How will your kids get to school next year?

2020 will be remembered as a year of very significant social, political, and cultural change in the U.S. and across the world. When multiple such historic disruptions to everyone's lives occur in such a short period of time, people are forced to change in ways they had never contemplated. Perhaps even more acutely needed are timely, effective and responsible changes to businesses and institutions of all types. Some organizations will make the necessary modifications and thrive, while others will do little or nothing and suffer long term or even permanent damage as a result. Schools are one of the most visible and emotionally charged forms of institutions truly requiring change. Whether they see the needed changes as burdens or as opportunities, there is no debate that significant changes and adaptations to trusted conventions will be needed in the next 6-12 months, and these changes have the very real potential to have a disproportionate impact to their long term success.

Now, lets consider what that means for the transportation sector of our education system. Some experts are saying that school buses that once could transport 50 kids or more per trip, are now going to only carry 7-15 kids per bus to comply with mandated social distancing. This immediately renders buses as very inefficient and expensive mechanisms for large scale transportation. The cost of the buses will restrict schools from being able to adapt, and there is little-to-no meaningful market for selling school buses in the short term, so those losses may be felt for years to come. Does this feel like an area of necessary change to you? Fortunately, there are smaller, less expensive and more efficient options being developed as we speak, and the most proactive schools will get ahead of this issue by leveraging the best of the best ideas.

For the eternal optimists, consider that things may return to the way the were before...but then what? Now, schools would need to hire dozens of drivers and prepare to fill a need that they are far understaffed and equipped to accomplish. During this pandemic, would you take a job for 3-4 hours a day that pays $15/hour? Before taxes $60/day over a 5 day week is $300. The Federal Government is paying $600/week in unemployment that you would lose if you took a job paying $300/week. Furthermore, you now surround yourself with children and adults who we can only hope care about taking measures to not spread the disease all day. Driver shortages have been increasing plaguing school districts for years even prior to the pandemic inspired changes. For schools to believe that doing the same thing they have always done will produce better results is unrealistic, and potentially devastatingly so.

Anyone who has ever worked in a recruiting department or office would cringe at the responsibility of filling these positions!

Imagine for a moment that a solution exists that has the potential to address all of these concerns and even bring additional benefits to other critical areas such as employee compensation and turnover - ALL at NO ADDITIONAL COSTS TO THE SCHOOL DISTRICT. Well...it actually does exist. Trust-Ed has a unique and historically innovative technology to manage your transportation needs without any up front investment, and providing significant compensation increases to the district's employees at the same time. Schools can now spend the same or less on transportation, but be assured of having reliable and trusted drivers, all while returning up to 40% of these transportation expenditures to the school districts through compensation to their own teachers, office staff, and other school district employees. Sound too good to be true? For the most forward looking school districts, the Trust-Ed technology will be the answer to the question "How will schools handle the new transportation challenges of 2020 and beyond?" Trust-Ed will become synonymous with "Peace of Mind" and we want to be your District's Trust-Ed Partner in solving this complex set of problems.

Click the link below to read about the new standards being discussed in school transportation!

BJ's Blog