DATTCO, one of the largest school bus companies in the state with 1,200 buses running during the school year, prepared throughout the summer for the start of school.
It was all in an effort to make sure the buses run on time with no mechanical or route issues for the children onboard.
“It's our most precious cargo. We have tractor-trailers out there that are that are hauling goods. But you know, we're carrying America's future,” said Douglas Eddy, the maintenance director for DATTCO.
We are carrying America's future.
Douglas Eddy, the maintenance director for DATTCO
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In July, DATTCO received the master lists from the school districts with the names of thousands of children who will be riding the bus this year.
“We have a couple of weeks, literally, to get all those routes written. Every route is different every year because all the different kids and how the kids grade up through the different schools. So, we get all those written now and then send them to the schools for them to check them. And then we ask the drivers to go and do what we call a dry run,” said Bryony Chamberlain, the vice president of school bus for DATTCO.
That dry run is important not only to make sure it’s feasible but also to make sure the buses are road-ready.
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The maintenance department does a thorough inspection of each bus six times a year.
“We go underneath the vehicle, inside the vehicle, check all the switches, we check every component on the vehicle. It's about two-, two-and-a-half-hour process to do that,” said Eddy who added they also do full wheel-off brake inspections of each bus.
The buses now all have GPS monitoring, cameras and apps.
“You don't believe it. Look at these yellow buses, which have been the same for, let's be honest, a number of decades. But there’s a lot of technology that’s changed this industry over the past few decades,” Chamberlain.
Hiring continues to be a challenge for bus companies around the state, but DATTCO had a good recruitment over the past year and are short about 50-60 drivers across all 25 districts, according to Chamberlain. Once hired, drivers go through a drug test and background checks and then learn how to safely manage the bus.
“Please come in and apply. We'll get you trained, we can train you on some of our small vans, that's a very quick process, say two weeks to be able to become a licensed driver for us or on one of our larger yellow buses, that might take six to eight weeks,” Chamberlain said.
