Computers utilized to keep track of students.

• Author: Smith, Marjie
• Position: School bus services - Transportation Report

More to industry than meets the eye

There is more to operating a fleet of school buses than buying a few buses and adhering to the Public Vehicles Act.

Joe Palangio, operations manager with Deluxe Coach Lines of North Bay, the school bus branch of Palangio Enterprises, says operators must be competent at bus maintenance and always know when, where and into whose care each student is to arrive.

Deluxe Coach Lines has computerized in order to keep track of student pick-up and delivery which, according to Palangio, can become quite complicated.

For example, he notes that children sometimes have to be dropped off at day care rather than at home. In some cases when child custody is involved, the driver must make sure the child is dropped off into the hands of the right parent.

Palangio recalls that prior to the mid-1970s the school bus business was highly competitive and, as a result, many operators were undercapitalizing their fleets in order to remain competitive. His company's 13 one-year-old buses remained parked one year because of unsuccessful contract bids.

The operators have since formed an association and have hammered out a common pricing formula. While there is no guaranteed territory, most public and separate school boards will likely stay with one operator unless they have problems with the company.

"You have a contract, and that contract is only as good as your relationship with the school board," Palangio says.

However, the competition stiffens when it comes to school charters. Schools will often compare prices, and bus companies can become involved in price wars.

Palangio says he remains competitive in this business by keeping in touch with the coaches of high school teams in order to find out how the teams are doing in competition.

DRIVERS SOUGHT

Finding, training and holding on to drivers is one of the industry's greatest challenges, according to Palangio. His company operates 65 buses and has trained 17 drivers since August.

Because bus driving is a part-time job, Palangio looks for new drivers among retired people, small business owners and homemakers. The majority of...