SBDI BACKGROUNDER

2008-2009 Driver Attendant Refresher #2

Pretrips and Posttrips: No Excuses

Overview

Every Basic, Advanced, and Pre-Service Course taught under the guidelines of State Education Department Regulation 156.3 will contain content about pretrip and posttrip inspections. These two activities bookend the activity of the actual bus route – picking up and discharging passengers, dealing with traffic, student discipline, weather, and all the other things that make driving a school bus a challenging and potentially rewarding occupation. While some school bus operations have occasional contests, rewards, or punishments designed to get drivers and attendants to complete thorough pretrips and posttrips, the bottom line is a quality pre- or posttrip inspection only happens when the driver or the driver and attendant understand the importance of the inspection and know how to perform it properly.

The National School Transportation Specifications and Procedures lists pretrip and posttrip inspections under “TRAINING OF BUS DRIVERS” (C.2. page 123) and “TRAINING OF BUS ATTENDANTS (C.2. page 126). This is an important point as we discuss these inspections. When there is both a driver and an attendant, they are both responsible for the performance of these inspections. Both have been held liable in court for failing to perform these inspections properly. A good driver and attendant team will work together to perform these functions effectively. There is no “correct” way to divide the task of bus inspections, the key is cooperation.

This lesson does not have a detailed focus on the walkaround inspection like most lessons on bus inspections. The one-hour time frame for this lesson, as well as the need for it to be performed in a classroom, does not allow its inclusion. If you believe that the walkaround is something that you want to emphasize as an addition to this lesson you could add a second hour to this lesson that would focus on the walkaround and include a hands-on component like a “find the defects” exercise.

There are many references available for teaching that lesson including the Basic Course (Chapter 9, pages 15-18) and recent initiatives by the Department of Transportation. If you have not seen the PowerPoint presentation Joe Scesny made that they have been presenting around the state ask your inspector if you can get a copy. The CDL manual offers a generic inspection model that falls short of what is done in most school transportation operations. The National School Transportation Specifications and Procedures also outlines a detailed model for pretrip inspection in the category of “Driver Responsibilities” (J.1-4. pages 94-97).

The one thing that you will want to make sure in linking this lesson to your current pre- and posttrip inspection procedures and forms is that the ideas raised in this lesson are a part of your policy and procedures. For instance, do your procedures include security issues that have been raised in our post 9/11 worldview? One thing that cannot be addressed because it is a local issue is how much drivers and attendants are paid to perform these essential functions. This is a local issue that must be handled within the operation.

The second part of the title of this refresher, “No Excuses,” is a key component to the point of the lesson. There are literally no excuses for not doing a quality pretrip and posttrip, although we will critique some possible excuses. Performing a quality inspection is simply a step-by-step procedure that must be learned and followed every day. The key is motivation; drivers and attendants will only do this consistently, and in the spirit as well as the letter of the law, if they come to believe in its merit. So, in addition to identifying some key issues around pretrip and posttrip inspections, this lesson will focus on motivation.

In addition to building in motivation throughout this lessonthrough a discussion of Operations Teamwork and a daily Personal Pretrip, there will be some specific pre- and posttrip topics that often do not get sufficient attention, or simply don’t seem to get through and are currently a high priority for attention, that will be highlighted,including, Pumping Down the Brakes, Sleeping Children, Mirrors, Emergency Exits, and Security.

Regulations

“Who says I have to do this?” There are always complainers in the group and for some it is very important to see things in black and white. Be sure your drivers and attendants have a copy of PTSI’s current Laws and Regs for School bus Drivers, Monitors, and Attendants. Regulatory requirements for doing pretrips and posttrips are very clear. One detail that is important to note in the Department of Transportation regulations (17 NYCRR) is that pretrips and posttrips are to be done at the end and beginning of a shift and not just at the beginning and end of the day.

Pretrip (17 NYCRR 721.3D) At the beginning of each workday or shift, the driver shall be satisfied be satisfied that the motor vehicle is in safe operating condition prior to carrying passengers. Additionally,

1) The driver shall review the last driver vehicle inspection report in order to verify that the operator has addressed the potential safety defect(s) noted on the previous report and the vehicle is safe for dispatch.

2) In addition to checking the repair of deficiencies noted on the previous driver report, the driver shall complete the Pretrip Inspection Report.

(17 NYCRR 721.4A 1-2) Prior to…the transportation of passengers, the driver shall insure that…if any safety defects are discovered, they shall be reported to the operator…The vehicle shall not transport passengers until such safety defect is corrected.

Posttrip (8 NYCRR 156.3 e4) Drivers, monitors and attendants shall check the vehicle to insure that no child is left behind on board unattended at the conclusion of the school bus route.

(17 NYCRR 721.3E) At the completion of each work day or shift, the driver shall conduct a review to identify if the motor vehicle is still in safe operating condition.

Motivation

H. Scott Geller, a professor at Virginia Tech and frequent speaker at National Safety Council conferences, talks about “People Based Safety Culture.” He suggests that unless employees feel themselves a part of a larger “family” or “team” that has a purpose and goal, then they are more apt to play the odds – “It probably won’t happen to me no matter what I do.” – than to commit to it never happening to anyone on the team – driver, attendant, or student. Geller list four conditions that must exist for this kind of commitment:

People must actively care about goals, action plans, and consequences

They must believe in and own the mission

They must feel obligated to work towards goals and support the vision

They need to give rewarding, supportive, and corrective feedback to increase behaviors consistent with vision-relevant goals.

I have placed an article by Dr. Geller, “People-Based Safety: The Psychology of Actively Caring,” on the PDS web site that provides an in-depth examination of this concept. It can be downloaded at If Dr. Geller’s work interests you, another article, co-authored by Dr. Geller, looks at the broader issue of traffic safety in a way that I think offers useful insight to our efforts to reduce passing motorists. The article is titled “Creating a Total Safety Traffic Culture,” and starts on page 177 in of a collection of articles titled, “Improving Traffic Safety Culturein the United States: The Journey Forward,” published by the AAA Foundation. The link to that document is SafetyCulture Report.pdf.

So how do we get people to actively care about goalsand consequences, to believe in and own the mission of safe transportation, to feel obligated to work towards and support the vision, and to give rewarding, supportive, and corrective feedback to help everyone meet the goal?

One of the main ways that we do that is to create an environment where drivers and attendants feel themselves to be a part of the whole – all the drivers and attendants in your operation, in the state, and in the country. When we do this, we can’t slide by with shoddy pre- or posttrip because we know that if everyone did it one of the “family” would suffer.

Being a part of a team means that instead of “playing the odds” that my bus has not been vandalized or that no children are sleeping on my bus, each driver and attendant checks their bus because, in the words of John Donne, “No man (or woman) is an island. Each ones’ joy is joy to me; each one’s grief is my own.” When every bus tragedy belongs to every driver and attendant then the motivation exists to do the right thing and to encourage “family” members to do the same and a safety culture emerges. This does not have to be depressing because every safe stop belongs to every driver and attendant also and becomes cause for celebration.

Everybody is for teamwork and a feeling of “family” in a work environment. The hard part comes when a team member or family member doesn’t perform their duties correctly. If a family was building a house that they were going to live in together and one family member saw another taking a shortcut that would impact the safe construction of their home, what would they do – ask them to change or overlook? If the behavior persisted, if the improper construction was not redone correctly, would a family member just stop trying to get the house constructed properly or would they turn to whoever was leading the construction, or to a council of all family members, and report the safety issue that exists that will affect all of them?

Rewarding, corrective, and supporting feedback means that it isn’t about blaming; it is about getting the job that the whole team has committed to done properly. Pretrips and posttrips are often done in full view of other team members – at schools, in bus garages, at athletic events. Team members who are “actively caring” will stop another driver or attendant and first, make sure they know how to make a proper inspection and second, to encourage them to do that because protecting every child is the overall goal of the team. This might feel awkward at first, but once the discussion has started, maybe you’ll begin to see cooperative pretrips – everyone working together to get the job done that they are all committed to getting done.
PretripNecessities

Personal Pretrip

The real key to a successful pretrip is an honest personal pretrip. If the idea of pretrip is just used to examine the bus for defects, the biggest variable affecting safe transportation is going unexamined, and that is the frontline bus staff – the driver or the driver and monitor. A personal pretrip means assessing whether or not one is mentally and physically ready to drive students safely.

Did you get enough sleep the night before?

Are there personal issues claiming your attention and focus that make it unsafe for you to drive?

Are you physically fit to perform the duties of a professional school bus driver, even those required in emergency situations?

Did you stop drinking at least 8 hours before driving and are you free from the effects of alcohol and prescription and non-prescription drugs?

Do you have an evacuation plan for each of your bus loads and specific information about students for whom transportation is a related service as required by IDEA,

Do you have a good working relationship with the dispatcher, mechanics, and driver or attendant on your bus? and

Did you get to work in time to get special instructions about any changes on the route or vehicle changes and to do a proper walkaround inspection?

If the answer to these questions is “yes” for the driver and attendant, if applicable, then they are ready to turn their attention to the vehicle. For the driver, Vehicle and Traffic Law 509 (k) prohibits the driver whose “ability or alertness…is so impaired…through fatigue, illness or any other cause, as to make it unsafe for to…operate the bus.” For the attendant, the reasoning is simply common sense because the functions of caring for medically fragile children and helping students cross the road are just as risk-laden.

Operation Teamwork

When the school bus is out on the road, the average motorist just sees a bus, but a school bus is like the omnipresent VerizonTM commercial. It’s not just a bus and a driver, but it’s the bus and its network. The network may include an attendant, as well as mechanics, dispatchers, routers, supervisors, and bus washers within the transportation department in addition to school district employees, students, and parents who are all working together to provide safe transportation. As the idea of “team” or “family” begins to grow in the minds of drivers and attendants and as they become aware of their “network” of support then their response should be to become a willing, committed member of the network as well.

The network that supports drivers and attendants as they prepare for their daily route must function effectively if they are to do their job safely.

Have the mechanics carefully reviewed the driver’s daily report and addressed any mechanical issues noted on the form?

Does the route sheet reflect any changes that have been made and is there a note about any special procedures for the day? Are trans office procedures designed so drivers can easily pick up keys or notes, be informed of any route or vehicle changes, and be observed by a staff member trained in reasonable suspicion?

Is the staff parking and bus parking lots and the buses well lit and cleared of snow and ice so staff can safely walk into the garage and then perform an effective pretrip?

Is there a mirror grid for drivers to test their mirror alignment?

While the driver and attendant are responsible for their own pretrips, the network must also be ready and supportive.

Mirrors

Mirror adjustment is fundamental to a thorough pretrip and safe operation of a school bus. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 111 specifies exactly how school bus mirror systems are to be designed and adjusted. It’s scary that some drivers have their mirrors angled to test their lights during the pretrip instead of towards the danger zone in front of the bus.

Proper mirror adjustment can best be accomplished by painting a mirror grid in the bus parking lot that will allow drivers to check the mirrors themselves. Placement of cones is established in FMVSS 111. In this diagram all the cones are 12” high except for “P” which is 36” high. While the standard uses cones, the painted grid can just be 12” circles painted on the ground at the appropriate locations. The driver simply pulls into the grid to test their mirror alignment.

It is important to note the difference in New YorkState regulations. 17 NYCRR 720.4M 2b-c, instead of requiring vision of cones 12’ in front of the bus, requires the mirrors to be able to see the area in front of the bus until “direct observation is possible” which is often more than 12’.

Mirror adjustment must be checked every day and a system must be in place for drivers to have a mechanic help when mirror adjustment is necessary, especially for drivers who are assigned to a spare vehicle.

Emergency Exits

Checking emergency exits not only keeps them in working order, it also ensures that drivers and attendants are familiar with their operation. If the only time a roof hatch is opened is in the ventilation position, in an emergency the driver and attendant may not understand how to open it for evacuation. Not only might they not know howto open it, the hatch may not be able to open as a result of never being operated.

Roof hatches must be opened to at least 30-40o every day to keep the hinges working. There is an urban legend that if the hatch is opened every day it will begin to leak, and maybe 20 years ago it might have been true, but the dangers of non-use is greater than the danger of regular use.

Doors and windows must also be opened fully; just opening the handle so the buzzer sounds will not keep the hinges working. Doors should be opened from the outside because the longer inside handle provides much more leverage. A door that can be opened from the inside might be too stiff to work from the outside where emergency crews would approach the bus after an accident. When emergency doors are opened from the outside the mechanisms to hold the door in place should also be examined.

Security

September 11, 2001 changed how we think about security. In reality, it made us think more about security issues we already should have been thinking about anyway. While 9/11 linked terror with foreign influences, in fact, school bus terror is much more likely to come from elements that have been present in our society for quite some time – homegrown extremists seeking attention, high school student vandals, bullied children striking back, kidnappers seeking a big payday, criminals looking for hostages, or sexual predators seeking victims. What 9/11 did was make us begin to take precautions that are simply common sense.

In terms of pre- and posttrip inspections, security centers around observation – noticing anything that is not usually there. Noticing requires cleanliness because if the bus is a mess how will you know if anything unusual is present? If the last thing you do at the end of the day is sweep your bus then anything unusual found during a pretrip inspection is suspicious. The same goes for the end of every trip during the day. Lost items should be reported to the school and if suspicious items are found, they should be reported to authorities.