By Molly McGee-Hewitt, PhD, CAE NAPT Executive Director & CEO So often in leadership and hiring, we focus on experience, training, and licenses. School district HR offices verify employment and credentials and ensure that all requirements are checked off. They do an excellent job of confirming that applicants meet the established criteria. What we […]
By Peter Mannella Significant federal policy developments are underway that could impact driver testing requirements and clean school bus funding. What should a motor carrier do to assess a CMV driver’s English language proficiency (ELP) during the driver qualification process? Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy has announced recently that DOT and the FMCSA were […]
Jonathan Adkins Governors Highway Safety Association Every day, student transportation professionals carry one of the most important responsibilities in education, safely moving millions of students to and from school. While the school bus itself is incredibly safe, we all know some of the biggest risks happen outside the bus, at the stop, on neighborhood roads, […]
Please introduce yourself and tell us about your career in pupil transportation. I got into this industry in the 1980s. At the time, I owned a recycling business as a young entrepreneur. My business was located across the highway from a bus depot. As I understand now how difficult it is to find drivers, the […]
By Mash Angolkar Safety has always been the foundation of the school bus industry. Today, however, safety is no longer defined by a single feature or regulation. It is the result of deliberate engineering decisions, including how systems communicate, how drivers interact with technology, and how vehicles are designed from the ground up to support […]
By Brad Beauchamp School buses are the safest form of on-road transportation in the United States, bar none. Every day, roughly 480,000 school buses transport about 25 million students to and from school. That remarkable safety record did not happen by accident. It is the result of decades of engineering focus, regulatory evolution, and […]
Blue Bird Corporation (Nasdaq: BLBD) has signed an agreement to acquire Girardin Group’s stake in the 50/50 Micro Bird joint venture, thereby, taking full ownership of the enterprise. Blue Bird will pay approx. $200 million for Girardin’s joint venture share, with 30% in cash and 70% in Blue Bird common stock. The transaction is expected […]
School BUSRide spoke with Keith Kaup, Melody Coniglio, Teena Mitchell, and Rosalyn Vann-Jackson about the NAPT outlook in 2026, the increasingly important role of technology, NAPT ACTS 2026, and more. As we begin 2026, how would you describe NAPT’s overarching vision for the association and for the school bus industry as a whole? Keith Kaup: […]
On December 18th, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Attorney General to expedite reclassification of Marijuana from a Schedule I substance to a Schedule III substance. This action was taken on the recommendation of the Department of Health and Human Services. Schedule I substances include heroin, LSD, Ecstasy and other serious drugs. […]
Important Advisory: FMCSA CDL Training Audits By Peter Mannella The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has launched a nationwide effort to ensure that individuals obtaining Commercial Drivers Licenses are properly trained in accordance with federal law and regulations. In recent months, FMCSA has identified numerous training entities and programs that are not meeting […]