Now Entering.... October!

We feel like we blinked -- and lost September!







Every year at this time we pause to review the start of the school year. We generally post a massive piece of paper somewhere in the office for a week or ten days. Our staff has the opportunity to make notes about what we need to improve or change so next year's opening week is better. We save the notes from year to year and review them at the end of July to make sure we don't forget anything important. It's a very effective system.

This year our list is very brief:

1. Create a driver "Help Desk" during the first week and have one staff person dedicated to resolving driver issues and process driver requests.
   
2. Color code bus tags at elementary schools and put matching colors above seats to populate a rudimentary seating system.
   
3. Create a student registration deadline so more parents update addresses and daycare information prior to Open Houses next year.
   
4. Add special needs vehicle parking to our parking diagrams for the special needs drivers.
   

Use one box for each school. All changes and corrections go in the box. That school's helper will have all the changes at route time when heading to the school to assist with pm loading.
This list, my friends, is much, much shorter than it's ever been.

Our goal for next year? We'd like to be able to put all "For Next Year" suggestions on a post it note.

Safe Driving!

Kari

Our Journey To Excellence

These first two weeks of school have seen a surprising change in leadership tactics and policies at our company.For as many years as I've worked here, we've embraced the open-door style management and avoided chains of hierarchy. We call each other co-workers and consider each person who works here a key piece of our family-oriented system. We've long used the company motto "compliance is an obligation; excellence is a choice" to passively encourage our employees to choose excellence.

Somehow that system failed us, our employees, and our customers.

At the start of this school year, a seasoned driver made an embarrassing and completely avoidable mistake, another veteran driver delivered a student to the same wrong address twice, and a third experienced and reliable driver failed to manage students with a kind and caring attitude.

It's clear that we have to adjust our management style. We need clear boundaries and expectations for each person employed by our company. We need to define goals and encourage those who work with us to focus on those goals. We need to stop assuming everyone is doing what they're supposed to do and implement checks and balances. We need to acknowledge our leadership and hierarchy to best protect our company, employees, and customers.

I've long considered mistakes opportunities for teaching. To a certain degree -- with some types of mistakes -- that's true. I'm not sure there's a way to train someone to keep the bus fueled, how to follow the directive "stop at every stop every day", or how to teach someone to be kind and caring.

Stated emphatically here for the first time is the standard we've hinted at for years: we will not tolerate substandard people behind the wheel of our vehicles. It's never been our policy to employ people who are bad drivers. However, there's more to a good bus driver than the ability to safely operate the motor vehicle.

A good bus driver follows state, local, and company laws, regulations, and policies. One of our policies requires buses to be kept at least half full of fuel at all times so we are ready 100% of the time to evacuate the schools should there be a nuclear emergency. With that policy in place, a bus should never be at risk of running out of fuel on route. An excellent bus driver constantly monitors fuel levels, even in the most harsh weather.

A good bus driver communicates effectively with office and shop staff. An excellent bus driver communicates honestly as well, admitting mistakes and taking the opportunity to learn from them.

A good bus driver follows the explicit directions on the route sheets, stopping at every stop every day (especially the first three weeks of the school year). In the early days of the school year, an excellent bus driver calls out the names of the students assigned to the stop because he or she knows the world looks different from the heights of the bus than it does on the road. A student's stop should never be missed.

A good bus driver maintains order on the bus, encouraging good behavior throughout the route. An excellent bus driver manages to encourage good behavior without shouting or berating the little people on the bus.

I am not satisfied with employing good bus drivers; I want excellent bus drivers. Using our new online training website, we will begin to define our boundaries and expectations for our drivers; they are required to visit that online site weekly. In the coming days we will be focusing on creating our company goals and communicating them to our employees. We will also develop ways to ensure our employees understand and partner with us in our quest for excellence.

Today, as I look at each person arriving at work in the morning, I see potential excellence, and I'm excited about where we'll go this year. This is a good place to be at the beginning of the third week of school.

Safe Driving,
Kari

Coming Soon! School Bus Safety Training!

Over the next couple weeks, we will be conducting school bus safety training with our students.

The secondary students will board buses en masse. Drivers will instruct them about emergency exits, two-way radio use, and other safety points. They will then have the opportunity to practice evacuating from the rear of the bus as demonstrated by these drivers.

Secondary students must then take and pass a school bus safety test. We repeat the drill in the spring as a reminder to the students.

The elementary training is a little more hands-on-style training.

Our elementary students first have classroom instruction. The instructor shows the very brief video posted with this article and discusses school bus safety with the students.School

Bus Safety Basics for Elementary Students in District 882.

Each class of students later boards a bus to hear the same school bus safety message they heard first in the classroom. We use the same visual aids as the ones in the video. Before returning to school, the students practice evacuating through the rear emergency exit. After evacuating, they line up and practice crossing in front of the bus, watching the "driver" for the thumbs-up signal.

Elementary students in Minnesota must take and pass a school bus safety exam as well.

Our most important message to students is "Thumbs Up for Safety." It's never okay to approach the bus or cross the road until the driver signals. If the driver doesn't signal, students are instructed to wait. "If the driver is too busy or distracted by something inside the bus to give the signal," we tell them, "he or she is too distracted to be watching traffic. WAIT!"

Some of our drivers are now teaching their students to return the thumbs-up signal. I like that idea. It makes these little people partners in their own safe transportation.

Safe Driving!

Kari

Assignment Time

This week someone asked how we assign routes.

It's very scientific. (Read "Not!" after that statement and smile.)

First, we complete our routes. We look at the stops that require door-side attention and stops in highly-populated areas. We give priority to students who require door-side stops. In the coming year, we will learn how to make our software alert us when a student crosses the street to board the bus.

Next, we review the stops furthest from school and start to plan our spokes-of-a-wheel plan (we don't want buses making circles; we want them to be SPOKES in the wheel).

Third, we look at capacities. Since buses come in many, MANY shapes and sizes, routes must be paired based on how many students will be riding the bus. We depend HEAVILY on parents to make sure we know where students will be.

Once we find a secondary route that matches capacity with elementary routes, we consider geography and location of the elementary routes. Sometimes we have to unpair routes that make sense capacity-wise to make sense geography-wise.

Next, we consider our drivers who bring their kids to work. We think about which school those students need to attend. We have a rule that requires students of drivers to ride on their assigned bus first and their parent's bus second.

Once we've reached this level of driver assignment, we review the drivers' certifications: is the driver eligible for a bus with air brakes or not:?

Finally, we look at our prior-year driver survey. Does a driver want to keep the bus they drove last year, the elementary route, the secondary route, or are they open to whatever is available.

There's certainly nothing simple about routing and route assignment.

Safe Driving!
Kari

The Amazing, Amazing Chase

Last Wednesday we met with our drivers for our annual driver training day.

School bus driver training is often tedious. There are qualification tasks, route issues, and repetitive instruction. Because it's so important to make sure each person we employ is fully qualified, I never find these routine tasks boring or try to hurry people through them. I'm proud of the employees who take qualification seriously.

I can tell, while watching the drivers participate, who is really "getting it" and who is just there because they have to be. The drivers who fully engage are my best and favorite drivers. They are there because they want to be better and do more to keep their students safe. They are the elite.

This year we tried something new.

We planned a "Chase" for our drivers. They were assigned seventeen tasks. Each task, with one exception, was designed to teach them something they will need to know during the coming year.

Prior to deciding to embark on our "Chase" I did some research. I called the Wright County Sherriff's Department and the State Patrol. I contacted the Superintendent of Schools and each building administrator. I talked to a road crew foreman, the TDS people, Dunn Brothers Coffee, and a couple employees.

Everyone was so enthusiastic about our intent, and thought the "Chase" would be a valuable and creative training tool. Each expert contributed something -- a "rule of the game" or a location for an activity or creative input. This "Chase" would be a community effort.

I was excited about the teams of employees. Each team would include people from our various divisions; there would be a regular route driver, a special ed route driver, a trip driver, and a new employee. Each person on the team was there to contribute something important and unique. There would be ten teams in ten buses.

Ten buses, I thought, was a good number. Normally, we send upwards of forty vehicles on the road every day. These ten buses driving through town completing specific tasks would remind our community that SCHOOL IS NEARLY IN SESSION. I received two calls from community members who wondered what the buses were doing. One parent of a Kindergarten student said her daughter was so excited to see the bus coming she squealed!

The first task for each group was to perform the Pre-Trip Inspection during which a driver (in this case a team of drivers) inspects the bus for road worthiness. Our mechanics had deliberately disqualified each bus from road worthiness. We stood and waited to see which teams and which people would find the flaw in their bus.

Some buses were missing Body Fluid Clean-Up or First Aid Kits. Others needed a bulb replaced or didn't have a fire extinguisher. Each flaw was subtle.

We were all impressed with how seriously the drivers took their Inspections, and by how well-matched the teams were. They all completed their tasks at about the same time and left for the sixteen other tasks.

Each team visited each school in the District to practice am and pm parking. They all went to put five gallons of fuel in their buses. Each team practiced a railroad crossing -- important because ours in town are exempt, but they drive to other communities too -- and an alley dock -- important because most "accidents" occur while backing the bus.

We included two skills that most drivers don't always experience: a wheel-chair tie down and a bus with a flat tire. We were able to qualify more drivers to expertly tie-down a wheelchair and show them what a flat tire feels and looks like.

Following the event, we studied GPS records to see how each vehicle navigated the various events. Once of the rules of the game was that no team could violate a federal, state, local, or company law, rule, or policy. Some teams were much more efficient than others, and no one violated a speed restriction or did anything unsafe in traffic. Kudos to those drivers!

This event was also a team-building event. Our new, rookie employees met four or five other people who work for our company. Teams consisted of employees who rarely have the opportunity to interact. They were expected to share the seventeen tasks and talk to each other about the best way to complete each task.

For the most part, our employees were NOT excited when they left the training room to begin their "Chase". But they were excited, happy, and brimming with stories when they returned. In fact, I've had more input from drivers following this meeting than I have had in the past. We plan to find more ways to give our drivers more hands-on training opportunities in the future.

Safe Driving!
Kari

When the Kindergarten Comes Marching In...

Each March we meet with Kindergarten parents for the annual "Kindergarten Round-Up" and we follow with "Kindergarten Count-Down" in August. The March meeting starts the registration process for the Kindergarten students in Monticello. The August meeting involves the Kindergarteners themselves. They do fun activities with their teachers, tour their classrooms, and ride a bus.

From a transportation perspective, I've found great value in both segments of our Kindergarten program.

Within a few weeks of the March meeting, we have enough information to begin routing the Kindergarten for fall, a process that consumes the majority of our routing hours. We talk about some of the issues facing Kindergarten families, like daycare and split-custody situations.

The August meeting is the best part of our Kindergarten program. We spend a few minutes talking to parents -- the only time we really do that during the thirteen years their students attend school. We explain how we start to build a relationship between the bus driver and the students and describe how we conduct school bus safety training. We share information about how and when to contact our company. At the close of the evening, we go for a bus ride.

It strikes me every year how very small these Kindergarten students are. They approach that big bus and the first step is -- for some of them -- thigh high. They are so enthusiastic about the first bus ride, while their parents are seeing a modern bus and all the changes and improvements since they rode the bus themselves. We demonstrate our "No Child Left Behind" technology and talk about the new GPS units.

Kindergarten Count-Down

After this night of practice, we see the Kindergarteners leave their parents and march on the bus with a little more confidence. We see them looking at their bus drivers more as kind and caring helpers than as strangers. We watch them march off the bus and into the school building for their first moments of their learning journey.

We're so thankful to play the role we do with these brave little people!

Safe Driving!

Kari

The Hazards of Spring

Twelve years ago this month our community experienced the tragic deaths of three students riding one of our buses. I remember those students and their families every day, but most especially at this time of year.

Our community is not alone in experiencing tragedies in the spring of the year. The Kansas Department of Education presents a new study every year about school bus fatalities. The most recent report encompasses 38 years of data and the conclusions are as follows:

• 
  During the last 38 years, 57.4% of students killed in school bus-related crashes were killed by their own bus.
  
• For 2007-2008, that statistic fell to 20% of fatalities caused by the school bus and 80% by passing motorists.
  
• 66.1% of all fatalities occurred on the way home from school.
  
• Most of the fatally-injured students were girls.
  
• 55.6% of the fatally-injured students were between the ages of 5 and 7 (67% were between the ages of 2 and 8) and another 21.2% were between the ages of 10 and 14.
  
• Thursdays are the most dangerous day of the week.
  
• Most fatal injuries occur between March and September.

Increased driver education, better technology, and smarter riders have dramatically reduced the incident of fatal injury; of the 45 fatalities since 2004, there were 5 students critically injured in the most recent year. To put the figures in perspective, consider that 800 students were fatally injured in other vehicles (the family car, a friend's truck, etc.) during the school bus commute hours of 6-9 am and 2-5 pm. Clearly, the school bus is a safe place for students.

Still, five students were fatally injured. How to we prevent those types of injuries?

1. We must expect drivers be consistent when approaching a school bus stop, using warning and stop signals appropriately.
   
2. We must require drivers be vigilant at all times when students are outside the bus, whether approaching or leaving.
   
3. We must require that drivers' attention be solely focused on activity outside the bus rather than activity inside the bus.
   
4. We must expand and repeat public education so motorists understand to STOP and STAY STOPPED when red lights flash.
   
5. We must teach our students to remain out of the roadway until the driver signals them to approach.
   
6. We must teach our students to exit the bus and walk immediately to their own driveway or designated safe location, again watching for the driver's signal.
   
7. We must expect law enforcement to ticket people who fail to obey stop arm signals.
   

We must expect the judicial branch to penalize those people who appear in court.
There are very few instances in life when there is no room for error. These critical seconds our students are outside their buses is one such instance!

Safe Driving!

Kari

Times They Are A-Changin'

Come senators, congressmen

Please heed the call

Don't stand in the doorway

Don't block up the hal

lFor he that gets hurt

Will be he who has stalled

There's a battle outside

And it is ragin'.

It'll soon shake your windows

And rattle your walls

For the times they are a-changin'.

Bob Dylan, 1963

It must be true: history does repeat itself, for these words, popular in 1963, are true today as well.

Times... they are a-changin'!

Though the media has taken a somewhat pessimistic view and headlines scream panic-inducing "facts," what's happening in the world is not a bad thing.

Consider this: for the first time since Depression-era American, Americans are learning to spend what they can afford. I'm excited by the prospect of my sons living lives free of overwhelming personal debt. What a revolutionary concept!

We're experiencing something of a paradigm shift in the bus industry too.

A new school bus manufacturer has appeared in the industry, experts are transforming seating compartment issues, and manufacturers build buses that meet strict EPA requirements.

It's the last that I wish to address here.

Within the confines of existing equipment and regulatory issues, our company has led the way in environmental initiatives. We've been using alternative fuels for a decade, since long before they were required. Last year we conducted a non-scientific study by pouring fuel from three different sources into mason jars. We placed those jars outside on a picnic table and observed what happened to the fuel in the varying temperature. We learned several things:

1. The fuel distributor we use had the best quality fuel, and theirs wasn't the most expensive of the fuels.
*The fuel remained clear the longest.
*The fuel took the longest to gel in the coldest temperatures.
2. Lots of interesting things happen to fuel in the cold -- and in the heat. For example, the density and color change.
3. There's a lot of bacteria in commercial fuel.
4. The fuel doesn't often gel in the buses, but it could gel in the fuel pump (which is why we require buses be always half full of fuel).

I was oddly fascinated by the fuel experiment.

Fuel and emissions have caught public attention nationwide. I studied some California emissions information several years ago, and was surprised to learn about harmful emissions from school buses. There were some flaws in the California tests and the results were heavily skewed by the action committee that published them, but it made me think about our industry and how we wanted to steward the world.

Ultimately we enacted a strict no-idle policy, instructing drivers to super heat their buses while driving, and shut off the bus while parked more than one minute. What happens in the cold? Same policy. Buses do not heat while idling. They heat while moving. The manufacturer's suggested idle time on cold mornings is five minutes. There is no reason to idle a bus and every reason to avoid it.

Any new policy meets with some resistance and this was no different. To date, I believe we've achieved a fairly consistent success rate with our drivers. They know to shut off their buses.

Two employees reported satisfaction about our policy.

"I drove for another company the other day," said Matt, our shop mechanic. "It didn't take me long in the morning to realize how thankful I am for our no-idle policy. I left the bus yard with a headache and feeling nauseous.

"A driver reported the same physical symptoms while parked behind a bus left idling in a special-needs loading zone at one of the local elementary schools.

I'm thankful we've done what we could for our drivers and our students. Yet there's no way to measure how our small efforts have impacted our environment.

The federal government is weighing in with their own suggestions for emissions standards. The new standards don't change our idle policy, but enhance the effort to reduce emissions. The latest EPA requirements have resulted in a newly-designed engine to be purchased in 2010 buses. The newly enacted standard limits emission of nitrogen oxides to 0.2 grams per brake horsepower hour from 1.2 g/bhp. The problem with the standards is they won't significantly change emissions until all old buses have been modified or replaced.

We wanted a way to more quickly improve emissions. A year ago we signed a contract with Project Green Fleet to retrofit our oldest buses with equipment that will limit their emissions immediately. It's been an interesting project. We agreed to participate for five years. Periodically we need to report certain information to the Project so they can determine how effective the equipment is. In exchange, the retrofit of our vehicles is free. I'm excited to have data measuring the improvments to show our drivers and community.

I read some interesting statistics related to reducing emissions in the March 2009 edition of the Minnesota School Bus Operator Association newsletter, The Operator.

School buses save energy and money, declares the president of the association, Thomas Hey (Marshall, MN). Here's how:

• Each school bus driving 12,000 per year consumes 1,715 gallons of fuel.
  


• Each school bus replaces 36 family vehicles.
  


• The 36 vehicles consume approximately 6,500 gallons of fuel for the trips to and from school.
  


• Using the bus instead saves 4,800 gallons of fuel per bus per year, resulting in a national savings of 2.3 billion gallons of fuel and more than $6 billion.
  


• For the teen driver, the savings is substantial. The average student living five miles from school saves approximately $686 in fuel.
  

Thus, concludes Hey, "not only are we the safest form of transportation, we are also the most economical."

Safe Driving!

kari

Late Buses, March 11 at 7:15 am

Several buses are running between ten and fifteen minutes late this morning. Buses run slower in weather like we're having today. Please call Dispatch at 763.295.3604 if you wish to check the status of your bus.

Safe Driving!
Kari

Bus 30 Delayed 15 Minutues (2/12/2009, 7:40 am cst)

Bus 30 departed the depot behind schedule this morning by approximately ten minutes and is now running approximately 15 minutes behind schedule. Thanks for your patience!

Safe Driving!
Kari

Slippery Roads.... Late Buses, 2/10/2009 7:10 am

There are still pockets of ice left on some of the dirt roads surrounded by heavy vegetation. Please expect delays this morning, specifically on the west side of the district far to the north and far to the south.

Safe Driving!
Kari

Rule of the Week 2/2/09

Safe Driving!
Kari

Bus 67 2/2/09

Bus 67 is 15 minutes late this morning due to a mechanical problem.

Safe Driving!
Kari

Monticello School Closed 1/16/2009

Monticello Schools are closed today due to weather. 1/16/2009

Safe Driving!
Kari

School Cancelled, 1/15/09

There will be no school Thursday, January 15, 2009. Enjoy the free day!

Safe Driving!
Kari

Rule of the Week 1/6/2009

Safe Driving!

Kari