School Bus Fleet Blog
Wes Platt
Former Executive Editor
[Archives] Join us in an open-ended conversation about children and school buses – and the people who bring them together from SBF's editorial team and guest authors.
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SEARCHMENUSEARCHWes Platt
Former Executive Editor
[Archives] Join us in an open-ended conversation about children and school buses – and the people who bring them together from SBF's editorial team and guest authors.
I just received good news from a friend in the industry who is very close to moving from a job as a school bus driver for a school district to a management trainee for a contractor. She has her sights set on becoming a transportation director one day, and I believe she's going to do it.Not every bus driver, however, aspires to become a manager. Some are quite happy where they're at, and there's certainly nothing wrong with that. But I wonder if we're doing enough as an industry to develop...
Read More →I'm late by a day with my weekly blog update, but you'll have to cut me some slack because I was on a badly needed vacation. I took the family to Catalina Island, about 20 miles off the coast of Southern California. I think it's important to take off from work every now and then. We've gotten to a point where we're consumed by our jobs, especially with the advent of cell phones and e-mail. As we rode the ferry boat from Long Beach to Catalina, I watched as one fellow passenger spent most of...
Read More →Like many of you, I’m trying to improve my knowledge, skills and performance by taking night classes. Each Wednesday evening, I settle in for a 3 ½-hour class in a meeting room at a local hotel. The subject matter is interesting. The instructor is excellent. But no matter how distracted I am by the proceedings, my chair starts to feel hard by about the third hour.
Read More →I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the bridge collapse in Minneapolis. It's now considered the worst disaster in Minnesota history, and the horrifying images certainly will endure in my memory for years to come. As you might expect, a lot of attention was placed on the school bus that was on the bridge during the collapse. I don't know if it qualifies as a miracle that none of the passengers was killed, but it's pretty close. The vehicle, which was carrying 62 people, is estimated to...
Read More →I traveled recently to attend an industry conference. My flight was delayed for four hours, which didn't put me in a particularly good mood when I arrived at the destination airport. Things got worse, however, when I tried to get a cab ride to my hotel. There were two taxis waiting at the cab line. By this time it was almost midnight, and there were no other customers in sight. I thought they'd be glad to see some business headed their way.
Read More →Everyone wants to be loved. It's a survival instinct. The more people who love you, and the fewer who hate you, the better the chance that you'll live a long life uninterrupted by attacks on your character and person.But leaders, such as transportation directors and other managers, aren't in their positions to be loved. They're in their positions to get a job done as efficiently and safely as possible. If they happen to be liked, or loved, by their employees, that's a bonus, but it's not...
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