School Bus Fleet, June 2018

I think that with bus evacuation drills and their daily riding habits the kids will be very used to buckling and unbuckling Davis said Some special needs and pre K students might need some extra assistance Those are the buses where we do have aides on board Keeping a close watch All of Henrico County Public Schools buses have surveillance systems on board with up to six cameras each in newer buses The surveillance footage could prove useful in analyzing the performance of the three point belts in the event of a crash We havent had any accidents yet where we were able to see the prevention of an injury not that I want to have an accident Davis said Last summer Davis gave a presentation about three point belts at the Virginia Association for Pupil Transportations annual conference While he shared his own experience beginning with the effect of Rosekinds message Davis encouraged his counterparts at other districts to get educated on the seat belt issue regardless of whether theyre for or against it Be prepared to share facts when questions come up Davis advised As a director you want to be informed in the industry One of the most common concerns raised by some pupil transportation officials and drivers is that seat belts could impede the evacuation of students in an emergency such as a school bus fire or water immersion In fact some drivers at Henrico County Public Schools share that fear We had some drivers that declined a new bus because of the seat belts Davis said Some of them have that evacuation concern For his part Davis said he sees the enhanced crash protection of three point belts outweighing the perceived risk of a hindered evacuation He noted that while several states require lap belts or lap shoulder belts on school buses he has not been able to find any reports of incidents where buckled up students failed to evacuate a bus and perished This has not happened in the U S to my knowledge Emphasis on training Henrico County Public Schools took delivery of its first buses with three point belts last fall The transportation department provided training on the seat belts for drivers and students and families were invited to check out the new buses at a school one evening The district conducts emergency evacuation drills with students twice a year Those drills will now begin with the students buckled up 14 SCHOOL BUS FLEET JUNE 2018 WWW SCHOOLBUSFLEET COM NEWS TORONTO The acquisition of the third largest school bus operator in North America Student Transportation Inc STI by a group of investors was completed in late April Under the arrangement a company called Spinner Can AcquireCo Inc acquired all of STIs outstanding common shares The purchasing company is sponsored by Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec CDPQ and Ullico Inc CDPQ an institutional investor that manages public pension plans and insurance programs in Quebec has been invested in STI for 16 years most of that time as the largest shareholder Ullico is a labor owned insurance and investment company based in Washington D C STI was founded by Denis Gallagher in 1997 Just over 20 years later the company now transports 125 million students in the U S and Canada with a fleet of 13500 school buses Along with its core school transportation group the STI stable includes a managed services group and the SafeStop app which provides school bus status notifications for parents and performance data for transportation staff The company also took a minority stake in child rideshare provider HopSkipDrive last fall The proposed purchase of STI was unveiled in February Shareholders approved the plan on April 19 Then on April 25 STI obtained a final court order from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice approving the arrangement STI shareholders received US 750 CA 966 per common share in cash and the company was to be de listed from the Toronto Stock Exchange and Nasdaq When the proposed acquisition was announced in February Gallagher noted that STI will remain focused on its mission We will continue to be the North American leader in student transportation he said and our unwavering commitment to our employees customers safety service and innovation will remain unchanged Student Transportation Inc Acquisition Deal Sealed By Thomas McMahon A group of investors has purchased all outstanding shares of STI the third largest school bus operator in North America More online Watch Josh Davis demonstrate the three point belts on a new Henrico County school bus in a video posted at schoolbusfleet com Jun18e So far Henrico County has acquired 24 new school buses since adding seat belts to its specs