p h A s h n V p 4 v HBHB9HHBH lBIBBBl A Study of School Transportation In Georgia Program of Educational Development for Georgia MAY q v UNWRStTY ISSUED BY EDUCATION PANEL Agricultural and Industrial Development Board of Georgia Athens Georgia zujui yi aiitanikia3ja 4 f A 6 kajrfhnrijifomr ar6r AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT BOARD OF GEORGIA Blanton Fortson Chairman L Vaughan Howard Executive Director Name of Member Address Ivan AllenAtlanta T F AbercrombieAtlanta Charles L BowenMacon W N BanksGrantville Cason J CallawayHamilton M D CollinsAtlanta Ryburn G ClayAtlanta Mrs Frank C DavidColumbus Blanton FortsonAthens Charles B GramlingAtlanta Robert W GrovesSavannah Alfred W JonesSea Island TomLinder Atlanta Wiley L MooreAtlanta Walter R McDonaldAtlanta Henry McIntoshAlbany W H McNaughtonCartersville J L PilcherMeigs Robert StricklandAtlanta MKing TuckerWaynesboro Wilson WilliamsAtlanta EDUCATION BULLETIN No 5 JANUARY 1945 EDUCATION PANEL M D Collins Chairman Atlanta Mrs Frank C DavidColumbus Wilson Williams Atlanta 0 C AderholdAthens c o By J E Greene Claude Purcell and 0 C Aderhold W 0 Hampton S P Clemons W A Stumpf C A Williams Department of Public Safety Preston Weeks Department of Public Safety VHOTIPVMHMNHHi I TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I INTRODUCTION 1 II SOURCES OF INFORMATION 5 III SAFETY IN PUPIL TRANSPORTATION 7 Safety Features in School Bus Equipment 7 Safety Practices in the Operation of School Busses l4 The Selection of Competent Drivers 17 IV INSURANCE ON SCHOOL BUSSES 19 V BUS ROUTING AND SCHEDULING AS RELATED TO PUPIL HEALTH AND CONVENIENCE 24 VI FACTORS RELATED TO THE COST OF OPERATING SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS 35 Miscellaneous Factors Related to Cost A9 VII MISCELLANEOUS DATA ON SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION 53 Source of Driver Fay 53 Hours Bus Driver Is on Duty 53 Bus Driver Employment 53 Changes in Bus Routings 56 Manufacture of Chassis 57 Manufacture of Bodies 57 Days Nonoperative 62 Interest of The Respondents in The Report on The Findings 62 VIII MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION IN GEORGIA 63 Legal Responsibility for School Transportation Programs 63 Ownership of Equipment 4 Maintenance of Equipment 6A iiMMHMHMMMM CHAPTER PAQE School Bus Routings 66 Selection and Training of Drivers 67 Records and Reports 70 Safety Regulations and Practices 71 IX SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 72 Safety 72 Insurance Pupil Health and Convenience 75 Factors Related to Cost 76 Recommendations iiiHHHnUHHflMUniHHHHHiHHHHHHHlHBHHHlHHH LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE I Safety Features of Busses Sampled by the Questionnaire 8 II Safety Features of Busses Inspected by the State Patrol 9 III Extent of Overcrowding Among the School Busses Sampled by the Questionnaire IV Insurance Coverage of School Busses as Reported by on Respondents to the Questionnaire V Extent of Insurance Premiums Paid as Reported by 21 Respondents to the Questionnaire VI Extent of Insurance Collections as Reported by 22 Respondents to the Questionnaire VII Longest Walking Distance to the Bus Route as Reported by Respondents to the Questionnaire 5 VIII Time at Which the First Pupil Mounts Bus in the Morning26 IX Comparisons of Miscellaneous Factors Related to Pupil Health or Convenience According to Type of Bus Ownership 27 X Time at Which the Last Pupil Leaves Bus in the Afternoon29 XI Shortest Distance Between Bus Stops as Reported by Respondents to the Questionnaire32 XII Distance from Last Bus Stop to School as Reported by Respondents to the Questionnaire33 XIII Factors Related to the Cost of Operating Busses During the Biennium 194344 XIV List and Purchase Prices of Chassis and Bodies of Busses 39 Sampled by the Questionnaire IVfrqttfrTTffiffWfti I t ir ITABLE XV PAGE XVI Time by Which Respondents to the Questionnaire Report That Bus Chassis and Bodies Will Need to be Replaced with New Equipment 2 Anticipated Total Life of Chassis and Bodies as Reported by Respondents to the Questionnaire 3 XVII Expenditures for Repairs Equipment and Supplies Among Busses Sampled by the Questionnaire XVIII Miscellaneous Factors Related to Cost of Operating School Busses 8 Hours Bus Driver Is on Driving Duty as Reported by Respondents to the Questionnaire 4 Types of Employment of Bus Drivers While Not on Driving Duty 5 Manufacturers of Bus Chassis According to Bus Inspection Records Manufacturers of Bus Chassis as Reported by Respondents to the Questionnaire 9 XXIII Manufacturers of Bus Bodies According to Bus Inspection Records 60 XXIV Manufacturers of Bus Bodies as Reported by Respondents to the Questionnaire 61 XIX XX XXI XXII CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The present study has two essential purposes l To present a fairly detailed factual picture of present conditions in Georgia as related to selected problems in pupil transportation and 2 to offer certain suggestions relative to ways and means of improving the safety and economy of school transportation in Georgia In connection with the first purpose we propose to cite detailed statistical and other data obtained from the four sources indicated in Chapter II entitled Sources of Information As a part of this factual presentation we shall make certain comparisons of the relative safety convenience and economy of privately owned busses as compared with publicly owned busses The generali zations dealing with the present status of school transportation in Georgia will be summarized under the following topical headings Safety in Pupil Transporta tion Insurance Bus Routing and Scheduling as Related to Pupil Health and Convenience Factors Related to Cost and Miscellaneous Data on School Transporta tion In connection with the second purpose of this report we shall recommend certain legislative enactments looking to the improvements of school transportation and offer additional generalizations and comments which we believe will be of interest and value to public school officials responsible for the formulation and execution of policies dealing with pupil transportation For the convenience of the reader most of the generalizations and comments addressed to school officials responsible for pupil transportation programs will be treated separately in Chapter VIII entitled Miscellaneous Suggestions for the Improvement of School Transportation in Georgia Not without reason pupil transportation has been referred to frequently as the stepchild of the school program Programs of pupil transportation developed in Georgia Trithout much conscious planning or serious attention As a result the area of pupil transportation provides some of the most complex and difficultproblems which confront public education in Georgia The present law relating to pupil transportation was passed more than two decades ago It permits county boards of education or local trustees to provide pupil transportation whenever such is deemed for the best interest of the school The State Board of Education has no specific legal authority to prescribe minimum standards for school transportation equipment or to regulate the operation of school busses Georgia is one of the few southern states which does not vest regulatory authority in the State Board of Education Until a few years ago pupil transportation was a minor item in the cost of operating schools During recent years however the proportionate expenditures for transportation have increased rapidly until today expenditures for this pur pose rank next in total cost to expenditures for teachers salaries During the school year 194344 2785 busses traveled 65154 miles daily to transport 173633 children an average of 623 children per bus The annual cost for transporta tion service was 3032853 or 1747 per child transported The equipment used represented a total investment of 4033391 or 144826 per unit of equipment The three principal patterns for the operation of transportation equipment in Georgia arej l Publicly owned and operated busses 1216 2 privately owned and operated busses 1053 and 3 jointly oied and contractoperated busses 516 During the past several years there has been a decided trend toward public ownership and operation of school busses in Georgia Despite the restrictions on the purchase of new equipment because of wartime conditions boards of education have purchased 210 new and used busses during the past two fiscal years ending June 30 1944 Prior to the 0DT order which froze all school busses as of March 17 1943 many contractoperated busses were converted to nonschool use In a number of instances boards of education have found it necessary to purchase private equipment in order to continue their use for school purposes The unit 2 m IMIHwDHHMHIIHMHBMMHMMr be HiiH cost for new chassis has increased approximately 600 over prewar prices and there has been a corresponding increase of approximately 200 in the cost of allsteel bus bodies The purchase price of new equipment has varied as much as 400 within the State and nearly as much within adjoining counties for identical units of equipment This variation in prices along rdth factors referred to in other sections of this report has created among local school officials a demand for the State to provide facilities for some system of central purchase of equip ment and supplies The management and responsibility for school transportation varies greatly within the State and among the various counties In some counties the management and responsibility for pupil transportation has been left almost entirely to the local district trustees which often results in duplication of routing within the county and other evidences of inefficient operation In other counties however the board of education has inaugurated a countywide program of transportation which meets welldefined minimum standards for equipment operation maintenance drivers records and reports Faulty management of transportation in many rural counties has imposed a financial burden which threatens to deplete their already meager financial resources and to prevent the proper development of their alltoo limited instructional programs During recent years there has been a consistent tendency for county superin tendents of schools to request more financial aid for transportation purposes and more supervisory assistance from the State Department of Education in planning for greater safety convenience and economy in pupil transportation Under present legislation neither the State Board of Education nor the State Department of Public Safety has authority to prescribe minimum standards for the construction and operation of school busses despite the fact that many county school officials have requested the State Department of Education to prescribe such minimum stan dards 3 pw1MWM hiIt is becoming increasingly recognized that problems relating to school transportation must be considered an integral part of any program of school planning For example it is not advisable to plan a building program or the location of school centers or the schedule or the curriculum of an individual school without respect to transportation problems Obviously when an individual bus serves more than one school the opening and closing hours of each school should be directly related to the bus schedule This is not meant to imply that all school plans must revolve about transportation plans It is clear however that close interrelationships should be achieved between problems relating to transportation and other significant aspects of the total school program 4 sCHAPTER II SOURCES OF INFORMATION The generalizations dealing with quantitative data which comprise the body of this report were based on facts obtained from one or more of the following sourcest 1 2 3 A detailed questionnaire sent to selected county superintendents of schools in each of the ten congressional districts This questionnaire asked for specific data on the construction maintenance and operation of a particular bus in use during the school year 194344 The busses so selected for intensive study were chosen on the basis of a random tenpercent sample from a master list of all busses classified accord ing to type of ownership This method of procedure seemed advisable for several reasons It was desired to reduce the amount of labor and ex pense involved in the study by securing detailed data on a representative sample of busses of each type of ownership rather than by securing more superficial data on all busses The sampling was sufficiently small to permit active participation by the AllState Committee in assuming the responsibility of securing questionnaire replies on the school busses sampled in his congressional district A weighted sample was employed in an effort to secure comparable data on busses according to type of ownership One or more questionnaire forms were sent to the county superintendent in 150 of the 159 counties comprising a total of approxi mately 300 questionnaires Usable replies were obtained from 179 re spondents in time for inclusion in the study Although supporting data for the assertion will not be presented in details here there is reason to believe that the busses on which replies were obtained constitute a rather good crosssection sample of all school busses operating during the school year 194344 A copy of the questionnaire is included in Appendix A With the cooperation of the State Department of Public Safety in the persons of Director Williams and Sergeants Weeks and Alexander detailed data were obtained from the 1943 school bus inspection records of the Department These records mainly provided data concerning the safety of construction and operation of school busses Punch card records were obtained for 2242 inspections in 1943 or approximately 78 percent of the busses in operation during that year It is the opinion of the staff of the State Department of Public Safety that the busses which were not inspected probably constitute a selected group There is reason to as sume that busses which evaded inspection or failed to secure inspection would rank lower with respect to safety features of construction and operation than did the busses inspected A copy of the form used in recording school bus inspection data is included in Appendix B The State Department of Public Safety also made available to representa tives of the AllState Committee data on school bus accidents It should be emphasized that the records on school bus accidents are incomplete since many such accidents probably do not receive the official attention of the Department 5 mmmEkA A fourth type of data available to the committee consists of reports from State Departments of Education the U S Office of Education and certain published and unpublished literature on pupil transportation In order to facilitate a detailed statistical analysis of the data involved I B M punch cards were prepared on each of the 179 busses included in the questionnaire sample and for each of the 222 busses included in the 193 school bus inspection reports of the State Department of Public Safety In certain of the calculations the arithmetic mean was used as the measure of central tendency while in other calculations the median was used as the measure of central tendency In a number of the tables it has been considered desirable to use the first quar tile the third quartile and the quartile deviation as the measures of variability In a few instances hen data were not available on certain items means were cal culated on a fewer number of cases than were contained in the sample In these instances the number of cases on which the mean is based is indicated in the given table The AllState Committee on Pupil Transportation participated in planning the nature and scope of the problems to be investigated in determining the types of data to be collected in the collection of the data obtained from the question naire and in formulating major recommendations on policy The present report was written jointly by J E Greene and Claude Purcell Consequently individual members of the committee should not be held responsible for the detailed specific interpretations made of data obtained from the four sources listed above It is felt however that most of the detailed interpretations and all the major recom mendations reported herein represent the concensus of judgement and opinion of the AllState Committee and of the Education Panel staff 6 ylr J CHAPTER III SAFETY IN PUPIL TRANSPORTATION The three principal factors determining safe pupil transportation are the use of safe equipment the condition of roads and the skill of the driver and his observance of safety rules It was not found feasible in this investigation to secure adequate information on the condition of roads or on the skill of the driver Tables I II and III present fairly detailed statistical data dealing with safety features in school bus equipment and rith selected safety practices in the operation of school busses Tables I and III are based on data obtained from questionnaire returns Table II is based on data obtained from reports of school bus inspections by the State Department of Public Safety Safety Features in School Bus Equipment It is generally recognized by authorities that safe school transportation requires an allsteel body with safety glass The data from the State Patrol inspection reports as well as from the questionnaire reveal that a considerable number of school busses in operation in Georgia during 194 did not have allsteel bodies Both of these studies show that roughly only three out of four school busses have allsteel bodies It is of further interest and significance that an appreciably greater percentage of publicly owned than of privately oned school busses have allsteel bodies Publicly owned busses have from a 15 to 19 percent higher incidence of allsteel bodies than do privately owned busses In the questionnaire data homemade bodies occur about four times as frequently among privately owned busses 154 percent as among publicly owned busses 38 percent The school bus inspection data show homemade bodies to occur five times as fre quently among privately owned busses 104 percent as among publicly oned busses 21 percent Under the laws of Georgia county boards of education are not permitted to 7 nmmsmmmmSwfflSm sSS iBTABLE I SAFETY FEATUBES OE BUSSES SAMPLED BY THE QUEST I Oim I BE Safety features Allsteel bodies Honemade bodies Safety glass in windshield Safety glass in windows Safety glass in doors Eerr emergency door Windshield wiper Hycraulic or air brakes Busses with first aid kits Busses with fire extinguisher Busses with one or more dangerous stops Average number of dangerous stops per route Average age of bus drivers Public Private All types Ho Ho 66 835 U2 Gke 3 38 10 15H 67 8U8 H9 75u 61 772 35 53 8 59 7M 35 S38 77 975 61 938 71 899 59 908 59 7U7 51 569 15 190 13 200 20 253 7 108 12 152 12 185 20 X 22 X 388 X U05 X Ho 130 16 lUl 118 116 I69 161 122 37 37 28 25 393 i 73 u 90 797 667 650 955 910 68 20 209 158 9 9 1 00 1 mTABLE II SAFETY FEATUBES OF BUSSES INSPECTED BY THE STATE PATBOL Public Private All types Safety features Allsteel bodies Homemade bodies Sjfety glass in defective condition Etar emergency door in defective condition Windshield wiper in defective condition Foot brakes in defective condition Hjnd Drakes in defective condition Busses having only one defective tire Busses having two defective tires Busses having three or more defective tires Busses with unsatisfactory ratings on tires Exhaust in defective condition Busses releasing gas fumes Busses with defective front visibility Busses with defective rear visibility Busses having gasoline leakage Busses with defective axles springs Busses with defective clutches Busses with defective wheel alignment Busses with defective headlights Busses with defective tail lights Busses with defective stop lights Busses lacking spare bulbs and fuses Busses with improperly focused headlights Busses with unsatisfactory general sanitary condit Busses with inadequate mechanical stop signal Busses with inadequate school bus signs Busses with first aid kits in defective condition Busses with fire extinguishers in defective condit Busses with unsatisfactory flares and flags or shackles Ho 792 19 101 89 52 92 285 51 26 11 52 431 151 14 45 17 11 3S 44 129 227 285 6U3 128 ions 27 555 49 700 ion 683 688 i Ho 4 no i 858 21 109 96 56 100 309 55 28 ll 56 467 164 15 18 12 41 48 i4o 246 309 697 139 29 601 53 758 7U0 75 861 126 4o6 13U 219 98 360 67 59 33 110 U69 15U 13 57 31 16 24 15 172 309 422 805 159 138 790 132 871 923 925 710 104 335 111 297 55 28 91 327 127 11 47 26 13 20 12 1U2 255 3H8 664 13I 114 652 109 719 762 763 17U6 145 528 228 282 201 67o 123 87 44 166 945 325 27 103 48 27 65 59 319 567 743 1521 307 17 1409 185 163 1688 1695 779 65 236 102 126 90 302 57 39 20 7U U21 145 12 46 21 12 29 26 142 253 331 678 137 72 628 83 737 753 756 i HMHHHII 5S5SSfficontract with individual bus drivers for ore than one year Individuals who contract to transport children to and from school hesitate to invest heavily for school bus equipment when the contract terminates at the close of each year Many county boards of education solicit bids from individuals for transportation services The type of equipment is often not specified in the bid The private contractor is less likely than the county to have the necessary financial re sources for purchasing firstclass equipment The private contractor does not secure federal tax exertions on the purchase price of equipment to which the county is entitled ill too frequently the school bus of the private contractor consists of a chassis which has outworn its usefulness from hauiing fan produce and a wooden body which has been hammered together at the lowest possible cost Such equipment is likely to be unsafe unhygienic and uneconomical If Georgia children are to be transported safely this kind of equipment must be relegated to the junk yard as soon asnew equipment is made available after the war In 1933 antiquated wooden bus bodies were held largely responsible for the deaths of 15 Florida chUdren killed in school bus accidents Aroused to the importance of safe equipment the Florida State Department of Education then ruled that after July 1 1935 all school busses should be equipped with steel bodies men type of ownership is not considered it is found from the questionnaire returns that one out of five school busses did not have safety glaaa in the wind shield and one out of three busses did not have safety glass in windows and doors The school bus inspection reports also indicate that the safety glass in one out of four busses inspected during 19 was in a defective condition It is extreme ly significant that approximately nine out of ten publicly owned busses had safety glass in good condition whereas only two out of three privately owned busses had safety glass in good condition A similar comparison of the data resulting from the questionnaire reveals clearly that publicly owned busses are considerably ore likely to be equipped with safety glass than are privately owned busses 10 The school bus inspection records indicate that privately owned busses are more than three tines as likely as publicly owned busses to have safety glass in a defective condition When type of bus ownership is disregarded it is found that one out of four busses had safety glass in a defective condition The hazards involved in the use of nonshatterproof glass are too well recognized to require comment The questionnaire data show that when all types of busses are considered one out of 20 does not have a rear emergency door This same study indicated that 62 percent of privately owned busses lack rear emergency doors whereas only 25 percent of the publicly owned busses are without rear emergency doors Stated differently the absence of this important safety feature occurs more than twice as frequently among privately owned busses as among publicly owned busses It should be noted that in addition to busses which lack emergency doors there were in 193 according to the school bus inspection records an additional 102 percent of busses with rear emergency doors which did not meet safety standards Defective emergency doors occurred somewhat more frequently among privately owned busses than among publicly omed busses In one county a bus operator padlocked the emergency door from the outside Another instance is reported in which the latch on the emergency door was broken and the door remained open or partly open Approximately one out of 11 school busses sampled in the questionnaire lacks a windshield wiper The school bus inspection records indicate that one out of eight school busses which do have wipers have defects that impair their use Defective windshield wipers occur more than three times as frequently among privately owned busses as among publicly owned busses In this connection it is of interest to note that during the year 194 a school bus accident in Lowndes County involving serious injuries to six persons was reported by the State trooper as beinp mainly due to the absence of a windshield wiper Authorities in pupil transportation are in agreement that school busses 11 tflC23S238ii cssEwaascKS 55ctSt55S 7 should be equipped with either hydraulic or air brakes The present findings show that approximately three out of ten school busses in Georgia lack such equipment The questionnaire data indicate that three out of four publicly omed busses have hydraulic or air brakes whereas fewer than six out of ten privately owned busses have such equipment The school bus inspection reports indicate that the foot brakes on one out of 11 busses inspected were in defective condition and three out of ten hand brakes were in defective condition Privately owned busses ere slightly less likely than publicly owned busses to have foot and hand brakes in defective condition We may assume that some of the busses inspected had both types of brakes in defective repair and that at least one third of the busses inspected were potential safety hazards because of defective brakes The State Department of Public Safety reports a school bus accident in Houston County in 193 in which there was a fatal injury due mainly to defective brakes The same source reveals that because of defective brakes a school bus accident in Cook County in 19 resulted in a serious injury The school bus inspection data indicate that the general condition of the tires of 74 percent of the busses inspected during 193 was considered as being not 0 K Private busses were almost twice as likely as public busses to have unfavorable ratings on this item These data also show that one out of 17 busses had one defective tire one out of 26 busses had two defective tires one out of 50 busses had three or more defective tires and one out of nine busses had one or more defective tires Although the ratio of busses having only one defective tire was the same for privately owned as for publicly owned busses it is of interest to note that privately owned busses were approximately twice as likely as publicly owned busses to have more than one defective tire Of the busses inspected in 13 four out of ten had exhausts listed as being not 0 K and one out of seven busses had gas fumes released in such a manner that children were likely to be nauseated while in transit One out of 20 busses 12 was listed as having defective rear visibility and one out of 83 had defective front visibility In each of the four last items privately owned busses tend to have slightly more favorable ratings than do publicly owned busses One out of 49 busses inspected by the State Patrol was rated as having a gasoline leakage This condition was found among 26 percent of the privately owned busses as compared with 18 percent among the publicly owned busses Of the busses inspected during 193 one out of 83 as reported to have defective axles springsor shackles Type of ownership was not significantly related to defective maintenance of axles springs or shackles One out of 39 busses in spected by the State Patrol was rated as having defective wheel alignment This condition occurred four times as frequently among publicly owned busses as among privately owned busses Of the busses inspected in 193 one out of 3 had a defective clutch This condition occurred twice as frequently among publicly owned busses as among privately oned busses The National Congress on School Bus Standards recommend that each bus should be equipped with headlights tail light stop light and extra bulbs and fuses The State Patrol bus inspections reveal that when type of ownership is disregarded one out of seven busses had defective headlights one out of four had defective tail lights one out of three had defective stop lights two out of three lacked adequate spare bulbs and fuses and one out of seven had im properly focused headlights There was a slight but inconsistent tendency for privately owned busses to compare unfavorably with publicly owned busses with respect to adequate lighting facilities and practices The school bus inspection records furnish ratings on general sanitary con ditions of busses Considering all busses inspected it was found that the sanitary condition of one out of 13 as rated as unsatisfactory Unsatisfactory ratings on sanitary conditions occurred four times as frequently among privately owned busses as among publicly owned busses 13 Safety Practices in the Operation of School Busses The school bus inspections reveal that more than six out of ten school busses are without usable mechanical stop signals Under present Georgia law neither the State Department of Public Safety nor the State Board of Education has the authority to require busses to have equipment with this safety feature Although Georgia law requires all school busses to display school bus signs the school bus inspection reports reveal that one out of 12 busses either did not have such signs or otherwise did not meet specifications of the law This viola tion of the law occurred more than twice as frequently among privately owned busses as among publicly owned busses The questionnaire data indicate that four out of five school busses in Georgia are not equipped with satisfactory first aid kits and the school bus inspection reports show that of the busses inspected less than onefourth had first aid kits in satisfactory condition Type of bus ownership does not appear to be a significant factor in determining prevalence of first aid kits The questionnaire data indicate that roughly one out of five school busses was equipped with fire extinguishers and that publicly owned busses are more than twice as likely as privately owned busses to have such equipment The school bus inspection data indicate that threefourth of the school busses which are equipped with fire extinguishers have equipment which is not in proper condition for use The State Patrol inspection records indicate that only one fourth of the school busses were equipped with satisfactory flares and flags The questionnaire data indicate that in the opinion of therespondent roughly one out of six school busses had one or more dangerous stops The State Department of Public Safety reports a school bus accident in 193 in Gwinnett County in which a serious injury occurred because of a school bus stop too near the crest of a hill In this accident both the bus and the other vehicle in curred considerable damage Routes served by privately owned busses were more likely than routes served by publicly oTied busses to have a danrerous stop andtUthe number of such stops per route was somewhat greater for privately owned busses than for publicly owned busses Of the busses reporting dangerous stops the mean number of such stops was 25 stops All bus drivers should be trained to recognize hazardous bus stops School officials who have authority in establish ing school bus routes should be careful to avoid designating stops at hazardous places The overloading of school busses represents a hazard in pupil transportation which cannot be minimized Crowding at the front of bus or even in the center aisle impedes the drivers view One case was reported in the questionnaire re turns in which 109 pupils were transported regularly in a 48passenger bus Overcrowding is much more prevalent during recent years because of the shortage of school bus equipment During the war school bus routes have been combined in the interest of economy and because of the leek of sufficient equipment The data from the questionnaire indicate that all types of busses tended to be serious ly overcrowded on first loads but somewhat less seriously overcrowded on second and third loads Table III It is found for example that when type of bus ownership is disregarded the typical bus is overloaded 713 percent on the first load 391 percent on the second load and 25 percent on the third load It is of interest to note that the indices of overcrowding on the first and second loads are considerably greater for privately owned busses first load 1810 second load 1502 than for publicly owned busses first load 1577 second load 1329 The index of overcrowding on the third load however is 1158 for publicly ovned busses as compared with 897 for privately owned busses Since only 175 percent of the busses sampled have more than two loads of passengers and since all types of busses are seriously overcrowded on the first and second loads it is probably safe to assume that the typical school bus in Georgia in 1944 carried a passenger load at least 50 percent greater than its rated seating capacity In addition to the hazards to physical safety and to personal comforts 15 TABLE III EXTENT OF OVERCROWING AMONG THE SCHOOL BUSSES SAMPLED BY THE QUEST IONNAIRE Factor Public Private Total No of passengers transported No of passengers on first load No of passengers on second load No of passengers on third load Capacity of bus ideal conditions Index of overcrowding first load Index of overcrowding second load Index of overcrowding third load No of bu sses involved in Mean calculations 79 763 78 470 46 396 13 345 58 2S8 58 1577 46 1329 13 1158 o of busses involved in calculations Moan 63 753 64 476 29 395 18 236 46 263 46 1810 29 1502 18 897 All types NoT of busses involved in Mean calculations 175 r20 175 478 86 388 34 286 134 279 134 1713 86 1391 34 1025 by the capacity of the bus under ideal seating conditions I tw H iff Iand conveniences which result from overcrowding of busses many authorities in the field of school transportation refer to the moral hazards of overcrowding particularly as related to adolescent girls The Selection of Competent Drivers No school bus is safer than the driver who operates it Obviously the major responsibility for selecting competent school bus drivers must be assumed by the county boards of education The Georgia law requires school bus operators to possess a chauffeurs license This license may be acquired through application by mail No test of driving skills is required Until recently the minimum age for a chauffeurs license was 18 years At present it has been reduced to 17 years by executive order of the Governor Student drivers are being employed to operate the busses with greater frequency than formerly According to the questionnaire returns the mean age of bus drivers in Georgia during 19 as 393 years Table l There was a slight tendency for the drivers of private busses 405 years to be somewhat older than the drivers of public busses 388 years This finding is probably due in part to the fact that a greater proportion of publicly ormed busses than of privately oned busses makes use of student drivers The maximum age of drivers was reported to be 65 years whereas the minimum age reported was 17 years Careful study of reports of schoolbus accidents compiled by the State Department of Public Safety indicates that there are many drivers operating Georgia school busses who appear to lack proper qualifications The type of violations recorded in these reports show that in several instances school bus drivers made left turns without proper signals or failed to make proper stop signals One serious accident was due to improper supervision of pupil unload ing In one instance a bus driver was arrested on a charge of drunkenness and leaving the scene of an accident In other instances the bus driver was charged with reckless driving A case is also reported in nfeich the driver had no 17 ichauffeurs license According to the statistics quoted in the preceding sections publicly owned and operated pupil transportation service generally tends to result in the use of safer equipment and safer operation In both studies a greater number of defects was found in privately owned equipment than in publicly owned equipment and in general the defects found in privately owned equipment constituted a more serious type of safety hazard than did those found in publicly owned equipment The present State law does not authorize the State Board of Education to prescribe minimum standards for the construction and operation of school bus equipment There is ample evidence that county boards of education would welcome guidance and overall regulations in this field by the State Department of Education Georgia law requires that more than onehalf million children attend school for a period of nine months annually More than onethird of these children are at present being transported to and from school A society hich requires school attendance by this very act imposes upon itself the responsibility of providing safe and reasonably convenient means of transportation to school children who live beyond reasonable walking distance from school or who do not have access to other suitable means of transportation to and from school The data cited in this chapter clearly reveal that much too high a proportion of the busses now in operation fail to meet reasonable standards of safety It is the judgment of the Education Panel of the Agricultural and Industrial Development Board that the time is long overdue when the State Board of Education should be empowered and directed to adopt and enforce rules and regulations providing for greater safety and economy in the purchase operation and maintenance of school busses It is also the judgment of the Education Panel that county boards of education and county superintendents of schools should give more careful atten tion than is now generally practiced to the formulation and enforcement of poli cies insuring greater safety for pupils transported to and from school 18 fcr HHHHaHHaMiiHMflHHHBMBHlMHIimHHMnlHmHiHCHAPTER 17 INSURANCE ON SCHOOL BUSSES Only four states require that public liability insurance be carried either by the driver or by the school district on every motor vehicle used in pupil transportation Four other states authorize school boards to carry suit able insurance Data from the questionnaire returns show that slightly over onethird of the school busses sampled carried one or more types of insurance Table IV Liability coverage occurred somewhat more frequently than fire or theft coverage and nearly ten times as frequently as collision coverage In general there was a somewhat greater tendency for publicly owned than for privately owned busses to carry insurance A comparison of the available data reveals a marked discrepancy between the amount paid for insurance and the amount collected Table V and VI For example the 42 busses which carried liability insurance paid a total of 1176 in premiums Table V on which only one bus made a collection in the amount of 39 Table VI Stated differently 3 was expended on liability premiums for each one cent collected from liability claims Twentynine busses paid premiums for property damage coverage in the amount of 229 as compared with collections for property damage claims in the amount of 110 Eight busses paid premiums totaling 124 for collision coverage and there were no collections for any of these busses Thirtyone busses paid premiums for fire coverage in the amount of 320 and one bus collected a fire damage claim in the amount of 12 Twentynine busses paid premiums for theft cover age in the amount of 121 and there were no collections for theft Studies of expenditures and collections for school bus insurance in Ohio and in South Carolina show a ratio of expenditures to collections of more than 10 to 1 It is clear that for the busses studied the amount of money expended for insurance coverage enoimously exceeded the amount received in collections for damage The State Auditor has consistently pointed out that expenditures 19 TABLE IV INSURANCE COVERAGE OS SCHOOL BUSSES AS REPORTED BY RESPONDENTS TO THE QUESTIONNAIRE Public Type of insurance coverage No No of busses No of busses No of busses No of busses No of busses No of busses No of busses earring some type of insurance with liability coverage1 accident with liability coverage1 passenger with property damage coverage with collision coverage with fire coverage with theft coverage 3 20 15 13 l 19 18 i U31 253 190 165 13 2U0 22 g Private No 23 15 13 13 3 7 6 i 35 230 260 200 M 10 g 92 All types iNO 66 3 35 31 U 27 25 373 2U3 IS7 176 22 153 1U2 oBHIHHHHHHr aSicSmsassBMTABLE V EXTENT OE IESUSA3CE FEEMIUMS PAID AS BEfOBIEB 3Y RESPONDENTS 10 THE QUESTIONNAIRE Public Private Joint All types Insurance premiums Premium paid Premium paid Premiumpiaid Premium paid Premium pale liability property damage collision fire theft No of Total Ho of Total Ho of Total No of busses amount busses amount busses amount busses paying paid paying paid paying paid paying premium premiumpremiumpremium 20 15 k 22 21 10s 62 23H 79 Total amount paid lU 9 3 8 7 51 g 171 U2 1176 62 5 58 29 229 U6 l 16 8 12U 77 l 5 31 320 Ui l 1 29 121 3ms vi EXTENT OF INSUBAHCS COLLECTION A3 EEKETED BY EBSiONDESTS TO THE QUESTIOBHAIBE Insurance collected Fttbll Frivate Joint All types Ho of busses collecting damage Total amount collected Ho of busses collecting damaee Total amount collected Ho of busses collecting damage Total amount collected Ko oi busses collecting damage iotal amount collecl Amount collected liability Amount collected property damage Amount collected collision Amount collected fire Amount collected theft None 1 None None Hone Hone 10 Hone Hone None None 1 None 1 Hone Hone 50 None 12 Hone 1 1 None None NoiEe 39 50 Hone None None 1 3 none 1 None 39 110 None 12 Hone 0 TfyT7rtftJTd iiis SSSSBSSSSRSSSSSSSs for school bus insurance are not authorized by law Most of the boards of education who require insurance bypass the State Auditors recommendation by increasing the drivers salary or contract to an amount sufficient to cover the costs of insurance coverage Boards of education generally feel that they have a moral obligation to protect children injured in bus acci dents to the extent of guaranteeing all necessary hospitalization and medical care In Alabama the obligation is met by the State appropriating 50000 annually to the Workmans Compensation Board for the purpose of adjusting any and all claims made wherein school children or public employees are in volved The appropriations greatly exceed the adjustment payments made In North Carolina the State Board of Education is required to set aside suf ficient school money to reimburse parents up to 600 for cost incurred because of school bus accidents Neither of these states acknowledges lia bility on the part of the State in case of accident In Kentucky school boards have been exempted from legal liability but the courts have recogniz ed a moral responsibility with the result that 5000 30000 policies are strongly urged in the Transportation Manual issued by the Kentucky Depart ment of Education Kentucky has also arranged to pool the school bus in surance in the State whereby the expenditures for premiums have been reduced by twothirds Some counties assume insurance risks by a county fund for this purpose and thus save cost of insurance premiums 23CHAPTER V BUS ROUTING AND SCHEDULING AS RELATED TO PUPIL HEALTH AND CONVENIENCE Wartime restriction on the operation of busses as prescribed by the Office of Defense Transportation sets up 15 miles as a reasonable walking distance to a bus route Children living within two miles of the school are not eligible for transportation under wartime restrictions The data from the questionnaire dealing with longest walking distance to bus routes Table VII indicate that there is a wide divergence among busses in the longest distance which a pupil must walk to reach the bus stop For example more than onethird of the busses report longest walking distances of two miles or more whereas about oneninth of the busses report walking distances of one fourth miles or less The median rating on longest walking distance for all busses is 16 miles There is a tendency for private bus routes 14 miles to have shorter walking distances than do public bus routes 18 miles This finding may be due to the fact that the private contractor is usually paid on a mileage basis and is anxious to extend the route to secure extra pay When type of bus ownership is disregarded it is found that the median time at which the first pupil mounts the bus is 728 AM Table VIII In 25 percent of the cases the mounting time is before 716 AM and in 25 percent of the cases it is later than 751 AM While the data gathered do not indi cate precisely the time at which the average pupil mounts the bus since the data are based on first pupil to mount bus it is probably safe to assume that the vast majority of school children must be at the bus trunk route be fore 8 AM Type of bus ownership does not appear to be significantly related to the time at which the first pupil mounts the bus in the morning More than nine out of ten of the respondents to the questionnaire re ported that pupils were required to wait after the bus arrival for school to open Table IX Tne necessity for pupil waiting is partly due to the fact 24HiH TABLE VII LONGEST WALKING DISTANCE TO BUS ROUTE AS REPORTED BY RESPONDENTS TO THE QUESTIONNAIRE distance Private Joint All types Vf Iking No Public i No No k No 1 30 3 17 3 miles 2 miles 1 mile i mile t mile 2 30 29 3 25 330 367 101 13 1000 17 26 13 7 2 63 lH 21 6 262 Uoo 200 108 3Q 12 13 2 k 36 U 39 61 121 30 59 68 23 20 u 333 35 130 n3 22 No data Total First quartile Meciian Third cmartile Quartile deviation 1 79 11 13 2U 7 mi mi mi mi mi mi mi mi loo Q 33 12 lS 2U 6 mi mi mi mi 1000 177 10 16 23 12 mi mi mi mi 100Q TABLE VIII TIME AT WHICH EIR3T PUPIL MOUNTS 3U3 II MOVING AS REPOBTID BY EE5PONDENTS TO THE QUESTIONNAIRE Time first passenger mounts bus in morning Public No 831 8k5 AM 1 8l6 230 AM 5 801 815 AM 3 7U6 800 AM 1 731 75 AM 12 7tl6 730 AM 2k 701 715 AM 19 Before 700 AM 1 Unknown Total 79 First quartile 715 Median 727 Third quartile 73 Quartile deviation 17 J 13 63 38 177 152 303 2U1 13 1000 Private No 2 5 5 9 8 20 lU 2 65 715 727 752 18 JL 31 77 77 13S 123 308 215 31 1000 Joint No 6 2 k 10 5 5 l 33 72U 739 7u5 10 182 61 12 30 15 15 30 1000 All types No 3 16 10 27 30 k3 38 3 l 177 7l6 728 751 17 17 90 56 153 169 277 215 17 6 1000 ro cr HHgHHHHMHMHMaiiMMHBMMIMIMH TA3LE IX COMPARISONS OF KISGELLAHBOUS FACTORS RELATED TO PUPIL HEALTH OR OOSVEJIMCB ACCORDING TO TIPS OF BUS OWNERSHIP Factors related to pupil health or convenience No inv Publi c Prirate Joint All tyx es of busses olved in Mean No of busses involved in Mean No inv of busses olved in Mean No of busses involved in Mean calculations calculations cal culations 33 202 cal culations Minutes waited after bus arrived until school 72 250 5S 250 I63 2U0 Minutes waited after school for bus to leave 77 200 65 15 u 33 119 175 177 Greatest Ho of minutes any passenger spent on bus 79 90U 65 901 32 loUg 176 929 Fewest No of minutes any passenger on bus spent 7S 1Q0 6U 177 32 167 165 1SS Handicapped passengers transported by bus 1U 15 11 12 6 12 31 13 Passengers transported to bus trunk line 5 68 7 53 2 UO 1U 56 that onehalf of all busses transport two or more loads of children to and from school The mean amount of tine waited for school to open was reported to be 24 minutes The mean time waited for school to open is less for jointly owned busses 20 minutes than for publicly owned and privately owned busses 25 minutes each All but four of the 179 respondents report ed that pupils had to wait after school before mounting the bus The mean amount of time waited for this purpose was 20 minutes for publicly owned buss es and 154 minutes for privately owned busses The questionnaire asked for two types of data on the amount of time spent by pupils on the bus It was found that the mean number of minutes re ported for the students who were on the bus for the longest period of time was 929 minutes whereas the mean number of minutes on the bus for the student who rode the shortest period of time was 188 minutes If it be assumed that the average student spends a period of time on the bus about equally distant from these two extremes it is clear that the average student would spend approximately one hour daily as a bus passenger The amount of time spent aboard a bus appears to be relatively independent of the factor of bus ownership There is somewhat greater variation in the time when the last pupil leaves the bus in the afternoon than in the time when the first pupil mounts the bus in the morning When type of bus ownership is disregarded it is found that the median time at which the last pupil leaves the bus is 424 PM Table X Onefourth of the respondents reported a demounting time prior to 403 PM whereas an additional onefourth of the respondents reported a demounting time later than 445 PM There appears to be a slight tendency for pupils transported by public conveyance to arrive home earlier median 421 PM than do pupils transported by privately owned busses medians 430 PM It is probably safe to assume that the typical pupil 28 TABLE X TIME il WHICH LAST HIPIL LEAVES BUS IH AfTEBHOOH AS BEPCBTED BY BESPOHDEHTS TO THE ESIIOUMIBE Time last passenger leaves bus in afternoon 601 630 PM 531 600 PM 501 530 PM U3i 500 PM Uoi 30 PM 331 U00 PM 301 330 PM Before 300 PM Unknown Total Firdt quartile Medi Third quartile Quartile deviation Public No 2 7 20 30 12 7 l 79 U00 U21 UU5 25 89 252 3S0 152 89 13 1000 Ho Private 23 min 1 3 3 25 21 8 2 1 1 65 U09 U30 UUg 20 min 15 U6 U6 386 323 123 31 15 15 100o Ho Joint T All types Ho 1 6 2 61 7 uo 1 30 n 62 9 273 5U 305 16 Ue5 67 378 U 121 2U 136 9 51 2 li l 30 2 ll 33 1000 177 1000 U09 UC3 U2l k2k UU2 HU5 17 min 21 min M3will be discharged from his bus about 4 PM or shortly thereafter The foregoing data on factors related to pupil convenience admittedly do not reveal the full picture with respect to atypical situations For exam ple some pupils daily spend as much as four hours on a bus while other pu pils spend as little time as ten minutes Also certain of the data refer to atypical pupils or atypical situations eg longest walking distance time first pupil mounts bus in the morning and time last pupil demounts bus in the afternoon rather than to typical pupils or situations Despite these linitatians in the data it is possible to give a rough description of the experience of the typical student transported to school He walks about one mile from his home to the bus route in order to catch a bus at about 745 8 AM He rides the distance of about ten miles to school and waits 24 minutes for school to open After school is dismissed in the afternoon he waits 18 minutes in order to catch a buJ and will be discharge from the bus at about 4 415 PM He will probably reach home about 430 PM That is considering the time spent in walking the typical child probably leaves home about 730 in the morning and returns about 430 in the afternoon The above picture f the experiences of the typical pupil transported to school obviously will not fit the extreme cases For example some pupils walk more than three miles to the bus stop to mount a bus before 7 AM Other pupils spend daily as much as four hours on a bus Cases are reported in which pupils wait for 90 minutes for school to open and an equal amount of time after school in waiting for a bus Since some pupils demount the bus after 6 PM and will walk for as much as two or three miles from the bus stop to home the time of arrival at home for these extreme cases may be as late as 630 PM The strains and hazards imposed by these extreme conditions inevitably have an adverse effect on pupil health and comfort seriously 30 rtduce the amount of time available for study and for home duties and often markedly disrupt the habits of living of the pupil and of his family The mean number of handicapped passengers per bus transporting handi capped passengers was reported by questionnaire respondents to be 13 handi capped passengers Table IX Publicly owned busses had a somewhat greater average number of handicapped passengers than did privately owned busses Only 14 of the 177 respondents to the questionnaire reported that one or more passengers was transported to the bus line by private conveyance The mean number of persons transported by private conveyance to these 14 bus routes was 56 persons Respondents to the questionnaire were asked to indicate the shortest distance between bus stops and the distance from last stop to school When all types of bus ownership are considered it was found that the typical bus reported the shortest distance between bus stops as being 2 mile Table XI There was a marked variation in the shortest distance between bus stops as reported by respondents For example 17 percent of the respondents reported the shortest distance between bus stops as being 1 mile or more whereas 169 percent of the respondents reported the shortest distance between bus stops as being 100 yards In general publicly owned busses median 3 miles were less likely than privately owned busses median 2 miles to have bus stops spaced closely adjacent to each other Table XII presents data showing the distance from the last bus stop to school as reported by respondents to the questionnaire When type of bus owner ship is disregarded the median such distance is found to be 14 miles Four percent of the busses reported the distance as being two or more miles whereas 209 percent of the respondents reported the distance as being one half mile The typical publicly owned bus 13 miles was somewhat more likely than the typical privately owned bus 15 miles to admit passengers near the school iJi TABLE XI SHORTEST DISTANCE 3EWEEN BUS STOPS AS REPORTED BY RESPONDENTS TO THE UESTIONlIHE Shortest distance between stops 1 mile or more 12 mile 1U mile 13 mile 100 yards No data Total First quartile kedian Third quartile Quartile deviation No Public 2 5 35 26 11 79 1 mi 3 mi U mi 2 mi h 25 63 wU 329 139 1000 Private 1 1 25 23 lH 1 65 1 mi 2 mi 2 mi 1 mi ch 15 15 386 35 215 15 1000 No Joint 1 15 12 5 33 2 2 u 1 mi mi mi mi 3l 30 U5U 36 u 152 1000 All types No 3 7 75 61 30 1 177 1 mi 2 mi 3 mi 1 mi fa 17 Uo U2U 35 168 6 1000 TABLE XII DISTANCE EEOM LAST BUS STOP TO SCHOOL AS BEPGMED BY BESFOOTIS TO THE QUESTIONNAIRE Distance from last bus stop to school 2 or more miles 2 miles li miles 1 mile mile Ho data Total First quartile Median Third quartile Quartile deviation No Public 3 7 16 32 21 79 9 mi 13 mi 17 H mi mi 32 S9 203 uoU 266 1000 Private No 3 U6 10 15 U 17 262 23 35 11 169 1 15 65 1000 11 mi 15 mi 19 mi k mi Jo Joint 1 5 lU 7 5 l 33 12 mi 16 mi 19 mi mi 3l 30 152 U2U 212 152 30 1000 All types No H mi 3l 7 Uo 22 12U U7 266 62 350 37 209 2 ll 177 1000 11 mi lU mi 18 mi The convenience afforded pupils while being transported to and from school should be given careful consideration Children of upper elementary and high school ages are much more able than younger pupils to withstand the hardships implied in the experiences as described above of the typical child transported to and from school The pupil time consumed while on a bus is also a factor in determining the efficiency of the total educative experience Therefore it is a sound and wise policy to plan reasonably short bus routes It is generally accepted that pupils should not be required to spend more than a maximum cf one hour daily on a school bus Pupil convenience wculd be greatly increased if each bus transported only one load of children to and from a school All transported children could be delivered at the time of school opening and picked up promptly at the close of school Such an arrangement would necessitate an additional 1934 busses in Georgia to afford this type of pupil convenience 34CHAPTER VI FACTORS RELATED TO THE COST OF OPERATING SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS An effective program of pupil transportation should provide safe and convenient transportation for pupils and school employees eligible for such service and this service should he available under conditions of maximum eco nomy of time and of money The present section of this report is concerned with certain factors related to the economical expenditure of public monies for purposes of school transportation It is generally recognized that the chief factors involved in the maintenance of an economical system of pupil transportation include the fcllowing Original cost and operative life of equipment frequency and extent of costs in replacing equipment and costs involved in the maintenance and operation of equipment The report of the State Superintendent of Schools for the Mennium 19434 indicates that the reported mean values of chassis according to type of bus ownership were Publicly owned 81579 privately owned 88050 jointly owned 88315 Table XIII Stated differently the typical private chassis was estimated to have a value greater by 8 percent than the typical pub licly owned chassis Independent evidence reveals that the publicly owned chassis had somewhat longer wheel bases than did the privately owned chassis It is reasonable to assume that the manufacturers list price of the typical publicly owned chassis was higher than that of the typical privately owned chassis There is general agreement among authorities in the field of school transportation that the initial cost of a standard unit of equipment is consider ably greater for private purchasers than for county boards of education for the reasons that county hoards of education are able to purchase bus equipment at quantity prices are excused from the payment of federal excise taxes and secure relatively low interest rates and carrying charges Also the purchaser 35 FACTO IOBS RELATED TO SHE COST OF TABLE XIII 02EHATIB0 BUSSES DIBIHG IKE 3IEHHIUM lUU Factor Public Private Joint All types Ho of busses in operation biennium 19L U Reported average value of chassis Reported average value of bodies Mean Ho of miles traveled per bus Mean cost of operation per bus Mean cost per mile traveled 1167 81579 666Ui 8U391 111022 0136 101 88050 5320 79117 107576 0136 U93 88315 56803 725UO 110650 0153 2701 85302 59750 80195 109650 0137 of private equipment is often required by the seller to take insurance on the equipment thus tending to increase the cost of privately owned equipment as compared with publicly owned equipment It seems obvious therefore that the reported greater value of privately owned chassis as compared with publicly owned chassis is only a reflection of the higher initial costs of privately owned chassis per standard unit of equipment rather than being a measure of genuine superiority of privately owned chassis The reported average values of bodies for the biennium 19434 according to type of bus ownership were Publicly owned 66641 privately owned 53420 jointly wned 56803 It is thus seen that the reported value of privately owned bodies is only 80 percent of that for publicly owned bodies and that the bodies of jointly owned equipment are reported to have a mean value only 85 percent as great as that for publicly owned bodies Since county boards of education are generally able to purchase a standard bus body at a considerably lower initial cost per unit of value than are private purchasers it appears obvious that the relatively low values reported for bodies of privately and jointly owned busses reflect an even lower level of safety and comfort features in the bodies of privately andjointly owned equipment than the variation in re ported present values would indicate Data previously cited in Chapter III indicate that the safety and comfort features of bodies of publicly owned equipment are markedly superior to those of privately and jointly owned equip ment The mean cost per bus mile traveled during the biennium 19434 accord ing to type of bus ownership was reported to be as follows Publicly owned 132 cents privately owned 136 cents jointly owned 153 cents That is privately owned busses cost 3 percent more per bus mile traveled than did publicly owned busses and jointly owned busses cost 16 percent more per bus mile traveled than did publicly owned busses The discrepancy between the oper 37 orf i ating cost of publicly owned equipment as compared with privately or jointly owned equipment is even more outstanding for the Uranium ending June 30 1942 than for the current biennium It was found for example that the average cost per bus mile operated according to type of ownership was as follows Public 105 cents private 123 cents joint 127 cents State dif ferently the per mile cost of privately owned equipment was 17 percent greater and for jointly owned equipment it was 20 percent greater than for publicly owned equipment The 1942 data also show marked discrepancies in the annual perpupil cost according to type of bus ownership as follows Public 1324 private 1546 joint 1568 On the assumption that the passenger load and route mileage for each type of bus was identical it would have been possible during the year 1942 to have saved 24825696 if the children trans ported by privately and jointly owned equipment had been transported by publicly owned equipment The findings reported above are in keeping with data reported in the literature to the effect that by any standard criterion on unit of cost privately owned busses tend to be more expensive to the taxpayers per unit of service rendered than are publicly owned busses It is shown in Table XIV that the mean list price of 172 chassis reported by questionnaire respondents was 91770 and the mean purchase price of the 128 chassis was 85302 That is when type of ownership is disregarded it was found that the purchase price of chassis amounted to 93 percent of the list price Comparison of the ratio of list price to purchase price of chassis ac cording to type of ownership indicates that publicly owned chassis were pur chased at a considerably greater saving over the list price 97 percent than were privately owned chassis 57 percent It is reasonable to assume that even the publicly owned equipment might have been purchased more economically had provisions existed by means of which group purchasing might have been made In any case a considerable saving might have been effected if the privately 38 TABLE XIV LIST AMD PURCHASE ESXCB OF CHASSIS AND BODIES OF 3U33E3 SAMPLED BY 991 QJJESXIONMIEE Factor Public No of busses involved in Mean calculations List price of chassis Purchase price of chassis List price of body Furchese price of body 79 59 75 65 Private No of busses involved in Mean falculations 9085 8939 75215 81555 6o hi 6o hi 88312 833UU 61312 57662 Joint No of busses involved in Mean calculations 33 28 32 29 92515 88932 622Ul 567OO All types No of busses involved in Mean calculations 172 128 167 lUl 91770 85302 67733 68479 owned equipment had been purchased under terms as advantageous as those which applied to the publicly owned equipment The excess in initial cost of publi cly owned chassis rver privately owned chassis is to be accounted format least in part by the fact that the former were designed for larger size bus bodies than the latter The mean list price of 167 bodies reported amounted to 67733 as com pared with the mean purchase price of 141 bodies reported to be 68479 That is when type of ownership is disregarded it appears that bus bodies were not purchased at a discountover the list price Obviously the discrepancy in the number of cases reporting list price and purchase price could partly account fer the finding that the mean purchase price of bodies was reported to be slightly higher than the mean list price The slight excess of purchase price over list price of bodies may also be due in part to thefact that extra equipment not included in the list price was purchased in many instances In the light of the latter interpretation it is interesting to note that the excess in purchase price over list price of publicly owned bodies apparently indicates that these pieces of equipment provided a greater number of safety and comfort features for passengers than did the privately owned bodies It is unfortunately not possible from the data gathered tc make precise generalizations concerning the relative economy of private purchasing versus public purchasing although the general trend of the available data and of independent evidence strongly supports the view that the latter method of purchasing is to be pre ferred The experience 6f other states notably Alabama and North Carolina appears to indicate that remarkable economies in the purchase of equipment may be achieved through a Statesponsored program for central purchasing or certified contract pricing of equipment This suggested plan of certified contract pricing is analogous to the Georgia system of multiple textbook listing and contract pricing AO Each respondent to the questionnaire was asked to indicate the tine by which that particular chassis and bus body would need to be replaced with new equipment Replies to thewe two questions are analyzed in Tables XV and XVI When type of ownership is disregarded it is found that the typical chassis will need replacement within 20 years and the typical body will need replacement within 28 years Onefourth of the chassis will need replacement within 13 years while onefourth will last for as long as 31 years or more Onefourth of the bodies will need replacement within 16 years while an addi tional fourth are expected to last for 48 years or more Comparisons of replacement needs according to type of ownership of equipment reveal that publicly owned chassis and bodies will not need replace ment as soon as will privately owned chassis and bodies For example the typical publicly owned chassis will need replacement within 21 years whereas the typical privately owned chassis will need replacement within 18 years A similar comparison of the replacement needs of bodies indicates that the ty pical privately owned body will need replacement about 13 months sooner than will the typical publicly owned body It is of interest to notethat three out of four privately owned chassis will need replacement within 27 years as compared with 35 years for publicly owned chassis A similar comparison of the longevity of bus bodies indicates that onefourth of the privately owned bus bodies will be serviceable for 33 or more additional years while onefourth of the publicly owned bodies are expected to be serviceable for 54 or more additional years On the assumption that the replacement needs of all bus equipment in Georgia fairly closely approximate that of the sample it is possible to esti mate with fair accuracy the potential market or demand for each type of equipment for each of several succeeding years For example if they had been available 41 TABLE XV TIME BY MIC BESPOHBEHTS TO TEE QUESTIOFHAIBE EEPOBT THAT BUS CHASSIS AHD BODIES WILL USED TO BE REPLACED WITH HEW EQUIPMENT Time by which equipment will need replacement Puhlic Private Joint Chassis All types XiQ g years 7 years 6 years 5 years 7 9 k years 3 32 3 years 13 l6H 2 years H 139 1 year 26 330 Immediately 6 76 No data 13 l6U Total 79 1000 Median 21 yrs First quartile lH yrs Third quartile 35 yrs Quartile deviation 11 yrs Body No r 2 2 u 17 5 11 10 1U 25 25 51 216 63 139 127 177 g 101 6 76 79 iooo 3 yrs 17 yrs 5H yrs 19 yrs Chassis Ho T 16 16 nl 190 25 h 159 25U 63 100O lg yrs 11 yrs 27 yrs g yrs 1 1 7 12 16 10 16 Bodj Chassis Body Ho 1 3 2 10 16 1U g T Ho 16 16 Hg 32 159 25U 221 127 g 127 63 1000 23 yrs lH yrs 33 yrs 10 yrs 1 2 3 10 U 7 5 32 31 63 9 312 125 219 156 1000 23 yrs 10 yrs 29 yrs 10 yrs Ho 63 1 k 3 5 6 U 5 2 31 125 In6 187 125 156 63 32 1000 29 yrs 16 yrs U9 yrs 17 yrs Chassis Ho 9 5 1 6 3 k 23 13 2 33 lg 9 H6 26 U 23 13 2 3 19 3 17U 1000 20 yrs 13 yrs 31 yrs 9 yrs 5 2 6 2U 10 26 32 32 21 16 17 28 16 hg 29 12 35 138 5g 1U9 183 183 121 92 1000 yrs yrs yrs 16 yrs TABLE XVI ANTICIPATED TOTAL LIFE OF CHASSIS AED BODIES 3 REKRTID BY EZ5OKDET3 TO THE UESTIONAIEES Number of years 10 or more years 9 years 8 years 7 years b years 5 years years No data Total Median First quartile Third quartiie Quartile deviation Public Private Point All types Chassis Bo 9 15 13 11 11 5 l lU 79 8H 69 95 6 11 U 190 165 139 139 63 13 177 1000 yrs yrs yes yrs Body Chassis Bory Chassis No 31 13 13 8 5 l l 7 79 q6 392 lb5 165 101 63 13 13 89 1000 yrs 82 yrs 10k H yrs yrs No 7 12 6 3 1 16 63 82 71 95 7 No 111 1U3 lU3 190 95 KB 16 25 U 1000 yrs yrs yrs yrs 302 111 190 1U3 127 16 16 95 1000 yrs yrs 19 7 12 9 8 1 1 6 63 86 I 102 yrs 8 yrs No 5 3 6 5 6 2 5 32 81 68 9H 7 eA 156 93 188 156 188 63 156 1000 yrs yrs yrs yrs Body Chassis No No 6 11 5 5 H 18 3U 15 15 12 l 3 32 100 91 yrs 78 yrs 10S yrs 9 yrs 21 27 28 23 23 6 U 35 121 155 161 161 132 U6 23 201 17 1G0 ZZ yrs 69 yrs 95 yrs yrs Body No 56 31 30 22 17 2 2 lU 17U 321 178 172 126 98 12 12 91 1000 jj 92 yrs 78 yrs 103 yrs 6 yrs approximately 336 bus bodies and 367 chassis would have been purchased in 1944 to replace outworn equipment It is estimated that an additional replace ment need for 735 chassis and 509 bodies will develop in Georgia during the year 1945 The corresponding replacement needs for 1946 are estimated to be as follows Chassis 526 bodies 509 The overall war production situa tion now makes it seem likely that replacement needs for school transportation equipment cannot possibly be met as rapidly as such needs develop It there fore seems highly probable that by 1946 there would be an accumulated demand for as many as 1628 chassis and 1354 bodies on the assumption that no pur chases of equipment were made prior to that time During the biennium ending June 30 1944 210 new or used busses were purchased by county boards of edu cation If this same rate of replacement of outworn equipment continues dur ing the next two years it is estimated that there will be a potential demand for at least 1200 bodies and 1400 chassis by the end of 1946 provided that such equipment is available for purchase by that date If appropriate legis lation should make possible the replacement of the equipment through some system of Statesupervised central purchasing on a discount basis it should be possible to achieve significant economies in pupil transportation costs and to divert the money thus saved to instructional or other purposes It is estimated that a potential saving of not less than 500000 could be effected in the purchase of equipment which will need replacement in 1946 provided that such purchases were made under a system of central purchasing or contract pricing The Southern States WorkConference on School Administrative Pro blems in its 1940 bulletin entitled Pupil Transportation for the Southern States reports savings of more than 800 per unit on equipment purchased by the Franklin Couaty Board of Education in Alabama in 1940 Other instances of savings effected through group purchasing while not as striking as the 44 one reported above indicate that the excess cost in the purchase price of privately owned and operated equipment is a significant factor in determining the amount of tax money expended for pupil transportation purposes In addition to the immediacy of replacement needs for equipment atten tion also should be given to the anticipated total life or longevity of equip ment The data furnished toy respondents to the questionnaire indicate that the estimated typical longevity of all types of chassis and bodies is 82 years and 92 years respectively It Is furthermore noted that roughly oneeighth of the chassis and roughly onethird of the tous toodies will toe used for ten or more years These estimates are somewhat higher than had been anticipated toy the AllState Committee and protoatoly indicate that many of these pieces of equipment are being used for much longer periods of time than sound principles for safe and economical pupil transportation would justify Comparisons of the relative longevity of equipment acoordiag to tjp of ewnership indicate that privately owned chassis and bodies have a somewhat shorter anticipated total life than do publicly owned chassis and toodies In a study of the life expectancy of Alatoama tous toodies reported in Safety and Economy in School Bus Transportation A E Meadows cites average life expectancies as follows Allsteel toodies 106 years wood toodies 57 years composite toodies 85 years It reasonably nay In ssuaed that the comparatively shorter life expectancy of privately owned lriiea in Georgia is due in part to the fact that there is a considerably hig r proportion of wooden toodies among privately owned equipment than uicly owned equipment Since the daily roundtrip mileage and irvr nitoer of passen gers transported toy privately and toy putolicly owned cnss tje atoout identical in Georgia it should toe worthy of further detailed ii73 cation to deter mine to what extent the relatively greater longevity ii pvtJcly owned equip ment is due to superior maintenance practices or to other factors 45 a a h c c ii t li ifltlT J aar r v J i s7 j ij a I VP u i rr S Three of the chief factors involved in the maintenance costs of school transportation equipment are expenditures for repairs equipment and supplies Since the average number of daily passengers transported and the daily roundtrip mileage are almost identical for privately and publicly owned busses direct comparisons of these three types of expenditures should provide significant data on the relative operational costs of privately owned and publicly owned equipment Data cited in Table XVII indicate that the mean expenditure for repairs by publicly owned busses was 16423 as compared with 12675 for privately owned busses Stated differently the mean expenditure for repairs by pri vately owned busses was only 77 percent as great as that for publicly owned busses As used in this chapter the term expenditure for equipment includes the purchase of tires tubes and similar equipment It is probably safe to assume that purchases Of equipment could not be as readily deferred as could expenditures for repairs The mean expenditure for equipment by publicly owned busses amounted to 8254 as compared with 8994 by privately owned busses That is publicly owned busses spend only 92 percent as much per bus for equipment as do privately owned busses Two types of data are available for a comparison of publicly owned and privately owned busses with respect to expenditures for supolies One type of data refers to the method of purchasing commonly used supplies Table XVIII The other type of data has to do with the mean expenditure per bus for such supplies Table XVII Again it is noted that whereas the pas senger loads and length of route of privately owned and publicly owned busses are almost identical the average privately owned bus 28828 annually expended 3016 more for supplies than did the average publicly owned bus 25812 That is publicly owned busses spent only 90 percent as much 46 fc 1 TABLE XVII EXPELJDI TUBES FOE BEPAIBS EQUIPMENT AKD SUPPLIES AMONG BUSSES SAMPLED BY THE QUESTIOBNAIBE Public Private k All types Expenditures Ho of busses involved in calculations Mean 17 0 inv cal of busses olved in culations Mean Ho of busses involved in cnlculations Mean Expenditures for repairs Expenditures for equipment Expenditures for supplies Expenditures for storage Cents per gallon regular gas Cents per gallon high test gas Cents per quart oil 79 74 76 79 75 16 75 16423 8254 25812 57 20 22 23 65 62 53 65 61 28 61 s 12675 8994 28828 22 24 28 177 167 156 177 I65 60 I65 s 14350 8438 26953 25 21 23 26 TABLE XVIII MISCELLANEOUS FACTORS RELATED TO THE COST OF OPERATING SCHOOL BUSSES Puhl No of Lc Priv No of ate No Joint of All types No of Factors i busses involved Mean busses involved M ean busses involved Mean busses involved Mean in calcu in cal cu ir calcu in calcu lations lations lations lations Sovnd trip mileage Miles without passengers Miles with passengers Miles from overnight station to first passenger 79 79 79 79 US2 33 U5O 10 6 65 65 65 H86 52 13h 17 16 33 3333 33 512 U2 471 10 177 177 177 177 hg9 U2 UUS 12 Miles from route end to overnight station 79 11 65 33 11 177 13 25 2870 1375 281 Mil es from school to bus day station Damage to bus Damage to property No of stops for passengers 79 76 23 29 H 65 65 23 281 33 29 33 2UU 177 k k 170 Public Privai e Joint All types Ho i H56 Ulg No 11 33 i 169 508 No 5 22 1 i No Busses Busses purchasing gas wholesale having only one load 36 33 152 667 52 88 29u H97 Busses having two loads 33 His 16 2U6 Q 273 61 58 328 Busses having three loads n 139 15 231 2 28 18 Busses having four loads 2 25 l 15 3 17 621 Busses having only one load to same school U3 51U U3 662 24 727 LIU Busses having two loads to same school 26 329 16 2H6 7 212 Uy 6 277 34 Busses having three loads to same school 5 63 l 15 00per bus for supplied as did privately owned busses It is further noted that the typical publicly owned bus paid 20 cents per gallon for regular gas as compared with 22 cents by privately owned busses It is again noted that publicly owned busses paid only 91 percent as much per gallon for regular gas as did privately owned busses Likewise privately owned busses paid two cents more per gallon for high test gas and five cents more per quart for oil than did publicly owned busses The excess in cost of supplies pur chased by privately owned busses as compared with publicly owned busses per haps is due in part to differences in method of purchasing It is found in Table XVIII that almost three times as many publicly owned busses 456 percent as privately owned busses 169 percent purchased gas at whole sale rates In this connection it is worthy of comment that considerable savings undoubtedly could be effected in the purchase of both supplies and equipment through a system of central purchases or certified contract prices under State supervision Obviously both privately owned and publicly owned busses could operate more economically than at present under a policy of central purchasing at discount rates Miscellaneous Factors Related to Cost In this subsection several miscellaneous factors related to opera tional cost will be discussed briefly Table XVIII indicates that the mean roundtrip mileage per bus reported by questionnaire respondents amounted to 489 miles Jointly owned busses had somewhat longer routes than privately owned busses while the routes for publicly owned busses were only slightly shorter than those for privately owned busses The reported differences in overall mileage probably do not significantly affect comparisons made in other sections of this report It is interesting to note however that the mean number of miles driven without passengers by privately owned busses is 52 miles as compared with 33 miles for publicly owned busses That is it appears that the route schedules for publicly owned busses were planned 49 with somewhat greater efficiency in this respect than was true in the case of privately owned busses This interpretation is substantiated in part by the finding that the mean number of miles from overnight station to first passen ger is 17 miles in the case of privately owned busses as compared with 10 miles for publicly owned busses A similar comparison likewise indicates that the number of miles from route end to overnight station is onehalf mile greater for privately owned busses than for publicly owned busses It has been previously reported in Table III that when type of ownership is disregarded it is found that the typical bus sampled transported a daily total load of 72 passengers Jointly owned equipment has a mean passenger load of 60 passengers as compared with 75 passengers for privately owned busses and 76 passengers for publicly owned busses It will be noted in Table XVIII that the number of passenger loads transported per bus varies significantly with the type of bus ownership It is found for example that roughly two out of three jointly owned busses have only one load whereas four out of ten publicly owned busses and five out of ten privately owned busses have only one load Nearly onefourth of the privately owned busses have three passenger loads daily as compared with onesixteenth ef the jointly owned busses and oneseventh of the publicly owned busses On the assumption that the present sampling is typical of general conditions in the State it is safe to assume that approximately 500 busses in the State transport three or more loads of passengers daily When all types of busses are considered it was found that six out of ten had only one load to the same school three out of ten had two loads to the same achool and one out of thirty had three loads to the same school There is a greater tendency for publicly owned busses than for privately or jointly owned busses to have more than one load of pas sengers to the same school 50j tAuthorities in the field of school transportation are inclined to the view that when trusses transport three or more loads of passengers the com forts and conveniences of passengers are likely to be seriously impaired Thus it is seen that in addition to the normal replacement needs for equipment due to deterioration there is also a potential demand for new equipment in order to prevent the need for an excess number of loads of passengers by busses The needs for new equipment for the purpose indicated should be added to the replacement needs due to deterioration in order to secure an estimate of the total number of chassis and bodies which need to be purchased in any given year It has been previously estimated that because of obsolescence approx imately 1400 chassis and 1200 bodies are likely to need replacement during the year 1946 and that a potential savings of 500000 could be effected through a plan of group purchasing of such equipment It has also been pre viously estimated that it would require 1934 additional busses to serve the present bus routes if each bus were permitted to haul only one load of passen gers If additional busses were purchased in sufficient numbers to provide a separate bus for each load of pupils it is estimated that an additional 750000 could be saved through a system of group purchasing of such equipment as compared with the prices usually paid by private operators Of the 177 respondents to the questionnaire only four reported bus damage due to accidents in the total amount of 1150 or an average of 28750 per bus damaged Table XVIII Pour of the 177 respondents reported damage to other property in the amount of 55 or an average of 1375 per bus On the assumption that the busses sampled were typical of all busses with respect to the factors of damage to bus and damage to other property it may be assumed that a total of 63 busses were damaged during 1944 in the amount of 1809463 Similarly it may be assumed that 63 busses were involved in 51 damage to other property in the amount of 86625 In view of the data available in the State Patrol accident reports it seems reasonable to assume that the busses sampled perhaps had fewer accidents and suffered or inflicted less damage than might have been anticipated from a strictly representative sample 52 CHAPTER VII MISCELLANEOUS DATA ON SCHOOL TRANPSORTATION There will be Included In this chapter of the report analyses of certain types of data which did not appear to have sufficient pertinence for inclusion in previous chapters They are included here for the benefit of the readers who may wish to have access to complete data resulting from the study Source of Driver Pay When type of bus ownership is disregarded it Is found that 85 percent of the drivers are paid by the county 12 percent are paid by the district and 3 percent are paid jointly by county and district It is of significance that a higher percent of publicly owned busses 203 percent than of privately 62 percent or jointly owned busses 61 percent are paid by the district Most authorities in the field of school transportation are in agreement that the county should be the unit for the management and operation of pupil transportation systems When the management and operation of transportation is left to indivi dual school district there is a greater likelihood of overlapping of routes and of other uneconomical practices Hours Bus Driver Is on Duty When type of bus ownership is disregarded it is found that the modal driver is on driving duty 30 hours daily The variation in number of hours on duty is worthy of comment For example it is found that 107 percent of the drivers are on duty for two hours or less whereas 23 percent are on duty for ten hours or more The median number of hours on duty for bus drivers according to type of bus ownership is as follows Public 28 hours private 31 hours joint 30 hours Bus Driver Employment When all types of bus ownership are considered it is found in Table XX that 617 percent of the bus drivers are selfemployed during nondriving hours 102 percent work for a private employer 56 percent engage in other school work 53 TABLE XIX HOURS BUS DRIVER IS ON CHIVING DUTY AS REPORTED BY RESPONDENTS TO THE QUESTIONNAIRE Puhlic Private Joint All types Hmirs bus driver on duty No 2 No No 6p No k 23 10 or more hours 3 38 1 15 9 hours 1 15 1 7 E hours 2 61 2 11 7 hours 1 15 1 7 6 hours 1 13 1 15 1 30 3 17 5 hours 7 S8 8 123 3 91 18 102 U hours 23 291 23 355 10 303 56 315 3 hours 36 U56 22 339 15 5H 73 Uli 2 hours 9 111 S 133 2 61 19 107 1 hour Ho data Total 79 1000 65 1000 33 1000 177 1000 First qusEtile 23 2 2U 25 Median 22 31 30 30 Third auartile 36 38 38 37 Quartile deviatii 3h 7 7 7 6 1 TABLE XX TYPES OF EMPLOYMENT OE BIS DRIVERS WHILE SOT OH IBIVIHG DUTY Type of employment Public Private Joint A 11 typ 3S No No No No 6 6 5 g 39 76 g 123 2 61 16 90 Ho data S tudent Teacher Other school work Selfemployed 76 63 101 liQ k 3 51 1000 1 1 1 U6 6 2 65 15 15 15 709 92 31 1000 3 0 1 2U 1 91 30 727 30 10 6 10 109 IS 56 3 56 6l7 102 Private employer Not otherwise emplc Total yed 11 k 79 2 33 61 1000 8 177 Kb 1000 56 percent are students 45 percent have no employment othat than bus driving 34 percent are employed as teachers and 90 percent of the drivers furnished no data on type of additional employment When comparisons are made of driver em ployment according to type of bus ownership it is found that the drivers of publicly owned busses 494 percent are much less likely than the drivers of privately owned busses 709 percent or the drivers of jointly owned busses 727 percent to be selfemployed during nondriving hours On the other hand employment in other school work during nondriving hours is found much more fre quently among the drivers of publicly owned busses 101 percent than among the drivers of privately owned busses 15 percent or among the drivers of jointly owned busses 30 percent In the same way employment as a teacher during non driving hours occurs much more frequently among the drivers of publicly owned busses 63 percent than among the drivers of privately owned busses 15 percent No driver of a jointly owned bus was employed as a teacher The ratio of student drivers was highest among jointly owned busses 91 percent next most frequently found among publicly owned busses 76 percent and occurred least frequently among privately owned busses 15 percent Changes in Bus Routings According to information furnished by the questionnaire respondents one out of nine busses had a change in routing since the academic year 194344 Publicly owned busses were slightly less likely than privately or jointly owned busses to have had route changes The present data do not of themselves furnish a satis factory explanation of these findings It should be noted however that school officials who own and operate their equipment are at liberty to change routes with relatively few complications in salary adjustments Experiences have shown that contract operators are likely to demand increased pay for extra mileage Authorities agree that route changes should be recommended by the principal and such change should occur only Hien necessary 56 Manufacture of Chassis When the type of ownership is disregarded school bus inspection data Table XXI as well as the questionnaire data Table XXII indicate that the several makes of chassis were used in the following order of decreasing frequency Chevrolet Ford International Dodge and GMC Nine out of 20 chassis were Chevrolets Approximately seven out of 20 chassis were Fords One out of 12 was an International and about one out of 15 was a Dodge There was relatively little variation in the rankorder popularity of different makes of chassis according to type of ownership That is Chevrolets occurred more frequently than any other type of chassis in each ownership category and Fords occurred second in popularity in each category About eight out of ten chassis in operation were either Chevro lets or Fords Manufacture of Bodies There is close agreement between the bus inspection data Table XXIlI arid questionnaire data Table XXIV with respect to the relative popularity of dif ferent makes of bus bodies When type of ownership is disregarded it is found that approximately four out of ten bodies were Bluebirds two out of ten were Waynes and one out of 11 was homemade There was relatively little difference in the popularity of the remaining standard makes of bus bodies The discrepancy in percentages quoted in Tables XXIIIand XXIV are mainly due to the fact that a high proportion of the busses in the bus inspection records did not report the manufacturer of the bus body It is of interest to note that according to the questionnaire data Wayne bodies were used more than twice as frequently for publicly owned equipment as for privately owned equipment The bus inspection data likewise indicate that Wayne bodies are found more frequently among publicly oned busses than among privately oned busses On the other hand Bluebird bodies were used with considerably greater frequency for jointly owned busses than for publicly or privately owned busses 57 wvTABLE XXI lANUFACTURERS OF BUS CHASSIS ACCORDING TO BUS INSPECTION RECORDS Manufacturer Public Private All types of chassis No No J No J Chevrolet 377 408 564 464 982 438 Dodge 61 66 100 83 166 74 Ford 318 345 448 370 814 363 GMC 33 35 23 19 58 26 International 108 117 67 55 182 81 White 4 4 1 1 5 2 Others 13 14 7 6 22 10 Unknown 9 10 2 2 13 6 Total 923 1000 1212 1000 2242 1000 COTABLE XXII MANUFACTURERS OF BUS CHASSIS AS REPORTED BY RESPONDENTS TO THE QUESTIONNAIRE Manufacturer of chassis Chevrolet Dodge Ford GMC International White Others Unlcnovm Total Public Private Ho 35 7 22 4 11 79 443 89 276 51 139 1000 No 32 3 26 T 65 492 46 440 62 1000 Joint No 18 2 11 1 1 33 IT 546 61 333 30 30 1000 All types No 85 12 59 5 16 177 481 68 333 28 90 1000 1 SOTABLE XXIII MANUFACTURERS OF BUS BODIES ACCORDING TO BUS INSPECTION RECORDS Manufacturer of body Blue Bird Carpenter Hackney Rock Hill Superior Thomas Wayne Others Homemade Unknown Total No 220 1 30 36 15 6 163 11 19 422 923 Public of 7 239 1 33 39 16 7 177 12 21 455 1000 Private No 211 1 56 32 22 11 178 63 126 412 1212 All types No 257 562 1 2 46 90 26 70 18 41 9 17 147 365 52 74 104 145 340 876 1000 2242 251 1 40 31 18 8 163 33 66 390 1000 ITABLE XXIV MANUFACTURERS OF BUS BODIES AS REPORTED BY RESPONDENTS TO THE QUESTIONNAIRE Manufacturer Public Private Joint All types of body No t No No 15 7 454 No Blue Bird 29 367 25 385 69 390 Carpenter Hackney 6 76 3 46 9 51 Rock Hill 5 63 4 62 1 30 10 56 Superior 5 63 4 62 1 30 10 56 Thomas 2 25 2 61 4 23 Wayne 25 317 9 138 6 182 40 227 Other s 9 138 5 152 14 78 Homemade 3 38 10 154 3 91 16 90 Unknown 4 51 1 15 5 28 Total 79 1000 65 1000 33 1000 177 1000 On HDays Nonoperative When type of ownership is disregarded the average bus was found to have been nonoperative for 26 days because of needed repairs Privately owned busses were nonoperative for 17 days as compared with 34 days for publicly owned busses and 25 days for jointly owned and operated busses In view of the findings re ported in other chapters of this report which appear to indicate that publicly owned busses were more likely than privately owned busses to have equipment in good repair and to practice sound policies of operation the fact that publicly owned busses were nonoperative for needed repairs for a greater period of time than were privately owned busses would seem to require comment One possible in terpretation of this finding is that the county is more likely than the individual private operator to have auxiliary equipment which can be substituted for service in the event minor repairs are needed Also many county systems have policies for periodic inspections of busses as a part of a preventive maintenance program and thus become familiar with the need for repairs at an earlier date than do the private operators Interest of the Respondents in the Report on the Findings As a device for determining the extent to which school bus drivers and county school superintendents were interested in securing detailed information concerning school transportation problems in Georgia the AllState Committee included in the questionnaire an item requesting the respondent to indicate whether or not he desired to receive a detailed report on the findings One hundred forty eight of the 177 respondents or 84 percent specifically requested that they be furnished such a report Five percent indicated definitely that they did not de sire a copy of the report and 11 percent did not mark the item either way The percentage of request for the report according to type of bu ownership were as follows Joint 94 percent public 84 percent and private 79 percent 62 i i v 4 Chapter VIII MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION IN GEORGIA Chapters IIIVII inclusive have been concerned mainly with the presentation and interpretation of data dealing with the present status of certain aspects of school transportation in Georgia It is the purpose of the present chapter to present suggestions and comments which it is hoped may be useful to school officials responsible for improvements in the safety convenience and economy of school transportation systems For the most part no attempt has been made to cite detailed evidence or authority in sup port of the suggestions made It is believed however that the assertions made are in keeping with the best available data or are consistent with the best thought and practice concerning pupil transportation For convenience of the reader the various comments are grouped under the following sub heads Legal Responsibility for School Transportation Programs Ownership of Equipment Maintenance of Equipment School Bus Routings Selection and Training of Drivers Records and Reports and Safety Regulations and Practices Legal Responsibility for School Transportation Programs County boards of education should assume major responsibility for planning the type of transportation program which will best meet local needs There are good reasons however why minimum standards should be prescribed by the State governing policies of local operation in order to insure minimum standards of safety convenience and economy It is obvious that a careful and detailed study of local conditions and needs will be necessary in order to plan effectively for an adequate transportation program Whenever such help is needed it should be possible for local school officials to secure technical assistance from the State Department of Education andor from teacher training institutions in making studies of local transportation pro 63 blems The State Department of Education should from time to time conduct comprehensive statewide studies of school transportation as a basis for plan ning at the State level Ownership of Equipment The best evidence available appears to indicate that public ownership of transportation equipment in most situations is more economical and more easily adjusted to meet changing needs than is private ownership Obviously public ownership alone does not insure an adequate system of management Some county school systems have selected busses which were either too large or too small and have thus unnecessarily increased the expenses of transportation The AllState Committee on Pupil Transportation is of the opinion that for most types of situations public ownership and operation of transportation faci lities is to be preferred Maintenance of Equipment Authorities in the field of school transportation are stressing more and more the importance of adequate policies for the maintenance of transporta tion equipment as the means of insuring greater safety and economy in pupil transportation Problems of maintenance have become increasingly difficult as a result of warrelated conditions It is very difficult to purchase new busses trained mechanics are extremely scarce and many types of repair parts are extremely difficult to obtain The following suggestions are offered concerning policies and pro cedures which should be helpful in working a sound plan for the maintenance of equipmentJ 1 Local school officials responsible for transportation pro grams should plan specifically to use the summer vacation 64 to get all busses in good operating condition for the next school year 2 The advisability of arranging with county highway shops for reconditioning bus equipment should he investigated Once the program for the State and Area trade schools has been established it should he possible to utilize these schools for reconditioning and maintenance of bus equipment located in their respective localities 3 The necessity for anticipating insofar as possible the needs for school bus repair parts should be emphasized to all persons responsible for school transportation In some sections of the State several days are now re quired to secure certain parts thus interrupting the service of the bus 4 During aonschool months follow sound procedure in the maintenance and servicing of busses especially tires batteries carburetors and upholstering As a result of conservation policies brought about by the ODT War time Conservation Program many school systems have revised bus routes and schedules with significant economies in operation The savings effected have been available to increase drivers salaries and for other educational purposes It cannot be too strongly emphasized that the prime factor in the low cost of school transportation is the care given vehicles by drivers and mechanics Automotive engineers hold that a properly maintained school bus should operate for as much as 200000 miles and should have a total life for most types of routes of nearly twenty years It is understood of course that certain fastmoving parts tires and batteries would need replacement from time to time In normal times a properly maintained all steel body on an average length route will become obsolete before wearing out Authorities in the field of school transportation generally recommend that when busses are county owned one or more central garages with competent mechanics will be necessary if there are as many as twenty busses School systems with only a few busses may find it profitable to make arrangements 65 with adjoining school systems for a program of supply and maintenance There is a recent trend to utilize bus drivers for schoolplant maintenance positions School Bus Routings Because of the many complicated factors involved it is extremely difficult to obtain maximum efficiency in routing school busses and it is impossible to formulate any set hard and fast regulations which are uni formly applicable under all circumstances To avoid overcrowding or un used seats the size of busses should be adjusted to the number of passen gers on the route All roads should be maintained in passable condition at all times and kept as free as possible from hazards School routes should radiate from the school center to the most populated parts of the attendance area bo as to avoid retraces on long shoestring routes Wherever possible drivers who live at or near the end of the route and who stay at or near the school between trips should be employed When circular routes are possible the bus and driver should be located near the school School patrons should understand the problems involved in bus routing and should be willing except under unusually hazardous conditions for their children to walk reasonable distances to the bus line That a considerable amount of needless overlapping in routing is commonly practiced is revealed by data available in the files of the State Department of Education which show that an average decrease of 11 percent in the mileage of school busses in Georgia resulted from regulations imposed by the Office of Defense Transportation In some of the counties presumably in the ones having the least effective routing policies the amount of mi leage saved as a result of the ODT regulations was several times this amount While school authorities should not attempt to grossly reduce the amount of mileage at the expense of the safety and convenience of passengers it is be 66lieved that the typical county transportation system in Georgia could be so planned as to permit considerable reduction in overall mileage at no appreciable risk to the safety and comfort of passengers Selection and Training of Drivers Since no school bus is safer than the driver operating it it is ob vious that one of the chief problems involved in the safety and economy of school bus operation is that of selecting and training drivers The most QBSential qualifications of a school bus driver appear to be reliability mechanical aptitude training and experience in handling large vehicles ability to deal satisfactorily with children and patrons physical fitness and good moral character Most authorities recommend that rigid physical examinations should be given annually and periodic tests of driving skills should be administered by a member of the State Highway Patrol Drivers should have sufficient mechanical training to make minor repairs and adjust ments and to recognize symptoms in the operation of busses indicating the need for preventive maintenance In several neighboring states and in twelve Georgia counties school officials in cooperation with the State Department of Education the Bepartment of Public Safety and the American Automobile Association have initiated driver training programs as a means of safeguarding and as suring better maintenance of equipment The greatly increased turnover of school transportation personnel has greatly increased the need for inservice training programs of the type indicated As an illustration of the economies which can be effected through an adequate program of inservice training pro grams of the type indicated As an illustration of the economies which can be effected through an adequate program of inservice training of bus dri vers as related to problems of preventive maintenance the following data 67 are cited froin Chilton County Alabama The Supervisor of School Transportation furnishes instruc tions to drivers concerning the care of busses and sees to it that all busses are adequately lubricated that the cooling system functions properly and that all parts of each bus are maintained at all times He started out with very little main tenance equipment and procured additional equipment only as needed To date he has spent ever 90 percent of his time on preventive maintenance and in so doing has saved his time and the busses from emergency repairs which would have accrued without the preventive maintenance progratu This maintenance schedule has contributed to safety and economy in school trans portation and to more efficient school program operation through adherence to school bus schedules The average yearly expenditure including depreciation for a throeyear period 193740 before the program was inaugurated was 37101 as compared with an average yearly expenditure of 29305 for the period 194043 or a decrease of 21 percent This represents an average yearly saving of 7796 for the three yearperiod It is furthermore to be noted that the econonies effected by this program are cumulative the savings increasing each successive year After the first year of the maintenance program a central shop was provided During the period schools are in session busses are given thorough inspection each month The chassis are lubricated air cleaners and oil filters checked and ser viced where needed oil changed if needed and every battery washed on the outside the condition checked and water added to the cells That this program is effective is evidenced by the fact that 14 of the original 45 batteries started the fourth year of service In addition to this monthly inspection every bus is checked at least weekly All busses are brought to the central garage for a summer repair program The first repair job is that of thoroughly washing every motor Repairs are planned so that every bus is moved every few days The motor on every bus is worked first The brakes wheel bearings and axles are checked and repaired on the second trip through the garage Other units receive attention in order of importance This rotating system serves to prevent many of the troubles exper ienced by other school officials who move busses less often during summer months Busses which are not moved during the summer are likely to develop such difficulties as a sticking pistons b clutches c corrosion and gum in carburetors d cracked fuel pump diaphragms and e pitted ring gear pinion gear and bearings the latter due to condensation of moisture within the differential In the past not enough attention has been paid to the careful selec tion of bus drivers This statement is applicable to both publicly and privately 68 owned busses It is unfortunate that in a number of Georgia counties school bus drivers have been employed on the basis of personal or political con siderations rather than on the basis of qualifications On the other hand school systems cannot afford to hire competent drivers who on the average work only two or three hours per day There is a favorable recent innova tion to employ bus drivers with qualifications for other types of school employmentschool maintenance bus maintenance shop teachers food processing units and others During the war emergency school systems have employed more teachers and students as bus drivers than formerly The experience of North Carolina in the use of student drivers merits the careful attention of school transportation officials in Georgia It is reported that the use of student drivers in North Carolina has not only made possible significant economies in the operational costs of school busses but has also resulted in an excellent record of pupil safety and satisfaction Obviously the same qualifications should be required of students and teachers as for any other drivers Only mature pupils should be used as drivers and then only after they have been carefully selected and trained The Georgia Law requires that all vehicle operators employed for hire must have a chauffeurs license At the time the Department of Public Safety was established all persons of legal age with driving experience were granted licenses without a test for driving skills Considering the present age of school bus dri vers and the recency of the law it is obvious that most school bus drivers in Georgia have never had a test for driving skills It is now possible for an individual holding an operators license to secure a chauffeurs license upon application and by payment of a 200 fee It is the judgment of the AllState Committee that all school bus drivers should be required to take periodic tests for driving skills administered by a meuber of the Georgia 69 State Patrol The committee is also of the opinion that a special chauffews license should be issued to school bus drivers based upon a more rigid test of driving skills than is required of drivers of nonpassenger vehicles Records and Reports As in all other phases of school administration and management it is highly desirable that complete and accurate records and reports should be maintained for each bus operated Such records are necessary for an intelli gent evaluation of service and are needed at both the county and the State level The use of uniform record and report forms would permit a comparison of the relative operating efficiency of different transportation systems It is not the function of this report to recommend in detail the type of records or reports which should be required It is believed however that an ade quate system of records and reports should include information on the follow ing topics 1 School transportation personnel regular or substitute dri vers mechanics supervisors of transportation etc 2 Expenditures salaries purchase co3t of equipment in surance depreciation debt service maintenance costs supplies equipment repairs storage etc 3 Service data inventory of equipment route maps route mileage schools served number of children transported number and location of pupil shelters safety practices inspection of equipment etc All record and report forms provided for school bus operators and directors of transportation should be brief and simple Reports of individual drivers should be submitted to the principal of the school The complete transportation records for each school should accompany other monthly records to the office of the county superintendent of schools The State Department of Education should make available to county superintendents of schools record and report forms nicely adjusted to school transportation needs in Georgia 70 Safety Regulations and Practices It is generally recognized that the three principal factors determin ing the safety of pupil transportation are l The use of safe equipment 2 the skill of the driver and 3 the condition of roads Each of these three prime factors in turn depends on a variety of circumstances As has been pointed out previously it is important that the school bus driver should not only possess the skills involved in managing the bus but should also be concerned with the rights and safety of school children motorists and pedestrians Most of the states including Georgia require motorists to stop while children get on and off school busses It perhaps would be de sirable for all bus drivers to meet monthly or at periodic intervals to discuss problems of safety In addition to the inspection of equipment by the State Patrol local arrangements should be made for regular and periodic inspection of bus equipment by competent mechanics or supervisors of school transportation In planning bus routes careful attention should be paid to the location of bus stops in order to avoid unnecessary hazards Special attention should be given by bus drivers to the hazards involved in highway crossings It is obvious that maximum safety of school bus operation can be best obtained when parents children bus drivers and supervising principals cooperate in every possible way to prevent accidents 71 CHAPTER IX SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS It has been the purpose of the present investigation to present a fairly detailed factual picture of present conditions in Georgia as related to selected problems in the field of pupil transportation and to offer certain suggestions relative to ways and means of improving the safety convenience and economy of school transportation in the State The analyses presented in preceeding chapters have been based on data obtained from one or more of the following sources 1 Detailed information concerning 179 specific individual busses in use during the year 194344 representing a weighted random sample of all publicly and privately owned busses operating during that year 2 School bus inspection records on 2242 busses inspected by the State Patrol in 1943 or approximately 78 percent of all busses operating during that year 3 State Department of Public Safety records on school bus accidents in 1943 and 1944 4 Reports from State Departments of Education the U S Office of Education and certain published and unpublished literature on pupil transportation It is the function of the present chapter to summarize the most significant findings reported in the preceeding chapters and to offer certain recommendations concerning improvements in the safety convenience and economy of pupil transpor tation in Georgia For the convenience of the reader these summarized findings are arranged under topical headings Safety That school bus equipment in Georgia is seriously defective with respect to many features of bus construction and operation is evidenced by the following findings t 1 Only three out of four school busses had allsteel bodies 2 One out of five school busses did not have safety glass in the windshield and one out of three busses did not have safety glass in windows and doors 72 3 One out of 20 school busses did not have rear emergency doors and an additional 10 percent of busses had rear emergency doors which did not meet safety standards 4 One out of 34 busses inspected had a defective clutch and one out of 39 had defective wheel alignment 5 One out of 49 busses had a gasoline leakage 6 One out of 83 busses was reported to have defective axles springs or shackles 7 One out of seven busses inspected had defective head lights one out of four had a defective tail light one out of three had a defective stop light two out of three lacked adequate spare bulbs and fuses and one out of seven had improperly focused headlights 8 One out of 11 busses lacked a windshield wiper and one out of eight additional busses had a defective wiper 9 State Patrol school bus inspection reports revealed that lack of windshield wipers was an important contributing factor to serious accidents 10 Only seven out of ten school busses had either hydraulic or air brakes 11 One out of 11 busses had defective foot brakes and three out of ten hand brakes were in a defective condition 12 State Patrol school bus accident reports indicated that defective brakes were a significant contributing factor to serious accidents 13 One out of nine busses had one or more defective tires 14 Four out of ten busses had defective exhausts and one out of seven busses released dangerous fumes 15 One out of 20 busses had defective rear visibility and one out of 83 had defective front visibility 16 Six out of ten busses were without useful mechanical stop signals 17 One out of 12 busses did not meet specifications of the State law with respect to school bus signs 18 Three out of four busses were not equipped with o satisfactory first aid kit 19 Only one out of five busses had fire extinguishers and threefourths of these nere in defective condition 73 20 Only one out of four busses was equipped with satisfactory flares and flags 21 One out of six busses had one or more dangerous stops 22 The typical school bus in 1944 carried a passenger load at least 50 percent greater than its rated seating capacity 23 The State Patrol school bus accident reports revealed that a good many drivers of Georgia school busses lacked proper qualifications 24 The recorded violations by school bus drivers included Making a turn or stop without proper signals improper supervision of pupil loading and unloading reckless driv ing drunkenness lack of a chauffeurs license lack of a bus license etc That pupils transported by privately owned busses were generally subjected to greater safety hazards than were pupils transported by pu blicly owned busses is revealed by such comparisons as the following 1 Homemade bodies occurred more than four times as frequently among privately owned busses as among publicly owned blisses 2 Three timesas many privately owned busses as publicly owned busses had safety glass in defective condition 3 Lack of an emergency door occurred more than twice as fre quently among privately owned busses as among publicly owned busses 4 Defective windshield wipers occurred more than three times as frequently among privately owned busses as among publicly owned busses 5 Lack of hydraulic or air brakes occurred almost twice as frequently among privately owned busses as among publicly owned busses 6 Privately owned busses were almost twice as likely as publi cly owned busses to have more than one defective tire 7 Defective wheel alignment occurred four times as frequently among publicly owned busses as among privately owned busses 8 Unsatisfactory ratings on sanitary conditions occurred four times as frequently among privately owned busses as among publicly owned busses 9 Publicly owned busses were more than twice as likely a privately owned busses to be equipped with satisfactory fire extinguishers 7410 Privately owned busses were more than twice as likely as publicly owned busses to violate legal regulations concerning school bus signs 11 Routes served by privately owned busses were slightly nore likely than routes served by publicly owned busses to have one or more dangerous stops on the route and the number of such stops per route was somewhat greater for privately owned busses than for publicly oned bus ses Insurance That present practices with respect to school bus insurance in Georgia are inadequate and in need of revision is revealed by data such as the following 1 Although the State admits no liability with respect to school bus accidents onethird of the busses sampled carried one or more types of insurance coverage 2 The collections for damages incurred amounted to only a small fraction of the money expended for insurance coverage For example three dollars was expended on liability pre miums for each cent collected from liability claims Although a good many busses carried collision and fire coverage among the busses sampled there were no collections reported for collision or fire damages 3 The neighboring states of Alabama and North Carolina have assumed the direct moral and financial responsibility of reimbursing the family up to 600 for expenses due to injuries resulting from school bus accidents through an appropriate State agency It is held that the reimburse ments paid by these agencies have been economical of the taxpayers money by providing a maximum coverage at a mini mum cost and have allowed the State to assume a rightful moral obligation rdth a minimum expenditure of public funds Pupil Health and Convenience That as presently operated pupil transportation systems in Georgia do not provide sufficiently for the health and convenience of pupils particularly at younger age levels is shown by the following findings 1 The typical child transported to and from school left home about 7t30 in the morning and returned to his home about 430 in the afternoon Some pupils leave home before 6 A M and return home later than 6 P M 75 2 The typical passenger spent about one hour on a bus daily he had to wait 24 minutes after bus arrival for school to open and had to wait 18 minutes after school was dismissed in order to catch a bus Some pupils spend more than three hours daily on the bus In some instances pupils had to wait as much as 15 hours for school to open and an equal amount of time after school to mount the bus 3 It is probable that because of faulty transportation practices pupils were subjected to inconveniences and strains which seriously interfered with their educational experiences and home duties and adjustments 4 It would require an additional 1934 busses to provide enough equipment so that no bus would transport more than one load of pupils to and from school daily 5 Only one out of six busses was equipped with a heater 6 The typical bus carried at least 50 percent more passengers than its rated seating capacity and many busses carried more than twice as many passengers as their rated seating capa city 7 One bus body out of 12 was homemade Many of these bodies lacked proper emergency doors weatherproof tops windows etc The extent to which adequate provisions are made for pupil health and convenience varies with type of bus ownership In some respects privately owned busses compared favorably with publicly owned busses although the reverse was usually the case as is indicated by such comparisons as the following 1 Publicly owned busses were more likely than privately owned busses to make special adjustments in routing to accommodate handicapped passengers 2 Publicly owned busses were more likely than privately oned busses to admit passengers near the school 3 Homemade bodies occurred almost four tines as frequently among privately owned busses as among publicly owned busses 4 Privately owned busses had a considerably higher index of overloading than did publicly owned busses Factors Related to Cost That many opportunities exist for improving the economy in the purchase and the operation of all types of school busses in Georgia is evidenced by the follow ing findingst 76 1 Variations in prices paid by different buyers for identical pieces of standard equipment eg 192 standard chassis by given manufacturer was often excessive and indicates that in some instances public money was expended uneconomically 2 There was also a wide variation in prices paid by different buyers for identical types of supplies For example certain busses regularly paid from two to three cents a gallon higher price for regular or high test gas and five cents more per quart for oil than did other busses in the same locality 3 Comparisons of prices paid for standard equipment in Georgia and in comparable southern states indicate that present practices of purchasing equipment in Georgia are less economi cal than in these states For example North Carolina Alabama and Mississippi are purchasing busses comparable to those used in Georgia at prices from 200 to 500 cheaper per unit than prices in this State These economies are made possible through a system of central purchasing or contract pricing under State supervision That a vast reservior of need is being developed for new equipment to re place outworn equipment and to supplement overused equipment and that appro priate policies for the purchase of such equipment by central purchasing or contract pricing under State supervision would greatly reduce the purchase costs of equipment are conclusions which seem warranted by the following findings 1 Had they been available 336 bodies and 367 chassis would have been purchased in 1944 to replace outworn equipment 2 During the year 1945 there is estimated to be an additional replacement need in Georgia for 735 chassis and 509 bodies 3 The overall war production situation now makes it seem likely that replacement needs for school transportation equipment cannot possibly be met as rapidly as such needs develop Therefore it seems highly probable that by 1946 there will be an accumulated demand for as many as 1628 chassis and 1354 bodies for replacement purposes alone assuming no increase in the total number of busses required to serve present routes The types of evidence presented in the comparisons summarized below appear to indicate that publicly owned busses compare favorably with privately ovmed busses with respect to sound policies of economical operation and maintenance 1 Publicly owned chassis were purchased at a considerably greater saving over the list price than were privately owned chassis although the former provided a greater number of safety and convenience features than did the latter 77 2 The cost per bus mile as well as the cost per pupil transported was greater for privately owned and jointly owned busses than for publicly owned busses A saving of approximately 250000 could have been effected in 192 in the operating costs of busses if children trans ported by privately owned equipment had been transported by publicly owned equipment 3 The typical publicly ovned chassis and body rail not need replacement so soon as will the typical privately omed chassis and body A The anticipated total life of publicly ovmed chassis and bodies was somewhat longer than that of privately owned chassis and bodies 5 Publicly owned busses spent only 92 percent as much per bus for equipment as did privately owned busses 6 The typical publicly owned bus spent only 90 percent as much per bus mile for supplies as did the typical privately owned bus 7 The typical publicly owned bus paid 20 cents per gallon for regular gas as compared with 22 cents by the typical privately opined bus 8 Almost three times as many publicly omed busses as privately owned busses purchased gas at wholesale rates 9 The mean number of miles driven vdthout passengers was almost twice as great for privately owned busses as for publicly owned busses 10 The typical privately owned bus annually expended 1016 more for supplies than did the average pub licly owned bus 11 Several types of evidence indicate that the route schedules for publicly owied busses were in some instances planned with somewhat greater efficiency than were those of privately owned busses Recommendations In view of the findings summarized in previous chapters of this report it is the judgment of the Education Panel of the Agricultural and Industrial Develop ment Board thati 1 The responsibility of providing transportation services for the schools of the county should be vested in the county board of education m 78 3 2 In order to promote greater economy and safety in school transportation provisions should be made thereby school transportationequipment and supplies may be bought through a system of central purchasing or contract pricing The State Board of Education should be empowered to adopt rules and regulations to provide for uniformity economy and safety in the operation of school busses the quali ftcation of school bus drivers minimum specifications for school bus equipment the contract between county boards of education and school bus drivers and the procedure to be followed by county boards of education in securing means of school bus transportation A No member of the State Board of Education or employee of L Wat Denartment of Education or county superintendent or schools of Member of a county board of education should De facially interested in providing means or facilities for Stool bus transportation or in selling transportation equipmentor supplies to county boards of education 5 The State Purchasing Department should bemPoweion authority to act as the agent of county boards of education Z the ourchasing of school bus equipment and school bus Applies accordance with minimum specifications for sup plies and equipment prescribed by the State Board of Educa fioT specifications prescribed by the State Board of Education should serve as a basis for fJ and as a means of insuring reasonable standards of safety in ne construtKon of equipment County boards of ucatxon should be permitted to purchase equipment which exceeds the minium specifications prescribed by the State Board of Edu cation 6 The AllState Committee on Pupil Transportation is opposed to legislation which would make the State or county liable in case of bus accidents but recognizes a moral obligation on the part of boards of education to provide minimum hospi talSatiofand medical benefits for children inured in school bus accidents The AllState Committee recommends that an appropriate Sate agency be authorized to provide for the re imbursement of expenses up to a maximum of 600 incurred as a result of injuries due to school bus accidents 7 Counties with 20 or more publicly owned and operated busses should establish their own shops for the maintenance and re Sir of equipment Area trade schools with auto shops could conveniently furnish minimum maintenance and repair services for publicly owned busses in the immediate vicinity 8 The State Board of Education in adopting policies and regula Sons for the operation of school busses should base such Slicies on the findings resulting from carefully conducted studies in this field including the judgments and experiences of county superintendents of schools in Georgia 79 9 The State Department of Education and the State Department of Public Safety in cooperation with the county superin tendents of schools should sponsor periodic safety con ferences for the inservice training of bis operators The need for such safety conferences and for inservice driver training has become increasingly acute during the war as a result of the large turnover in driver personnel It is recommended that the bus operators of a county should be required to attend at least one safety conference each year 10 The State Department of Education should have sufficient trained personnel to provide county boards of education with consultant services concerning an everincreasing number of problems in the field of pupil transportation This per sonnel should be available on request to assistant county school authorities in connection with such transportation problems as the followingi Purchasing transportation equipment and supplies bus routing and scheduling selec tion and training of drivers formulation of rules and regulations for school bus operation preventive maintenance programs and records and reports 80 APPENDIX A QUESTIONNAIRE FOR PUPIL TRANSPORTATION STUDYCounty QUESTIOFHAIRE POR PUPIL TRANSPORTATION STUDY School Bias No Route No Name of Driver Address of Driver This questionnaire was prepared and is being distributed by an official State Committee on Pupil Transportation The dota obtained will be used as a basis for recommending legislation concerning school transportation The Committee request that complete information be furnished on all of the items and it pledges that the information furnished will not be used by the State Department of Education or the Office of Defense Transportation to check up on you or penalize you Please return this questionnaire within the next ten days to tie committee member from whom you received it Most of the requested information can be given quickly by checking the blanks that apply to this particular bus A few items call for writing in numerical data or other information Wherever it is not possible to give exact information on this bus give the best possible approximationUse fractions if necessary to give accu rate information Each person who furnished information will be given on request a report on the general findings of the study I Do you wish to receive a copy of the general report on this study Yes Ho 3 Chassis Year made Purchase price percent Manufacturer List price Wheel base inches Annual depreciation 3 This chassis will need be replaced with new equipment years from now Manufacturer Length 4 Body Year made purchase price percent 5 This body will need to be replaced with new equipment List price inches Annual depreciation years from now 6 Construction check all items which apply to this busa all steel body b safety glass in windshield c safety glass in windows d safety glass in doors o air or hydraulic brakes f rear emergency door i first aid kit h bumpers k heater g windshield wiper j fire extinguisher 7 llumber of days during past school year when this bus did not operate because of needed repairs of equipment days 8 Total amount spent on this bus during past school year for a repair services b equipment tire tubes etc c supplies gas oil etc d Storage of bus 9 Indicate usual price paid for fee following supplies a regular gas cents per gal b hightest gascents per gal c oilcents per quart2 10 Indicate usual method of purchasing gaej a wholesale bulk purchase b retail at local filling station 11 Monthly salary paid the driver of Ms bus publicly owned buses only per month 12 Monthly contract salary for operating this bus privately or jointly owed equipment 13 Average number of hours each school day this bus driver is actually on duty ie drivingrepairing or serving bus hours per day 14 Is the driver of this bus employed during school hours a student b teacherc other school work d working for self e working for private employer 15 Total number of pupils and school employees injured during past school year enroute to or from school on this bus miner injuries major injuries fatal injuries 16 Has bus had an accident during the past school year Yes Ho If so indicate amount of damage to this bus to other property 17 Is this bus covered by any type of Insurance YesNo If so fill in items 18 19 20 18 Amount of coverage for different kinds of insurance policies on bus ie maximum amount for which insurance company could be held liable a total liability one accident btotal liability one passenger c property damage d collision e fire f theft 19 Annual premiums paid on each type of insurance a liability b property damage c collision d fire e theft 20 Amount collected during past school year on each type of insurance a liability b property damage c collision d fire e theft 21 Number of stops from origin of route first passenger in morning to last school served on morning trip Total number of stops 22 What is the shortest distance between adjacent bus stops a 100yds b 18 mile c mile d mile e1 mile 23 Total daily round trip mileage from point where bus is stationed over night miles 24 Total number of miles bus travels daily without passengers 25 Total number of miles bus travels daily with passengers miles miles 26 Longest amount of time any pupil spends on bus daily round trip mi nut e s 27 Shortest amount of time any pupil spends on bus daily round trip minutes 28 Indicate by checking the distance between last bus stop in the morning 1 i II 1 A nilo and the school first served 2 miles Jtnile 1 mile l nile 29 Usual tine of day when first passenger mounts bus in morning 30 A M 31 How many minutes do the children first transported to school wait after arrival for the school to open minutes How many minutes do the children last transported from school have to wait after school for a bus minutes 32 Usual time of day when last passenger leaves bus in afternoon 33 PM Longest distance any passenger must walk from home to mount school bus miles 34 Number of miles from place where bus is stationed over night to place where first pupil mounts bus in morning uiles 35 Number of miles from end of the route point where 5st pupil leaves bus in the afternoon to point where bus is stationed overnightmiles 36 Numbec of miles one way from school to place where bus is parked during school hours miles 37 Number of physicallyhandicapped teachers and pupils vfao ride bus handicapped persons If any how nan extra miles per day of bus travel is required to serve them miles 38 How many children served by this bus are transported from their home to the bus route by private conveyance auto truck buggy etc children 39 In your judgement are there bus stops at dangerous or hazardous places Yes2IoIf so how many 40 The driver or contractor is paid by County Board of Education by district trustees 41 Age of driver 42 vears Number of load of children this bus transports to school each morning Greatest number of loads transported to a single scaool 43 Number of pupils and school employees served by this bus on all trips 44 Number of school days this bus operated last school year 45 Number of pupils and school employees transported oach morning on first load 2nd loadif any 3rd load If any 46 Has the route cf this bus been changed since the G D I report on it was made Yes No If so attauh a chart of present routing mVERS7 APPENDIX B GEORGIA STATE PATROL SCHOOL BUS INSPECTION FORMSi