On Managing Transportation, Part 1

The latest issue of my favorite industry magazine, School Bus Fleet, contains an in-depth article about the challenges faced by Transportation Directors (TDs) and focuses on what makes a great TD.

In an earlier blogpost, I found a comment by an employee in which she wondered what it was like to be managing transportation rather than driving a school bus, so I thought I'd share some highlights of the articles.

This article is a great summary of input received by TDs across the country, and mirrors our own experience.  The magazine offered a survey for TDs to complete, and the majority of responders were companies/school districts our size or smaller.

After listing the concern and the percentage of responders who chose it, I offer commentary comparing it to our own experience:

1. Budget/Funding Issues (21.7%)
   This is, clearly, our biggest issue in Monticello.
   
2. Driver Recruitment/Retention (18%)
   I have personally not driven this often in years.  We would benefit from a few more quality drivers.
   
3. Student Behavior (9%)
   While I would not put this quite so high on the list, I would include it for the distraction factor it offers to bus drivers, and the danger that driver distraction offers to students.
   
4. Maintaining Service Level (6.3%)
   We have an exceptional level of service, and are one of the few companies that can honestly state we have never missed a route.  Not once in sixty-five years.  That's rare.  It IS tough to maintain a solid service level when there is a driver shortage, so this is definitely on our list.
   
5. Personnel Issues (5.3%)
   Just when I think I've heard it all, a driver will do something that disproves my conviction that things can't get any more strange.  Personnel Issues, and the things facing people in their private lives, are of great concern.
   
6. Driver Absenteeism (4.2%)
   I might actually move this one up the list to #3.  I regularly fail to understand why there is so much absenteeism when there are a mere 174 days of work, and there is a gap between routes.  I believe I have written many, many times the same statement:  "Come to work!"
   
7. Routing/Scheduling (3.7%)
   Creating routes that meet all the criteria for safe routes while meeting parent demands can be stressful, especially when parents hold us accountable for things beyond our control, like what the law requires in relation to transportation (for example, the law only allows transportation to and from home or daycare, and that means the bus isn't available for homework dates, rides to and from places of employment, or sleepovers/birthday parties).
   
8. Bus/Equipment Replacement (3.7%)
   It's tough to plan to replace buses and equipment when the budget is constantly under fire and when the cost of fuel is skyrocketing.  When all the money goes in the fuel tank...
   
9. School/Parent Needs (3.2%)
   We discuss this frequently in group settings.  Suffice it to say that parents are very demanding!  They can also be mildly abusive and completely offensive.  However, this year I've heard more parents being thankful and praising drivers and our company for dedicated and thorough service.  Keep up the good work!
   
10. Homeless Transportation (3.2%)
    The needs for homeless student transportation is on the rise.  In Minnesota, a student whose family becomes homeless deserves a ride to his or her regular school with his or her usual friends.  This attempt to create stability for students in unstable circumstances is noble -- but difficult to manage.  There is no distance rule.  And the "three-days to provide transportation" is also non-existent; these homeless students are guaranteed a ride the very next day.
    
11. Special-Needs Transportation (3.2%)
    Special-needs transportation is more labor-intensive than most other kinds of transportation and requires unique individuals to serve as drivers and monitors.  It can be stressful to manage all the unique students and student needs, but we feel like we provide excellent service to our most vulnerable students because we believe in the people behind the wheel.

The only thing I would add to the list, and it probably never would have appeared on a national survey, is that we often work with people who live in this community with us and attend the same churches, shop at the same grocery stores, attend entertainment at the same local establishments, and socialize in the same environments.  That can make it tough to be "bosses" at times.  

The same is true of our customers, which can make it tough to say "no" to special requests, or to make the student discipline call.  We handle those things best by creating policies to manage the situations instead of trying to manage people.

On Thursday, I will post a summary of what constitutes "Great Transportation Directors" according to School Bus Fleet magazine.  Bet you can't wait!

Safe Driving!

Kari

A Day In the Life of a Route Driver

So this week, I am a route driver.

I've been a route driver periodically during my lifetime in the bus business.  

To tell the truth, I've forgotten what it means to be a route driver.

Subbing is one kind of stressful thing.  Route driving is a different kind of stress.  I find that if I don't sub or drive a route periodically, I forget the stressors.

Not the obvious ones, of course.  It's always stressful to deal with loading and unloading kids and worrying about people failing to obey the stop arm.  It's always important to manage student behavior - and tough to predict in what way student management skills will be tested.  It's also tricky to function in troubling traffic situations.  Those things affect all drivers.

When subbing a route, knowing where to go and what to expect creates a new stressor.  As the person responsible for planning and choosing bus stops, I have additional stress when I find out that drivers are doing things they ought not.  Trust me when I say, we work on that problem EVERY DAY!  Sub drivers often have to explain to parents why they are there, why they are not perfectly on schedule, and where the regular driver is.

When driving a route permanently, there are additional responsibilities.  I have to KNOW my students. I have to KNOW my route (following a route map/instructions after a couple days is NOT okay).  I have to BE ON TIME at ALL TIMES.  I have to be accountable to the people meeting the bus, whether parents or school staff.  I have to be presentable, efficient, professional, and happy at all times. I have to forget the other things calling my attention, and focus solely on driving the route.  I have to plan my seating arrangement, and deal with change requests from parents.  I have to be driver, friend, parent, responsible adult, nurse - and not get too involved in inappropriate ways with my students.  And I need to do all this - and this is particular to me - knowing I will not continue to be the route driver;  I have to prepare my students for their new driver too.

Yes, route driving is a different ball of wax.  I'm so very, very glad I get to do it now and then.

Safe driving!

Kari

Yes, Folks, It's a Theory

Before the start of the year, we send home a bunch of information about bus routes, including bus stop times.

I hate sending those times.  They are never perfect - in fact, not even close.  And there's no way to make them perfect.

The problem isn't with the software, and it's not that we're morons.  The problem is that we have no way of predicting which kids will be slow to load, which ones will be fast to load, which ones will show up every day, and which ones have a seat reserved, but never ride the bus.  We cannot predict which neighborhoods will have bizarre traffic and parking situations or which ones will have a random construction project.  We cannot predict which students will be clueless about where their bus stop is or which ones will insist they should get an extra stop along the path of the route.  We cannot predict who will be new to the district, and - more surprising - who will disappear to parts unknown without letting anyone know.

So, the bottom line is, the bus information is a theory.  An educated, thoughtful theory, but imperfect as a guarantee schedule of arrival and departure times from bus stops.

How can we tell what time a bus will be at a bus stop?

We send the buses out with our best theoretical plan and run the routes for five days.  On the sixth, the buses will have established when they will be at their stops.  The time they arrive/depart next week will be the time they will arrive all year long.  That time is the actual scheduled time.  We will not send another 4,000 letters home.  We just expect families to understand and know that this is the way things work.

The perfectionist in me really hates that, but it is practical and it does bear out our experience for the last sixty-five years.

And when a parent calls next February and says the bus has been late every single day this year, and that it has been coming exactly ten minutes later than the letter said all year long, I try to remember that not everyone has sixty-five years experience with mass transportation systems.  To me, the measure of successful routing is that the bus comes at exactly the same time every day from September through February.

Safe driving!
Kari

The New Practice for High School Students

We have a new transportation policy for high school students.

Each spring, we will start the next year's routing by eliminating tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade students from the routes.

We will ask for input from those students and/or their parents about who will still need a bus ride and reinstate their privilege to ride the bus immediately.

Then we will commence creating routes, using what we believe to be the number of students riding the bus.

Why make a change?  Why include tenth grade students when many cannot yet drive?

We have good reasons!

First, there are not very many students who use the bus regularly beyond ninth grade.  Many students have after-school activities and older siblings and friends who drive.

Second, it is extremely difficult to get information from parents about the use of the school bus.  Many are worried that if they don't sign-up for a bus ride, they won't be able to get one EVER.  The truth is, it is extremely easy to add a student back to the route, and only takes us a few minutes.  So a parent could call any time during the year and have a bus ride for their student the next day.

Third, we do not want to add school buses and the additional expense to the routing system when we don't yet need to do so.

This is the first year we've attempted to use this new practice.  I printed the letters and brought them to the schools to be sent home with report cards, something I thought most parents would be excited to read.  We got responses from a number of students, so I thought that method of communication had been effective.

We sent another letter with bus information on it about ten days ago, noting that changes would be suspended effective August 27.

Then, worried that we might not have great addresses for everyone or that some people might not read through the letter and understand the new practice, I called the Superintendent and expressed my concern.  He had a great solution - he would be able to use their new mass communication technology to call every family and remind them to make sure bus information was up to date.  We got more responses after that, and well within the time frame to make adjustments to buses.

Some parents are upset about not having time to reinstate their students' rides, and we certainly understand that concern.  But every student we add changes the time slightly (each student has a pre-set "loading time" of a few seconds in the software) and also adds one more rider to very full buses.  My greatest worry is that those people who responded in a timely fashion might not have a seat if we continue to add later registrants to the bus route.  And it's far too late to change buses around or change which developments are paired because, again, there's no way to communicate that to the people who responded in a timely fashion.

I think we have a good solution for next year, though.  I've asked whether it would be possible to use some classroom time next spring to have students complete a bus registration form during the school day.  We will be able to present their current information to them, and then ask them the following questions:

Will you ride the bus:

1. every morning?
2. every afternoon?
3. never?
4. only between sports seasons?
5. only if your car breaks?
6. only occasionally?

Will you need a different bus stop?

THEN we'll send home letters with the report cards.

I think that might be a good solution.

Safe Driving!

Next Week's Lunch Plan

Every year for the last several, we have been offering our bus drivers and helpers lunch during the first week and a day of school.

It's been successful!

During our Healthy Workplace initiatives, we started offering a healthy morning breakfast consisting of apples and bananas.  Our employees really enjoy the bananas.  This year we are adding individual serving sizes of raisins and nuts too.  A driver with good training, a good night's sleep, and a good morning breakfast is a better driver, and we're happy to promote driver health.

Our lunch menu's aren't quite as healthy as our breakfasts, but they do accomplish the goal of feeding people who can experience increased stress and tension during the first week of school.  The full-time staff also appreciates the opportunity to catch a bite when it's too busy to get out of the office.

This year's menu is complete and the bus driver's first online assignment will be to stop at the blog, review the menu, and RSVP.

Here's the good(ie)s!

2012-13 Free Breakfast Menu

Apples and Bananas, Raisins, and Nuts

First Week of 2012-2013 Free Lunch Menu

Tuesday, September 4

Pizza Party

Fruit & Veggie Tray

Wednesday, September 5

Make-Your-Own Sandwiches with Chips

Fruit Tray

Thursday, September 6

Rancho Grande Caters!

Chicken & Beef Tacos
Beans, Rice, and Chips with Salsa

Fruit

Friday, September 7

Make-Your-Own Sandwiches with Chips
Fruit

Monday, September 10

KFC Chicken and Fries
Fruit & Veggie Tray

Karen's Come Back!

As most of you know; Karen Klein is the woman in that dreadful school bus bully video that went viral last month. For those who missed the video and/or the post, here is a link. As a brief summery; Karen was bullied by some students and someone recorded it. The video for whatever reason, was posted and by happenstance was viewed by Max Sidorov who took it upon himself to start a fund for Karen who needed to take some time away from work. He set up a site, and asked for vacation money for Karen. The goal was $5,000 but with the help and generosity of 32,000 strangers, Karens ending amount was $703,873. If that doesn't amaze you then maybe this will.

Pictured above is Karen Klein.

Karen accepted that money and retired, then she  did something amazing back...she used $100,000 to start up an Anti-Bullying Foundation! Plus she has her hand in so many other cookie jars! A concert to promote anti-bullying, wanting to provide a fund for children who are bullied, going into media asset to help from other directions, etc! Here is her page at give back.

 Even the worst of things in life can have happy endings, Karen, Max, and everyone who donated are proof of that! I have often heard that attitudes are contagious, so answer me this, is yours worth catching? Doing one kind thing can have a tremendous impact on another person's day. Think about it.

Thank You,
Haleigh

The Final Count-Down

Every year we are surprised by the "busy-ness" of August at a Transportation Company.  And every year we try a little harder to be better at what we do.

This year, we're suspending transportation registration changes on August 27 (not 24th as originally intended), and resuming routing changes on September 10.  I wrote about this last week, and explained why were doing such an insane and unnatural thing.  I really believe it is going to IMPROVE our customer service by taking that short break from routing changes.

Behind-the-scenes we do other things to help things flow smoothly.  Keeping ahead of all the special things we do to make the first week of school successful is tricky - especially when we want to keep doing the things that worked well and stop doing the things that were a waste of time or some other resource.  One of our favorite programs we use is a perpetual electronic calendar.  We enter the annual jobs we want to keep doing and save links to various document files we need to complete those jobs.  The calendar reminds us each year when we need to do all those things.  Still, in the final count-down, we resort to the old fashion paper-and-pencil daily count-down lists to keep us on task.

For the next nine days, we will certainly be busy perfecting routes, training drivers and teaching them their routes, and all the usual daily business required to run our taxis, operate our storage facility, manage our car rental business, and perform maintenance for our customers and fleet.

As I look at this year's final count-down sheets, I am pleased at what we have already accomplished this year and the time we have left to complete the work before the first day of school.  We are well on our way to what promises to be one of the best starts ever.

I am greatly satisfied by the quality of our staff.  The willingness of each person to "get the job done" is a blessing and boon to our company.  And I am greatly thankful that as they do their jobs and complete their pieces of our company puzzle, I hear the recurring, happy laughter echoing through the hallways.

This is a happy, happy place.

Safe driving!
Kari

Registration Suspends August 27, 2012

For the past three years we've been able to track transportation data related to how bus routes change and how frequently we make route changes. 

It's a good tool for friendly competitions among staff.

More important, it helps us understand why the letters we send home are inaccurate by the first week of school.

For the three years in question, we have made more than 2000 changes to our database between open house and the first day of school.  The actual average is 2,234 changes.  Though some of those changes are not related to factors that affect time, many of them do affect schedules.

Without doubt, those routes that change by ten or fifteen minutes change because we allow 2,234 people to make changes to routes.  We should not have to make those changes in the week before the start of school.  We send home letters in the spring, again in August, and again at Open House.  We ask simply that parents make the changes earlier rather than later.

This year, we are trying something new.  We are suspending registration on August 27, one week after letters are mailed to families.  We will make all requested changes by close of business on August 27, giving us sufficient time to print and sort new bus schedules to hand out at Open Houses. You will be welcome to contact us about changes, but we will not be making those changes until the week of September 10.

Our hope is by suspending registration on August 27, we will have accurate bus schedule information in parents' and students' hands at Open House.  Our second goal is to have accurate bus routes in the hands of our bus drivers one week prior to the start of school so they have time to practice.

Keep in mind that our bus schedule letters are something more like an educated and studied theory of what we expect will happen the first week of school.  If we didn't have human variables involved in the process, those theories would be pretty accurate.  It's difficult for a computer program, or even live, experienced routing staff, to predict certain things about bus routes.  For example, which stops will be fast to load and which ones will be slower?  Where will we encounter heavier traffic?  Where will nature delay us?  How will the little portions of construction affect routes?  Which drivers will function more efficiently with students on the bus?  Those bus schedule letters are not a guarantee or plan for the entire school year.  After the first week of school, the buses will have settled into their regular routine accounting for all those questions I just listed.  Once the bus has settled into that new routine, you should expect the bus to come at that time for most of the school year.  We do not send new letters containing that information.  However, we invite you to call if you have a time question.

Safe Driving!
Kari

Bus Routes are Being Cut Across the States

Schools all over the US are getting their budgets cut and reducing school transportation. This means that parents and students are learning that school buses aren't stopping for them this year, and to most, that is a big shock.

In Grand Junction, Colorado the new walking distances have been extended so that elementary students will receive transportation only if they are more than 2 miles away or are in a hazardous zone. For the middle and high school students they will need to live more then 3 miles away.

At Hoglund's our main change is that grades 10,11, and 12 will need to request transportation if they need it or they will need to find a different way to get to school. Not bad since almost none of those students ride the bus anyway.

There are so many examples of these changes and it is unfortunate to know that the schools are so short on money that they cannot afford to pay for transportation anymore. This affects so many people: the transportation companies, their employees, the students, and their parents, along with so many others.

School is a huge part of growing up and knowing that you, or your children are arriving safely makes for a good year. School buses are repeatedly proven to be the safest way to get children to school and the thought that they are being taken away from the children is just too sad.

Thank You,
Haleigh

We Need the Students Help!

Dear parent and students,
 We are looking for students ranging in ages from six to twelve years old to be a part of our new rules of the week photos! This little photo session  would be taking place on the 15th and 16th of august and with last from 2- 4:30 both days with a picnic afterward on the 16th! We will be needing about 20 students and would also like them to bring their back packs and minimal supplies with them!

If you are interested in helping us out please call us at 763.295.3604 or leave a comment on either this post or on our facebook page! We look forward to having as many students as we can helping us make this process a success!  Thank you for your help!