Operational Data Parma Canton Dayton South-Western Peer
Average
Parts Inventory $335,249 $33,800 $314,019 $186,685 $178,168
Inventory/All Vehicles $2,205 $335 $742 $805 $627
Source: School districts’ transportation departments Note: PCSD is not included in the peer averages.
The operational ratio indicates that the PCSD’s inventory for all vehicles is the highest of the peer districts.
R5.17 The district’s transportation maintenance department must improve on its purchasing practices, in addition to improving on inventory control. In a walk through of the maintenance department, it was noted that there were many areas where parts were stored and many parts on the mechanic workbenches indicating that there was little control over the parts inventory. In addition, the maintenance department does not utilize its software programs to develop economic reorder points or to verify inventory shrinkage.
Items that are repeatedly purchased throughout the year should be sent out for quotes and blanket purchase orders issued, instead of having a large quantity of inventory on hand. All big ticket items, or multiple purchase items such as tires and filters, that total large expenditures for the year, should also go through a solicitation for price quotations. Price quotations should then be attached to the purchase order before it is sent to the business manger for approval. More frequent solicitation of price quotations will help ensure that the district is procuring its goods at the best possible price and that the vendor selection is made objectively.
The transportation’s maintenance department should be utilizing FleetMax to generate
purchase orders versus doing manual purchase orders. FleetMax can allocate purchases between vendors and adjust dollar allocations for each vendor, and adjust inventories and inventory costs, track delivery times and know instantly the status of any or all purchase orders. Other purchasing practices are further discussed in the finance/procurement section of this report.
The district should also consider the use of a professional inventory company to take a physical inventory, identify obsolete inventory and update the inventory file. Obsolete inventory should then be returned to vendors for credit or sold to school districts still in need of the inventory.
F5.46 The district has installed a fuel authorization system on its fuel pumps called FuelLock. The system requires a driver to enter the vehicle identification number and the driver’s personal identification number before fuel is dispensed. FuelLock records the information and once a month, the system prints out a report by vehicle number and the amount of fuel used. The information from the report is then manually entered into FleetMax (F5.43) which summarizes the information for the T-2 and T-11 Forms. The district has requested from Tuthill, the manufacture of FuelLock, an ASCI II interface to FleetMax so that the information can be electronically transferred.
F5.47 Fuel purchases are not formally bid out, but price quotes are received from two vendors.
Fuel is purchased approximately every two weeks during the school year for a combined mixed load of unleaded gasoline and diesel fuel for approximately 8,500 gallons. See R5.17 on solicitation of quotations.
F5.48 The transportation center off Day Drive, adjacent to Byers Field, houses the transportation department and its maintenance facility, which consists of 8 bays and a washing bay. The facility is approximately 9,000 square feet.
All the buses housed at the bus depot are parked outside. The lead mechanic stated that all buses since 1987 have block heaters installed for minimal added costs. In cold weather, only three diesel buses are plugged-in because all the other diesel buses have GloPlugs installed which enhances the starting of buses. In addition, the transportation department’s lead mechanic brings in the first shift mechanics to start buses when the temperature drops below ten degrees.
The parking area is enclosed by six and eight foot fences topped with barbed-wire. The transportation center’s building is alarmed by ADT. If the alarm system is penetrated, ADT notifies the City of Parma Police Department and the maintenance supervisor and/or the lead mechanic. Although the transportation center is adjacent to Byers Field, the district feels comfortable about the security of the buses since two mechanics stay on duty when games are being played.
Extra Runs
F5.49 The agreement between PCSD and OAPSE defines an extra trip as when transportation is required for students to a school related activity that requires the use of a school bus or vehicle owned or leased by the district. Only classified school bus drivers with a commercial drivers license (CDL) and state endorsement will be allowed to drive extra trips.
Bus monitors and mechanics with a CDL and state endorsement will be allowed to drive extra trips if a classified school bus driver is not available. Other district personnel may drive extra trips utilizing a station wagon which involves the transportation of seven or less students to any one activity.
F5.50 Extra trips are identified as: midday trips that occur between the A.M. and P.M. routes;
athletic trips with a report time prior to 4:00 P.M.; long trips with a reporting time of 4:00 P.M. or after, with a four hour guarantee; weekend and holiday trips which have a four hour guarantee and are paid at a premium rate; and, odd time A.M. trips with a report time before 9:00 A.M. which will receive at least their A.M. guarantee. Extra trips are assigned on a rotating basis, by seniority, from the appropriate trip list. The transportation supervisor posts and maintains the five extra trip lists.
Field trips are generally limited to the state of Ohio. If a field trip is going to be out of radio range, the bus driver is issued one of the transportation department’s cellular telephones.
F5.51 The PCSD transportation department distributes an informational flyer to the schools at the beginning of each school year on “Field Trip Availability and Scheduling.” All field trips must be requested on a “Field Trip Approval Form” and be approved by the department head, principal, career coordinator, director/supervisor and the deputy superintendent of curriculum. The form, among other information, states the means of transportation - district vehicle or charter transportation.
F5.52 District buses are available for field trips between 9:30 A.M. and 2:00 P.M. and after 4:30 A.M. daily and all day Saturday and Sunday. Field trips for FY 1998 were billed at $15.78 per hour Monday through Friday and $23.67 per hour Saturday, Sunday and Holidays. In addition, all chargeable trips are billed $0.92 a mile.
Field trip rates are increased by the percent of labor contract increase for bus drivers. The mileage charge is linked to the price of fuel. The district could not provide the base formula for the rates.
F5.53 Some field trips are not paid out of departmental/building funds but paid for by the district through curriculum programming. These field trips include, in part; NASA, Severance Hall, Health Museum, Drownproofing and Cuyahoga Community College Drama.
All non-public school trips are charged. All chargeable field trips are invoiced by the transportation secretary.
F5.54 Non-chargeable field trips include extra-curricular activities such as band and athletics.
These field trip expenditures are covered by additional funds in the transportation budget.
The transportation department’s secretary maintains a log, by activity type, for all non-chargeable field trips and tracks all costs.
F5.55 The deputy superintendent approves all field trips. In addition to using district buses and/or station wagons, schools may use charter buses for field trips. The district does not pre-approve any charter companies and/or rates of the charter companies.
C5.7 The transportation department is tracking the cost of field trips, even though all trips are not charged back to using departments. This practice allows the transportation department to be prepared for budgeting purposes.
Also, the transportation department’s field trip billing rates cover the cost of the driver’s salary, and overtime rate for Saturday and Sunday trips, along with the cost of fuel.
R5.18 The district should charge back all field trip costs to the appropriate department. By charging back the appropriate department, the district will have the expenditures properly classified by department and/or building.
In addition, the business office should seek competitive quotes, from charter companies for field trips. The quote system will help ensure that the district is getting the best possible rates. The charter quotes should include rates for a bus, mileage and/or hourly charges, and the types and amounts of insurances the district requires. Penalties should be noted if a field trip goes longer than contracted. Also, the quote request should include set rates for standardized trips to repeated sites.
Technology
F5.56 Transportation routing is done mainly through VersaTrans7, a software system designed by Creighton Manning, Incorporated. The district originally purchased VersaTrans in the fall of 1986 for $27,940 and pays $2,600 a year for technical support. The price included additional software and extended warranty. The technical support contract allowed the district to upgrade to VersaTrans7, a Windows based software program, from their older VersaTrans DOS program without any additional charges. Some of the basic functions of VersaTrans7 include the following:
• Route planning functions to assist the router - Locating students on the map
- Creating new streets on the map - Setting travel speeds
• Bus stop management
- Assigning students to bus stops in batch mode - Deleting a bus stop
- Overriding closest stop for a single student
- Overriding closest stop for students on specific links
• Placing schools on a map
- Adding an out-of-district school
• Grade advancement
F5.57 The district maintains the student data base at its Data Acquisition Site. Student information is entered and updated directly by each PCSD school. Non-public schools student information is entered by the PCSD’s transportation department. Approximately every two weeks, student information needed for the transportation function is downloaded to diskette and uploaded into VersaTrans7. There is minimal cleanup of data since the schools’ clerical personnel are fairly consistent in entering the data and VersaTrans7 has a program called Street Fix which does a global replacement on incorrect street names.
F5.58 The transportation maintenance department uses other software programs to aid the department in capturing their costs - FleetMax (F5.43) and FuelLock (F5.46). FleetMax is used for parts inventory and work orders while FuelLock tracks fuel consumption and mileage.
F5.59 There is much concern and discussion in the business and academic communities about software not being able to function properly after January 1, 2000 (Y2K). All the vendors supplying software to the transportation department have assured the department that their software is Y2K compliant. There is further discussion about the Y2K dilemma in the technology section of this report.
C5.8 The transportation department effectively uses technology to better manage its resources.
The VersaTrans7 technology has allowed the department to provide better service to students while other technology generates more accurate information for state reports.
Privatization
In performing our high level of potential privatization opportunities within the transportation department, we evaluated the major transportation functions and activities with respect to a number of criteria which are important considerations in assessing privatization opportunities. The following table details the assessment criteria and provides a description of the key issues.