That old saying from Heraclitus, “The only constant in life is change,” seems to be truer than ever. In addition to a rapidly evolving school bus industry, we have seen a growing number of acquisitions in various industries, the ever-increasing presence of new technology in our workplaces, shifting job descriptions, and, at times, staff teams shrinking.

Change is inevitable, so what are the best ways to navigate it? Two school bus contractors who underwent acquisitions, along with a transportation operations consultant, shared with School Bus Fleet steps to make transitions as seamless and successful as possible.

1. Define Success, Form a Plan

After defining what it considers successful, an organization should create a strategic plan that pinpoints its main goal and allocates resources to pursue it. That plan acts as a guardrail during times of change — whether expected or unanticipated — across situations ranging from rule and regulation changes to crisis response needs.

“Public agencies can easily deliver value to taxpayers if they’ve taken the time to clearly identify and articulate what success looks like, and then construct an actionable strategic plan to deliver on that success,” says Mark Aesch, CEO of TransPro Consulting, a firm that helps transportation operators improve their services and employee engagement.

One core element of a strategic plan, Aesch said, is “ruthless prioritization.” An organization that tries to deliver industry-leading value in too many areas will learn that multitasking reduces rather than increases efficiency.

“The Ritz-Carlton is focused on quality. Walmart is focused on price,” Aesch pointed out. “They don’t get confused about where they are trying to be great. Transportation departments, school districts, and other organizations are well served to ruthlessly prioritize where they want to be excellent.”

Other elements of a strategic plan include a comprehensive work plan and a quarterly scorecard to keep all staff members apprised of the company's performance.

“Clear work projects and programs, a budget that funds them, and prioritized metrics that track work performance are all aligned in the pursuit of success,” Aesch said.

That means that department staff members need to understand how their work output contributes to the organization’s larger outcomes. For example, if a school district’s definition of success is 90% of students graduating within four years of starting high school, then the transportation department needs a plan to support that goal.

Since a major contributor to educational success is showing up to school, an output goal for the transportation department might be “90% of students are delivered to school on time,” Aesch explained.

Then, a series of performance metrics can be applied throughout an organization to support that output. For example, a school district might have an organizational performance scorecard that contains metrics for on-time performance.

“This metric is important to the schools and reflects a performance area that aligns with the school bus department’s output,” Aesch said.

A Strategic Plan’s 4 Core Elements

Aesch breaks down the fundamental parts of a strategic plan and who is responsible for them:

1. Why: Mission, vision, values. This typically comes from senior leadership, such as a superintendent or CEO.

2. What: Clear, measurable success outcomes in the pursuit of the larger vision. This, too, comes from senior leaders.

3. How: This is the action plan defining what the agency will do to achieve those success outcomes and how the plan will be funded. This is typically designed by department heads. 

4. Who: The staff members responsible for the delivery of the plan, the schedule they will adhere to, and the metrics they will rely on to track progress. This typically involves entire departments working together. 

2. Create a Team to Handle Plans

In late 2019, First Student acquired special-needs transportation company Hopewell Transportation in New Lenox, Illinois. The smaller contractor operated a fleet of over 200 vehicles for 20 Chicago-area school districts at that time and has since grown alongside First Student's thousands of fleet vehicles.

A key to First Student’s success with such changes, said Chris Kemper, former senior director of corporate communications at First Student, is that the company puts together a cross-functional team to own the process and smooth out transitions.

The team is managed by an integration leader who oversees each moving part of the acquisition — from the communication plan to human resources to training and onboarding — on a day-to-day basis until the integration is complete.

“It’s critical to us that new team members are in a position to succeed,” Kemper said.

3. Communicate Openly, Frequently

In 2019, transportation company GO Riteway Transportation Group in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, acquired two other bus contractors — Cardinal Buses Inc. in Middlebury, Indiana, and Lazers Bus Service in Marshall, Wisconsin — and has successfully integrated the businesses. An instrumental part of that success was frequent communication.

Bob Zanotti, president and CEO of GO Riteway, said that the process for integrating employees during an acquisition starts when the acquiring company is evaluating another company for purchase.

“We look for family-owned businesses that prioritize employees as the most valuable asset,” Zanotti said. “We then plan to meet with employees in a town hall format immediately before the acquisition goes public so that they hear straight from us first.”

Zanotti adds that GO Riteway conducts an annual employee engagement survey, and that acquired employees have indicated strong satisfaction with the company.

In addition to communicating thoroughly at the beginning of a new acquisition, GO Riteway works to be more visible than usual in the newly acquired operation to stay apprised of employee relations issues.

“Inevitably, some things change, and it’s critical to stay ahead of unhealthy rumors by communicating proactively,” Zanotti said. “We work to honor the practices of the acquired employees as we integrate them into ours.”

Although that is a process that can take years, Zanotti said that trust from new employees “is earned over time through the courtesy, consistency, and fairness from our management team."

Thorough communication and the presence of managers are also essential when making difficult decisions.

“Employees have the capacity to understand the need for difficult business decisions, and they are frustrated when they are left in the dark,” Zanotti said. “My advice to managers is to make difficult decisions with integrity and genuine concern for people and then step up and honestly communicate with those impacted.”

Kemper agreed that communication is a vital part of a transition plan. In fact, First Student tries to “overcommunicate” through several channels.

For example, when acquiring Hopewell, in addition to emails, letters, and in-person meetings, the company held a “warm welcome” event for members of the Hopewell team. The event included breakfast and a chance to meet members of the First Student team and ask questions. First Student also made a welcome video for the Hopewell team and provided an app that gives location leaders a new channel to communicate with the team.

“We wanted to help the Hopewell team understand that while this is a change, as we combine forces, we already have a great deal in common, including our commitment to providing safe and reliable transportation,” said Will McDermott, the former president of Hopewell Transportation, who now heads up First Student's Student Services.

4. Support Front-line Employees

GO Riteway strongly believes in the inverted organizational pyramid, Zanotti said, with customers at the top and frontline employees who serve customers as the most important internal employees. The relationship between them and their immediate manager is the most critical one in the company.

“If our front-line employees aren’t treated well, they won’t treat our customers well,” he added. “We expect our front-line managers to be great facilitators, collaborators, and communicators. All other managers and staff must serve what is happening on the front line.”

5. Invest in Training

At First Student, managers were given frequently asked questions (FAQs) and trained on policy changes so they could educate the team on why they were made.

“As we received questions, we were able to address them quickly to avoid any unnecessary concerns,” McDermott said. “There was a learning curve, and this process helped us plan for it.”

Onboarding and training the Hopewell team took about three months, but it was only the beginning. That was reinforced with coaching, modeling of behaviors, positive feedback, and the introduction of key performance indicators (KPIs).

“With this process, change soon becomes part of the culture,” McDermott said.

McDermott added that First Student management staff provide resources, such as hands-on training and job shadowing in new roles, to help employees adapt, and they make sure to listen to feedback and concerns.

6. Stay Positive

It’s important to remember, of course, that change can be good.

With GO Riteway’s acquisition of Cardinal Buses’ operations, including satellite offices in Mishawaka, Indiana, and Holland, Michigan, and its 120 employees, the companies work smarter together by covering each other's trips and sharing maintenance resources.

“Together, we offer more value for major event moves [trips requiring over 30 buses] that neither company could have done alone,” Zanotti said. “We now have 150 coach vehicles in the greater Chicagoland area, so we can coordinate and respond as one company.”

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on March 27, 2020, and was updated on January 28, 2026, to include relevancy updates on workforce changes and best practices for managing organizational transition in the school bus industry.