Loading and unloading students: there may be a change in the wind. More like a back draft dating back to just before the turn of the century. Here is the scenario; you are approaching the bus stop. You look ahead to the students, you start your yellows, you check your mirrors, you plan where you are going to stop the bus (not so far away from the curb that a car can pass on your right, not so close, so as to have the 10 foot by 10 foot safety zone). You stop, you set the parking brake and you put the transmission in natural. And here is the change. YOU TURN ON YOUR HAZARD WARNING LIGHTS. You check the mirrors again and if all is safe, open the door and wave your student onboard. Watch for this change in the new STANDARDS FOR UTAH SCHOOL BUSES AND OPERATIONS coming soon. JB

Are you watching the 2010 Utah State Legislature? There are a few bills that may impact school bus drivers. K. Powell is working on an Interagency use of School Buses. SB-17 looks like a go. It will hit CDL drivers where it hurts if you get caught driving an out-of-service vehicle. My point is… Do you know what out-of-service things you should be aware of during your pre and post trip inspections of your School Bus? This link to Utah’s newest, 2009, Out of Service criteria is a must read:
http://publicsafety.utah.gov/safetyinspections/docs/2009%20Bus%20OOS%20criteria121008.pdf
You should also understand that an Out-of Service condition does not necessarily mean you cannot drive the bus. It may mean you cannot operate it with passengers. You ask what state law we would be breaking.
41-6a-1304. School buses -- Rules regarding design and operation.

Air brakes and horses: What is the connection? Back in the mid 1850’s when horses were used to draw the school bus. It was discovered that when they had to go to teams of horses to pull, two to four horses, a flaw was revealed. They had to use a whip to get a slacking horse to pull their fair share of the load. They had to use the reins likewise for each pair to slow or stop the wagon. So you could say that whips and reins were likening to slack adjusters. The slack adjuster on our newer buses is self adjusting. However, they are not self adjusting to synchronize with all four brakes on the bus. As brake shoes wear down at different rates the pressure each set of brake shoes apply to the brake drum is different at each wheel even though you are using one brake pedal. As you go down a long hill, for instance, and you hold a light steady pressure, one set of brakes may be doing the major part of the work. This would cause that brake to overheat and start to fade. At this point you really can’t tell that anything is going on except that now you need to press a little harder on the brake pedal to get the same rate of maintaining your speed down the hill. Before long you may have two sets of brakes fading (failing) and more pressure is needed. Can you see where this is going? A different way of braking was developed that gives better braking capacity over time. It is called “Proper Braking Technique”. Simply put, you determine what safe speed you intend to descend a hill at and when you reach that speed, depress your brake pedal firmly enough to slow 5 miles per hour within 5 seconds and do it again if you reach your maximum target speed until you no longer need braking. This can be done in combination with down shifting. For more detailed information, try googling: brake snubbing. JB

It is time once again to prepare for our annual physical assessment and driver evaluations. The physical assessment is the same as in the past with one exception. We have a front engine bus on the skills course at Free Port that you have the option to use. We will be doing the pre/post trip inspection different from last year. We will not be teaching as we go. You will have 15 minutes to complete your inspection of the bus. It is very important that we hear you say or see you touch each item you are inspecting. It is important that you do a thorough inspection. The key here is, if you see it or know where it is, “Say It”. You need to be specific about each thing you are checking. On my web page I have three pdf files that you can print off that may be helpful. They are located under the Davis Drivers link. They are “school bus component flash cards”, “in bus air brake check”, “school bus pre-trip check list”. On the skills course we will only be doing two skills, the right turn and the parallel park. This question always comes up, “Why do I need to know all these parts of a bus to drive it? All I can say is, the Feds expect it, the State of Utah expects it, and the district expects it. This process should take less than an hour. JB

Recertification - Over a Five Year period, Four hours in any of the following classes is required yearly plus two hours of behind the wheel training yearly. You must attend all of the classes within a five year period. (Units 2 - 9). Unit 1. Introduction N/A Unit 2. Vehicle Components 1 Hour Unit 3. Passenger Loading and 1.5 hours Unloading Procedures Unit 4. Emergency Procedures 1 hour Unit 5. Behavior management 2 hours Unit 6. Defensive Driving Techniques 2 Hours Unit 7. Activity Field Trips 1 hour Unit 8. Public Relations .5 hour Unit 9. Special Education 1.5 hours Other Training First Aid/CPR 6 hours Defensive Driving Course 6 hours Operation Life Saver 1 hour JB

School Bus Flash Card Components Training. We have added this in the Davis Drivers section. I developed them to help new trainees to learn the different components of a school bus by areas of the bus. They are best printed on card stock. They are in PDF format. JB

Pumping down the BRAKES! If you are walking away from you bus and the wheels are not chalked or against a curb, please pump the air down to the point the parking pops out or won’t stay in. During field trips and especially at games, some misguided teenagers are pushing in the parking brake and jumping out to see where the bus will go. JB

BusBuzz : Davis Drivers and assistants. In order to read the BusBuzz you need to have acrobat reader loaded in your computer. Using internet explorer, go to the Davis web page, click on Departments, click on Transportation, click on employee resources, click on newsletter. JB

On the dashboard of the new buses is a switch labeled "VGT BRK" which stands for: Variable Geometry Turbo Brake. When this switch is on, the engine will help slow the bus down thus extending the life of the brakes. This switch connects the variable turbocharger; engine RPM, electronic transmission gear shifter and electric foot throttle pedal together through a computer. When you are at speeds higher than second gear, the turbo brake system will take effect when you take your foot off the foot throttle. The transmission will start downshifting automatically based on speed and RPM and the turbo brake will create back pressure in the engine which all works together to slow the bus. One note of Caution: DO NOT USE ON SLICK OR ICY ROADS. If you are one of those drivers who have a hard time keeping a steady foot on the throttle, you may need to adjust your driving technique or turn off the VGT BRK switch. JB

The Utah Department of Education has a new Power Point presentation for school bus idling. You can view it by going to:
http://www.schools.utah.gov/finance/transportation/ and clicking in the "Idling Reduction" link. As soon as I can find out what the new instructions are from the UDoE, I will pass it on. JB

Some procedures are not written down like putting your fuel cap back on tight after fueling. So what do your do when you come to an intersection like 4th South and Main Street in Salt Lake City and the signal lights are not working properly and there's a rail road track (Trax)? There's no cross bucks. Before taking my turn crossing the intersection, I set me brakes; put the transmission in neutral, open the door and window and have things quite, just as though there were cross bucks. Stop, look and listen. Safety First. JB

Walk Through. How much does it cost the tax payers when we do not do our walk through? I had a discussion with Tango 1 about the overall cost to drive an empty non-fundable bus one mile. The number is a little over $3.00. So you leave the school and you are two miles away and they call on the radio about a backpack. You stop, go back and find it under a seat. It is now a four mile round trip to take it back. That amounts to $12.00 it will cost the tax payers to ship that backpack to the school! Once our operating budget gets so high, it will be more advantageous for the district to contract out our jobs. We need to work together to prevent this from happening. JB