providing services to fixed locations and programs,” said Am- mon. “[Transportation will be] moving towards a mixed model. Tat industry is going to have to revise what it thinks of yellow school bus transportation and think about transportation that provides access to education.” Bubbl launched in Dallas in 2016 and only hires drivers who are
retired or off-duty police officers. Te company currently contracts with Frisco ISD and has expanded throughout Texas. Adams said Bubble is now looking to expand to more cities nationwide. “We are flexible to go wherever [students] need to go,” said
Pam Adams, co-founder of Bubbl. “Peak time is 2 to 6 p.m.— after school pick up time. We are in the carpool lines every day [with multiple] cars in the same car pool lanes. A lot of the time we are taking them home or to their after-school activity.” While not all school districts are comfortable with outsourcing
Transportation Meet Individual Needs
Mixed Models of WRITTEN BY TAYLOR HANNON |
TAYLOR@STNONLINE.COM
at the NAPT Summit and NASDPTS conferences. Both sessions discussed using a mode of transportation that is not the big yellow school bus, like many parents and students are used to. “And although the type of vehicle is
T
important, an equally important element is the driver behind the wheel of the vehicle,” said Megan Carey, vice president of business development for American Logistics Company. Cary’s Sunday presentation discussed potential safety concerns regarding the alternative modes of transportation that are popping up all over app stores. She discussed what school districts should know and questions they should ask before hiring a transportation contractor. For instance: Are the contractors independent or not? How do they track driver histories and certifications? Do they follow the federal, state and district guidelines when transporting students? Carey said that ALC works in over 20
states. Te company stress consistency, en- suring that drivers operate the same routes every day and only contract with school districts. ALC provides unique transporta- tion solutions for students, specializing in ones who are homeless, or who are placed in foster homes. Tey also focus on stu- dents who have special health needs and those who live in very rural locations. “I don’t disagree that the yellow school
he growth of on-demand ride sharing and alternative student transportation companies were on the agenda this weekend
buses are the safest means of transportation and in a situation like this, we don’t have the yellow school bus resources,” said the transportation director for Lake Wash- ington School District, Jeff Miles. “So this is kind of the difference between being able to provide a service to our students, or not being able to provide that service,” he noted. Lake Washington School District is
nearing the end of its second five-year contract with ALC and has guaranteed to renew its contract again. “What matters most to ALC is the
safety of the students,” said Carey. “Any driver providing services is fully qualified, and meets federal, state and district-specific requirements. Training is not one size fits all. We work closely with districts to deter- mine what district-specific transportation training is needed for the population of students being transported.” An ever-increasing number of app- based services are also offering more personalized service. Tim Ammon, chief of business development for TransPar Group of Companies, discussed the impact of on-demand services on student trans- portation during a Saturday session. He described how apps are a disruptor to the traditional school bus transportation mod- el—the apps are forcing services to evolve to ones that are more individually-based on the needs of the students. “Te nature of the discussion is around
challenging some of the assumptions to basic transportation modeling that exists right now, which is fixed route services
10 THE SHOW REPORTER • OCT 26-31, 2018
any transportation outside the confines of the yellow school bus, most transportation directors would likely agree that school buses are not always the most efficient or cost-effective transportation option, especially for individual students.
Ride-share services like HopSkipDrive are sprouting across the country, offering personalized student transportation options.
“We use them [HopskipDrive] for home-to-school transpor-
tation. It’s called nonpublic school transportation,” said Gary Turner, transportation director for Pasadena Unified School District in Los Angeles County. “We may have one kid [who] lives in the Pasadena area and they go to school in Pomona. So, instead of us paying for a school bus for one kid who goes all the way out to Pomona, we use them to provide that service for us.” New companies like HopSkipDrive and Bubbl can offer one-
on-one transportation to students who require it or live outside of the school district routes. “Tere are times when buses are under-utilized. [HopSkip-
Drive] is an option for school districts that provide great services to students without scrapping quality and safety,” said Joanna McFarland, co-founder and CEO of HopSkipDrive. School Transportation, Inc., which is also a TransPar Group business partner, signaled its acceptance of the ride-share model with its acquisition of HopSkipDrive earlier this year. Te app serves both consumers and school districts. Its drivers have backgrounds in care giving (at least five years), and go through a highly selective 15-point driver certification process that includes finger printing. Te firm is currently operating in select locations throughout Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area and Denver. While school districts are starting to move towards this
growth in alternative services, Ammon said he believes it will take time before the issue catches on en mass, yet it is a conversation to start having now. •
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