A management & maintenance magazine for school transportation fleets
Issue link: https://sbf.epubxp.com/i/334511
46 S C H O O L B U S F L E E T • J U L Y 2 0 1 4 Buying direct from ALPHA XII, decals made easy. Over 500 different bus decals in stock as well as other products. Decals for the inside, outside, stop arm signs, colored animals & hand paddles for the elementary kids, assortment of numbers & letters in multi colors, magnetic signs, high-intensity ref ective decals and much, much more: All condensed into one catalogue, from a quality sign company, we inventory for you at your convenience. Watch for our monthly specials. Thanks for your interest… Don.Alpha12@yahoo.com 936-204-3591 Renee.Alpha12@yahoo.com 936-520-0838 If you want to open the e-mail food- gates, sign up for automatic news alerts about school buses! Not a day passes without lots of news about our industry. Perusing the news nationally (and now internation- ally as well) is probably the single best way to get a full picture of the many is- sues we face, and how different states and communities meet the many chal- lenges and opportunities of operating yellow buses. There's story after story about communities struggling to keep buses running amid shrinking budgets, while others are trying to keep up with demand for more buses and routes. There are stories about technology, special-needs transpor- tation and misadventures involving drivers, students and maintenance. Dirk Kempthorne, the former U.S. senator, Idaho governor and secretary of the interior, summed it up in an interview before speaking at NAPT's Louisville, Ky., conference several years ago: "The school bus industry is impacted directly or indirectly by almost all of the issues on the national agenda these days. So, if something is on the front page of the news- paper, look downstream and you will fnd a pupil transpor- tation impact." It's good to be popular! But it's also good to be prepared for the fame and sometimes blame that comes from providing a vital service that involves the safety of children. Smart professionals know that learning continuously and developing new skills are critical to getting the job done well, especially with the environment changing constantly. That's why the annual NAPT Summit is so important. It has the learning tools you need, all in one place. This year, that place will be Kansas City, Mo., Nov. 8-11. Budget tight in your state and travel to outside meetings frowned upon because of it? These are the times when at- tending your professional trade association meeting is even more important, because it provides the opportunity to share strategies with others who share the same challenges and to get frst-rate advice from experts. You can make a strong case that you need to attend as a school bus professional (remind the boss that it's all business — there's no golf tournament) by showing her or him just NAPT Summit: Driving innovation, new certification (BY MEGAN GEROUX) Megan Geroux is NAPT's marketing and communications specialist. NAPT news & views