From one county's dispatch desk to seventeen yards

Mandate

Restore route coverage after the pandemic disruption and build an operating model that keeps drivers.

Outcomes

• Driver turnover reduced from 34% to 21% between 2021–22 and 2024–25
• Arrival before first bell raised from 94.6% to 97.2% across all districts
• Preventable collisions cut from 2.9 to 1.8 per million miles
• Twelve-bus electric pilot run at 91% availability in its first school year

Decisions in context

I took this role in July 2020, when schools were reopening in stages and many experienced drivers had decided not to return. My first year was spent covering routes rather than improving them. Once the network steadied, I concentrated on the causes of unreliability instead of its symptoms: a job that paid too few hours, an outstation too far from our yards and a camera programme that drivers distrusted. I lead six directors covering school operations, paratransit, fleet, safety and training, dispatch and planning, and yard facilities. Pricing, pay policy and finance sit with colleagues who report to the chief executive, and I work closely with each. I present operating papers to the board every quarter and attend its safety and operations committee, but I am not a director. The cases on this site come from this period.

Reason for the move

Current role; seeking a first independent board seat alongside it, with my employer's consent.

Mandate

Standardise yard practice across a network that had grown by acquiring smaller family contractors.

Outcomes

• Introduced common pull-out, inspection and child-check standards across 15 yards
• Integrated two acquired contractors with 160 buses between 2015 and 2018
• Fitted forward and interior cameras to every school bus by 2019
• Supported seven new district contracts, one of which I later recommended leaving

Decisions in context

Brellmoor had grown by buying smaller family contractors, and each yard still worked to its previous owner's habits. Some checked tyres at pull-out, others at the end of the day; some walked every bus for sleeping children, others relied on the driver's memory. My task was to create one standard without losing the local knowledge that made good yards good. I worked through 14 yard managers, rotating with each for a full day before changing anything. We introduced common pull-out and inspection practice, a mandatory child-check walk and, later, cameras on every bus. I also supported the commercial team's growth into new districts. One of those wins, 48 miles from our nearest yard, taught me that a contract can be won on price and lost on geography. I report that error openly in my case on leaving it.

Reason for the move

Promoted to chief operating officer when my predecessor retired.

Mandate

Launch a paratransit division after the company won its first county contract.

Outcomes

• Opened the first county service in 2009 with 52 vehicles
• Added a second county contract in 2012, bringing the fleet to 190 vehicles
• Met the 92% on-time pickup standard in every contract year
• Cut average telephone hold times from 4.5 to 1.8 minutes

Decisions in context

Brellmoor knew school buses thoroughly and paratransit not at all. I had five months between contract award and the first day of service to hire operators, choose vehicles, install scheduling software and train dispatchers on the authority's eligibility and booking rules. We opened with 52 vehicles and a small team I had largely recruited from my previous employer's region. The hardest part was cultural. School drivers follow a fixed route; paratransit operators assist individual riders whose needs vary from day to day, and the training must reflect that difference. I built a separate training track for passenger assistance and wheelchair securement. When a second county put its service out to bid in 2012, our performance record carried the proposal. Running a performance contract from the contractor's side, for an owner new to the work, prepared me for broader operating responsibility.

Reason for the move

Promoted to lead school transportation, the company's core business.

Mandate

Recover a paratransit contract that was paying heavy liquidated damages for late pickups.

Outcomes

• Raised on-time pickups from 84% to 93% within two years
• Cut liquidated damages from US$310,000 to under US$40,000 a year
• Secured the contract's five-year renewal in 2007

Decisions in context

I arrived at a contract in trouble. Late pickups were triggering liquidated damages every month, and the agency's contract manager had begun discussing early termination. The scheduling system was not the main fault. Operators were assigned shifts that bore little relation to when riders actually travelled, so the morning peak was understaffed and midday vehicles sat idle. I rebuilt the shift pattern around two years of trip data, renegotiated start times with the operators and introduced a dispatcher whose only job was to rescue trips running late. Within two years on-time performance reached 93% and penalties largely disappeared. I also learnt how a contractor's regional management judges a site: by margin and by contract retention. Those are reasonable measures, but they can crowd out the rider. I completed a part-time MBA during this period to understand the bid models more fully.

Reason for the move

Joined a family owner closer to home to build a paratransit division from the start.

Mandate

Reduce missed and late charter departures as the business grew.

Outcomes

• Cut late departures from 7% to under 2% of charters
• Introduced a maintenance hold rule linking dispatch to the shop backlog
• Built a driver-rest schedule for overnight and early-morning trips

Decisions in context

Charter coaching taught me commercial urgency. A late departure could mean a missed connection, an angry school principal or a lost annual booking, and there was no subsidy to absorb the cost. When I arrived, dispatch and maintenance worked separately: dispatch assigned coaches the shop had not finished, and drivers discovered faults at the customer's door. I introduced a simple rule that no coach could be assigned while it appeared on the open repair list, and the shop manager and I reviewed that list together at five each afternoon. Late departures fell from 7% to under 2%. I also built a rest schedule for drivers working overnight returns and early starts, because tired drivers were a safety risk long before they were a service one. The owner trusted me with his customers, which was a privilege I have tried to repay since.

Reason for the move

Moved to contracted paratransit to run a complete operation under a performance contract.

Mandate

Build daily paratransit manifests and later supervise the dispatch desk.

Outcomes

• Added rider-specific notes from dispatch to the daily manifests
• Reduced same-day cancellations through evening confirmation calls
• Trained new dispatchers on eligibility and booking rules

Decisions in context

I joined the authority straight from university, expecting scheduling to be a mapping exercise. It turned out to be a people exercise. The software could order trips efficiently, but only dispatchers knew which riders needed extra time, which buildings had unreliable lifts and which drivers were confident with particular wheelchairs. I started adding those notes to the manifests and, as supervisor from 1996, made it standard practice for the eight dispatchers I led. We also introduced evening confirmation calls, which reduced wasted trips. Public service gave me a lasting regard for riders' rights and for the federal framework that protects them. It also showed me the limits of a body whose schedule changes needed board approval months in advance. I left to see how a commercial operator handled pressure with no such buffer, and to learn the cost side of transportation.

Reason for the move

Joined a private coach operator to learn commercial operations.