bannerman | Fleet Manager | Cook Illinois Corporation Roger Bannerman is not related to the
Benish family who ownn Cook-Illinois Corporation that operates school bus contracts throughout Chicagoland. But with over 32 years of experience in fleet maintenance with the company and more than 38 years in the
industry, he might as well be. Bannerman, whose brother Don also manages the machine shop for Cook-Illinois and subsidiary Chicago Bus Sales, has also been a certified ASE Master Truck and School Bus Mechanic for about the same time frame as well as a State of Illinois safety lane inspector. A sought-after expert in school bus maintenance, Roger
has authored and copyrighted diagnostic software being used by school bus maintenance facilities nationwide. During
his tenure at Cook-Illinois Corporation, he oversaw the establishment of new maintenance facilities, managed the conversion of hundreds of school buses to run on natural gas and managed the retrofitting of more than 1,800 buses to run on environmentally-friendly bio diesel fuel. He also on-boarded fleet maintenance solutions from Zonar including Electronic Verified Reporting (EVIR) and telematics solutions. Currently, Bannerman is Cook-Illinois’ purchasing and
fleet director. He oversees the purchase of new school buses, replacement and repair parts for 18 maintenance shops, the body shop, the machine shop, the parts department. and the maintenance of a fleet of more than 2,200 vehicles. He also continues to maintain a Class “A” Illinois commercial driver’s license.
Mike Black | Lead Technician | Durham School Services, Illinois
Coupling U.S. Army expe- rience with years of school bus fleet maintenance, Mike Black has made a name for himself at Durham School Services. Black is lead technician for Durham’s
operations in Lake County in Northern Illinois, and profession- alism is the name of his game. Douglas Ball, fleet maintenance manager for multiple
Durham facilities in Illinois, says that Black “exudes profession- alism at all times, and this is what I believe makes his shop the most disciplined in my area.” Peers and subordinates in both his own and neighboring
shops hold Black in high regard. Tis is because Black “expects nothing less than 100-percent effort and gives them 100-per- cet support in return,” says Ball. Tis professional standard is complemented by generosity and teamwork. Even when his workload is piled high, if another shop needs help, Black will do his best to assist. Having dependable “front line supervisors” managing the myriad daily issues in a school bus fleet is crucial for a fleet manager like Ball, and he stresses how thankful he is that he has someone like Black to do the job. Calling him “a cut above the rest,” Ball expressed his appreciation for Black’s work by finish- ing with, “Mike definitely brings great credit upon himself, the Grayslake, IL CSC, and Durham School Services.”
Glenn Brown | Fleet Manager | Baldwin County (Alabama) Schools Baldwin County is the fastest
growing county in Alabama with a school bus transportation pro- gram rated by the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama as the state’s most efficiently run
fleet. Fleet Manager Glenn Brown is proud to be a part of that success in making what he calls “not only one of the most efficient but most safest bus fleets in our state for future leaders whom ride our buses daily.” Brown has been a EMT and first responder with the Cross-
roads Volunteer Fire Department for 27 years. In the safety interests of the 15,500 students that ride 16,000 miles in the county’s 350 buses daily, he and several colleagues went above and beyond by developing a training course on bus accident safety and evacuation for fire departments around the county. As firefighters and EMTs will likely be the first on the scene of
a school bus crash, says Brown, this training teaches them how to respond specifically to this type of emergency. It “gives them a better understanding of the safety items located on a school bus as well as all the exits, battery disconnect and if needed where to cut to gain access to the interior of the bus.” Brown explains, “Tis training also includes booster seat, evacuation blankets and wheelchair stations.” Brown presents this course, which consists of three hours of both classroom and hands-on learning, to both regular and volunteer fire departments free of charge. He says he helped develop it “to not only show our commitment to our commu- nity fire departments but to make sure we provide the safest environment for our children in case of an accident.” Baldwin County’s Transportation Supervisor Tony Pollard emphasized how Brown’s “can do attitude is helping to propel Baldwin County into the top tier of evacuation training for all of [our] drivers.”
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