When the American School Bus Council was announced two years ago, it was met with much enthusiasm and — truth be told — cautious optimism.

ASBC encountered its share of road bumps in the months following the 2006 NAPT conference in Kansas City, where the industry was first introduced to the new public relations tool developed to advocate the yellow school bus before the media and parents nationwide. Its goals were to increase ridership, build parental confidence and realize increased federal funding. It delivered data pulled from a focus group held that October showing that, while the school bus is considered a safe and indispensable service, many parents simply did not trust school bus drivers with their children. And where were the seat belts?

The case was made for something proactive to be done.

To build parental confidence, ASBC origins trace back to January 2006 and a unique union of the so-called “Three Ns” — those being NAPT, NASDPTS and NSTA — and the three large school bus OEMs, or “Three Ms” — Blue Bird, IC Corporation (now IC Bus) and Thomas Built Buses. While not Ford, GM and Chrysler, the school bus Big 3 sitting together at the same bipartisan table raised eyebrows.

“The original concept was to bring the big three associations together, and it lead to the other manufacturers getting involved,” said Mike Martin, who sits on the ASBC board as NAPT’s executive director alongside current NAPT President Bill Tousley. “It’s become more formalized and more big picture.

“ASBC has been a process. It’s not an organization, it’s a coalition. It doesn’t have bylaws. It isn’t incorporated. It’s like-minded organizations with like-minded goals but consisting of six very different organizations. It takes a while to capture a clear focus sometimes.”

While the school bus industry lacks the scope of the automotive sector, smaller manufacturing markets can be even more cutthroat because customers are at a premium. But the focus of ASBC is on the children, a value shared by all in this tight-knit community, no matter the personal or business agendas.

“What prompted our involvement was a letter sent (to the three manufacturers) that it was absolutely imperative for collaboration,” said Ken Hedgecock, the VP of sales, marketing and service at Thomas. “If we don’t all hang together, we hang separately. We have to work together or there won’t be an industry service.”

The result has been the “open, honest discussion” on the state of the industry that was the goal from day one.

“You would never know these guys are in fierce competition with each other,” added Derek Graham, a former ASBC board member. His seat now goes to new NASDPTS President Charlie Hood of Florida, who will attended his first meeting in Chicago in late August in preparation for his first official go-round later this month. Since its humbler beginnings as an informal meeting, ASBC has realized some of its potential, recently with the announcement of a new national partnership program designed to infuse more operating capital to extend its media reach as well as upcoming surveys on national school bus fuel costs and student ridership. It underscores the resurgence of the unusual industry coalition, but there have been plenty of growing pains along the way. And plenty of work remains.

Finding its StrideMany school bus professionals rolled their eyes when the ASBC’s first project, Love the Bus, failed to garner much national attention in the winter of 2007. By some accounts, widespread confusion existed among organizers and participating school bus operations in setting up events to celebrate the jobs of school bus drivers. Lost on the media and parents was a figure that one school bus can take up to 100 cars off the road to improve traffic congestion and air quality.

“That’s what Love the Bus was supposed to be all about,” said Terry Thomas, an NSTA representative on the ASBC board and owner of Community Bus in Youngstown, Ohio.

So ASBC and Burson Marsteller, the Washington, D.C.-based public relations firm hired to help develop and implement the media and parent-outreach campaigns, went back to back to the drawing board earlier this year. After a new contractual agreement was reached, the board set about gaining momentum to not only improve Love the Bus but perform much-needed industry surveys on ridership, like a national database that exists for mass transit, and the real costs of fuel price increases to school bus operators. Pushing the yellow school bus safety record remains a high priority, as seen with the children’s book “Carmen Loves the Bus,” which was published earlier this year. But much of ASBC’s attention has turned to the vital on-the-road issues of school traffic congestion and budget cuts amid high fuel prices and increased bus purchase costs due to emissions requirements.

“To sell our cause, facts speak,” said Roger Howsmon, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Blue Bird’s school and activity bus division. “Somehow, someway we have to come up with statistics.”

For example, last month ASBC released results that show the nation’s fleet of 480,000 school buses save parents more than 2.3 billion gallons of fuel are spared each year, a net savings of more than $8 billion dollars in fuel costs. The group created a downloadable fuel calculator spreadsheet school bus operators can use to determine the average cost of diesel fuel per school bus and the total spent each year as well as how much money school bus service can save parents.

While these surveys are being developed and external partnerships explored, ASBC is also looking within the industry for help. A partnership program was officially announced on Sept. 4 to generate wide-scale industry support and to help underwrite the research and surveys needed to be performed. As a partner, companies receive a partnership toolkit that includes fact sheets and a reference guide for dealing with the media as well as exclusive benefits such as the opportunity to attend an ASBC meeting.

Call it pessimism or cynicism, but some still question the validity of ASBC and its agenda.

“The meetings are in Chicago, which seems to impress my friends,” said NASDPTS’ Graham. “I even heard someone in the industry say they thought we met in some swanky downtown locale on a junket of sorts. It’s quite a far cry from a junket. We meet at a small hotel near the airport, where we are sequestered for a day and a half doing council business, hardly seeing the light of day.”

Literally speaking, at least for the June 3 and 4 meeting, when rain showers hammered the local Rosemont near O’Hare International Airport, a good 20 miles west of the lake front. At that same meeting, the group discussed joining forces with powerful groups that have similar goals of protecting children and the environment, like the National PTA and the Union of Concerned Scientists. But more so, it demonstrated how the group shares ideas as it attempts to help solve today’s challenges, like something for the school bus besides money that for years has been few and far between.

“From a leadership perspective, there’s an onus, a responsibility we have to further the industry,” added Barry Stock, ASBC board member as president of NSTA. “We take that especially seriously.”

Reprinted from the November 2008 issue of School Transportation News magazine. All rights reserved.