A Family Affair

Petermann Ltd. has generations of experience running
school bus operations with mutual respect for all

Ryan Gray | Senior Editor

There’s good reason to the Petermann name being one of the oldest and most respected in Ohio school bus lore.

The family has been in the business of transporting children for more than 80 years. The current iteration of the company has only been in existence since 1999, when Mike and Pete Settle started up the business again after a 6 1/2-year stint with Laidlaw Education Services. The brothers have seen their father’s modest 150-bus operation swell to fleet of about 1,300, the largest being Hamilton County, for which Petermann Ltd. provides all the special needs transportation. The company also has a contract along with two other companies for Cincinnati Public Schools.

But its roots trace back to the 1920s, when grandfather C.H. Petermann began the state’s first special needs education classes. It concerned Petermann, who worked at the local Ford dealer and was the president of the rotary club, that no education classes existed for local students with special needs, among whom he counted a grandson. In 1921, the rotary club hired a teacher to run a classroom out of a hospital basement in what is now Cincinnati General. Petermann bought a Ford bus, “or what passed as a bus in 1921,” recalled Pete Settle from family stories, to begin transporting the children to school. By 1928, enough money was raised to build the Condon School not far from the hospital. The original school was demolished in the 1980s, but to this day, Petermann Ltd. transports special needs kids to the nearby Roselawn Condon School.

“I remember stories, like my dad telling me he would only be able to hire male drivers because they physically had to be able to lift the kids up on the bus and off the bus,” Pete Settle added. “He said the drivers’ knees would get all banged up because the kids’ braces would hit their legs.”

So it’s easy to see why Mike, Pete and the entire family bleeds school bus yellow and have such admiration for school bus drivers, which along with all their employees will always come first.

“Everyone says we focus on the drivers,” said Mike, the COO in charge of Petermann’s day-to-day operations. “Well, I firmly believe we walk the talk. Our managers are trained on a daily basis to look for things people do right.”

And all employees, not only drivers, are rewarded for doing “it” right everyday. Whether it’s pay bonuses, the frequent weekend family barbecues or a simple, personal note from management, Petermann is dedicated to recognizing the good jobs performed by all of its 1,800 employees who serve 26 school districts in southern Ohio.

“Oh my goodness, I can’t even begin to tell you how it’s improved, not only in the improvement but the morale of the drivers,” said Will Strickland, who happily points out he’s never missed a day of work in his seven years as a bus driver, the last three with Petermann.

Since he began driving in 2000, Strickland has made a practice of getting to work, and in doing so being the rare early bird at Lakota School District, which serves a northern suburb of Cincinnati. That’s all changed.

“Since Petermann has gotten here, more people than you’ll believe get here at 5 a.m.” he said.

All that in a time when school districts, and school bus contractors, across the country are battling driver retention issues.

“Finding quality drivers and retaining quality drivers is certainly a challenge,” said Pete Settle, the company president. “But the focus around our place is always on the driver and on the attendant. We do pretty extraordinary things to keep them happy.”

But it’s the little things that make a difference, like treating the employees to breakfast or to ice cream on hot days.

“They’ve just taken really good care of us. Between your rate of pay and the extra perks, I think they do a great job,” said DeDe Humbert, another of Lakota’s drivers. “I can’t complain at all. There’s no micro managing, more freedom.”

And both Humbert and Strickland should know, as they both drove for Lakota for several years before Peterman won the current contract in 2005. For starters, the school district-run operations were unorganized. Strickland said there was a general lack of management, and when drivers attempted to ask questions or raise concerns, he said they were rarely taken seriously. Driver training sessions more closely resembled gossip sessions, and, in general, the employees felt they lacked management’s respect.

“We respect them and they respect us in return. It has improved 4,000 percent,” he said.

Humbert, who drives junior high and elementary students for Lakota, also remembers how things were, and how they’ve changed in the Petermann era.

“They’re really good about the whole safety issue. They always keep that at the front of our minds,” she said. “That’s our job, to transport kids safely.”

“From nothing to what we have now, well, you can imagine,” added Will, who thinks so much of the company he volunteered for the first time this summer as a substitute driver. “In 2004 I was thinking about retiring myself. I just hope Petermann stays here. I think they’re the best bus company in the United States.”