Contractor Profiles
Tumbleweed Transportation Total Fleet: 180 Buses School District Customers/Contracts: 35 Number of Bus Drivers: 170 Students Transported: 4,100 Per Day
Tumbleweed started operating in Los Angeles in 1994. Erin Borda is the owner and CEO, and provided the re- sponses below.
On Technology Implementation: “Most of the schools I work for love technology and want
all of it. GPS and parent vehicle tracking like SafeStop are a requirement these days, with all schools consistently requesting that technology. In addition, we are starting to get more requests for student attendance tracking and attendance capabilities. However, we have not installed this in our buses just yet, as not all schools need this informa- tion. Camera technology is also on our radar, not only for safety reasons, but for student management challenges as well. Our insurance carrier would love camera installation at the front of the bus and above the driver compartment, as that could help during accident investigations and for determining liability. At this time, Wi-Fi on the buses is also
becoming a frequent request, although primarily for the middle and high school routes we operate. Currently, we only have about 8 percent of our buses using the Wi- Fi, as it is an added cost for the school and not everyone finds it necessary. Ultimately, more and more technology will be added, as that’s the world we live in now. [With] that said,
we will have to start requesting that the schools themselves pay added fees to add the various technology they require. If a school wishes to have the units installed, then they pay for that and then pay the successive years of data charges.”
On the Driver Shortage: “The driver shortage, while still an issue, has settled
down since 2017. We have made a big effort in our budget to increase wages. This seems to have worked, not only in retention of existing drivers, but in recruiting new drivers. In addition to higher wages, we do try to give each driver as many hours as possible. Some companies or districts will only commit to four to five hours per day, and this doesn’t allow for many drivers to have enough money to support themselves or a family. So, on average, most of our drivers work 6.5 hours per day on the low end and up to 10 hours per day on the high end.” ●
QUAL IT Y MAT TERS
58 School Transportation News • JUNE 2019
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
