About Suffolk Transportation Service School Bus Drivers: 1,450+ Total Employees: 2,200 Company was Purchased: 1970 No. School Districts Served: 21 Total Vehicles in Fleet: 1,400+ No. Students Transported: 50,000+ Per Day Operating Region: Long Island, N.Y.
tions each day. “Our school bus drivers need all of the tools possible to assist them in ensuring the yellow school bus remains the safest way for a child to get to and from school each day,” he added.
STS has a division that is dedicated to ex-
That positive grounding also extends to being first at always adding the latest technological developments and improvements. Those include having added child reminder systems five years ago, and not waiting for it to become a regulatory requirement. STS sees several other important and looming developments.
“There are two that jump out: The first being the standardization of stability control and collision mitigation on school buses to assist drivers in accident avoidance, and the other is automat- ic-ticketing stop-arm cameras,” said John J. Corrado, who was named NYSBCA Contractor of the Year in 2003 and received an Honorary Lifetime Member recognition in 2017. “[These] help reduce the number of drivers who put children in harm’s way by illegally passing a stopped school bus.” Corrado and Suffolk Transportation were instrumental in
developing legislation on stop-arm video camera systems that, at press time, appeared destined for Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s desk Corrado also stressed that school bus drivers face many distrac-
A Suffolk Transportation Service school bus, ready for boarding, at Rockland Lake State Park in Valley Cottage, New York.
ploring new technologies and approaches to enhance safety and efficiency, such as syncing the routing and scheduling software with GPS to improve the company’s ability to assess the impact of changes in school bell times. “This helps us improve route efficiency and reduce costs for our school district partners,” Corrado explained. Every business, especially one that is dedi-
cated to the service of school busing, also has its key staff, the drivers, who are the direct face of the company. That layer of public interaction for school bus drivers still means that drivers who may be faint of heart, or are unhappy with the rate of pay or benefits, aren’t going to stick around. So, Corrado said he understands that the “school bus driver shortage is real, and the entire industry is dealing with it.” Compounding that issue is a strong U.S. econo-
my that has driven the unemployment rate below 4 percent nationwide. “We recognize the realities of a tight labor market. [We] have worked hard to develop and maintain a workplace that is employee-focused and attractive to the local labor market,” he explained. “We provide great pay, benefits and training, and have created a company culture that fosters growth—not just at
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PHOTO BY DINO PETROCELLI.
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