The National School Transportation Association once again partnered with Zonar Systems to award three $50,000 hardware grants at its Annual Midwinter Meeting. Yesterday Don Carnahan, Zonar VP of business development, presented the grants to three NSTA members: Cook-Illinois Corporation of Oak Forest, Ill.; Sunrise Transportation Inc. of Chicago; and Acme Bus Corp./Baumann & Sons Buses of Ronkonkoma, N.Y.
The contractors will use the grant money to equip school buses with the component hardware parts necessary to realize the benefits of Zonar’s fleet management technology. Thanks to this grant, each contractor will be able to provide school district customers with the “Inspect, Track and Know” tools developed by Zonar.
“We are excited to again partner with Zonar on this grant opportunity and are pleased that it helps so many of our member contractors,” said Tim Flood, NSTA president. “This opportunity allows our members to access valuable tools to assist in their operations and keeps them at the forefront of the industry’s best practices.”
The family-owned Cook-Illinois Corp. is the sixth largest bus contractor nationwide. Recently it supported one school system’s “green” initiatives by touring an educational Clean Air Club bus that acts as a traveling museum. The bus is powered by biodiesel made from soybean oil, which Cook-Illinois uses throughout its fleet of 2,000 school buses.
Sunrise Transportation Inc., which serves Chicago Public Schools, recently honored by Blue Bird Corporation for being the first company in Chicago to operate the new ROUSH CleanTech propane buses.
The Baumann family fleet of buses has been operating on Long Island since the 1940s. Partner Acme Bus Corp. operates a fleet of minivans serving preschool students and the adult special-needs community.
This grant was exclusive to NSTA private school bus contracting members.
