NORTH CAROLINA – May 14, 2010 – Consolidated Safety Services, Inc. (CSS) of Fairfax, Virginia announces the expansion of their Pupil Transportation Safety Program (PTSP) to North Carolina school districts.
Recently, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, working with the North Carolina Motor Coach Association (NCMA), released its recommendation to all school districts for establishing a list of safety-approved carriers for use when transporting students to and from extracurricular activities. “Both parents and the leadership of NCMA want the safest possible charter transportation for students,” stated Linda Morris, Executive Director of NCMA, “we believe that the Consolidated Safety Services, Inc. (CSS) PTSP is a positive step in making sure that every North Carolina motorcoach operator providing student transportation meets industry safety standards.”
Reggie Hines, formerly of Hines Fleet Safety, has been providing passenger motor carrier inspection services to many of the NC school districts, and recently became the CSS PTSP Coordinator for North Carolina. “With the Department of Public Instruction’s recent recommendation,” Hines said, “it is important that school districts have an experienced company and program they can rely on.” PTSP was modeled after a successful program CSS created for the Department of Defense. Throughout the 20 years of the program, over one million military troops have been transported each year without a single fatality.
The PTSP provides a national list of approved carriers that are evaluated for safety fitness and compliance with the United States Department of Transportation Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. Each passenger carrier seeking approval must pass a core competency evaluation and an on-site DOT-compatible compliance review. Once approved, the carrier is subject to intensive routine security inspections, continual on-road performance monitoring and random assessments.
Now available to school districts across the country, school administrators can have immediate access to the current list of over 100 PTSP-approved carriers. Carriers wanting to apply to the program can contact CSS. “It is important to remember,” says Phil Hanley, PTSP Program Manager, “that not all carriers will meet the stringent PTSP standards.”
