The National Association for Pupil Transportation is backing new training from the School Bus Safety Company that explains why vehicle accidents happen and how in industry leaders can help prevent them in the first place.
School Bus Safety Company is launching “Safety Leadership for School Bus Operations,” an advanced course designed for student transportation directors, managers, supervisors and trainers. It consists of five hours of instruction through a series of interactive CD-ROMs and is followed by a 60-question final exam.
Topics include the aforementioned “Accidents and Why People Have Them,” “Understanding Human Behavior,” “Leadership Principles,” “Leadership Techniques” and “Behavior-Based Safety.”
NAPT Executive Mike Martin noted the association is integrating the course into the NAPT Professional Development Series.
“Leaders establish and maintain norms, the accepted way of behaving in any situation,” Martin said in a statement. “By creating safety norms, leaders are able to influence the behavior of their drivers to achieve better results. Every manager and supervisor can benefit from this course.”
Student Transportation, Inc., the third-largest school bus contractor in North America and the recipient of the 2014 School Bus Contractor of the Year Award from NSTA this summer, reviewed the course and has already purchased 140 copies and installed the course at all company locations.
“We take very seriously the tremendous responsibility entrusted upon us by school administrators and parents alike to ensure the safety of our passengers,” said Patrick Vaughn, STI’s chief operating officer. “Having been in the transportation industry for 37 years, this is the most impressive course I have ever seen.”
He added that STI will use the course to educate managers on how “involvement through leadership” can help reduce risk, or unsafe behaviors and conditions in the workplace.
“We all take for granted that the leaders in the transportation departments know what to do and how to do it in creating the safest transportation possible,” explained Jeff Cassell, president of the School Bus Safety Company. “The problem is that we do not know what we do not know. Going through this course ensures that every leader in the transportation department knows how to ensure safe practices are followed in transporting students.”
The course costs $2,500 plus shipping.
