TLS EXCLUSIVE Interview With Owner Of Negba Bus Service

we're here today with uh the proprietor of negba raban rotenberg um what can you tell us about negba how did it start and tell us a little bit about your company negba bus was started approximately 4 and a half years ago uh for the simple reason the way it started was I was very involved in and we didn't have busing from the township because no one wanted to pick up our runs at early morning and late at night and we were hiring all different type of companies that uh were very expensive and I decided to do the busing myself I bought some buses and that's how negba really came into my mind after that it just grew as a company which the mat was the main purpose was to try to have from drivers transporting our children which unfortunately didn't turn out the way I wanted it to because it's very very hard to get from drivers but if they are available we're more than happy to hire them recently there's been quite a few complaints about um buses not showing up delays you know kids waiting outside mothers waiting outside with their children at the bus stops what's the root of uh no pun intended of all these delays and the noshow buses okay the main problem was a shortage of busing but let me say very strongly it's not because I don't own the amount of buses it's because first of all in the beginning of September somebody came and smashed around 10 of my windshields one night so that put 10 buses out for two days then I had a sting from the Department of Motor Vehicles that put out 20 buses and then now at the end of December I don't want to bore everybody with details but the inspections work twice a year the the Department of Transportation comes down to you there is no inspection station for buses they come down to you and they give you a date when they're going to inspect your buses they do around 10 buses a day that means they gave us the last two weeks of December to do our buses which is our scheduled time they tell you this already in the summer when our next inspection is everybody knows the last last week of December was the major snowstorm that left me around 40 buses uninspected which really cannot be used as of now they only made up out of those 5 days they only gave us back 3 days so really we're still out around 10 or 12 buses which as of this past Friday did an inspection and after that Friday right now starting this week I have enough buses to cover every single run and I myself I'm supervising it I don't have extras because I left 10 buses or 12 buses not inspected but I have a bus to cover every single run I myself I'm up in the morning 5:00 in the yard this week make sure every bus gets out I'm happy to say that Tuesday and Wednesday well now it's only Wednesday afternoon but Tuesday the whole day and Wednesday morning there was not one late bus besides for the snow which made us come a few minutes late to each run but we left the yard on time every single run was covered on time and in the times that we did not have buses I leased as many buses as I can I went I paid maybe for these two weeks maybe 15 or $20,000 to other companies to cover our runs to lease buses to do whatever we can there is a limited amount of buses that are out to be leased On Any Given morning no one sits around with 100 extra buses so I did our best I would like to apologize for the kids that were waiting out in the cold I wouldn't like if it happened to my child but I think now we're past this inspection issue and I think from here on in we could run a perfect company and now what about the the complaints from parents they say you know that uh they're waiting at the bus and they try to call the office and nobody's getting through people are not responding they it's a busy signal they can't get through to the office what's what's going on with that we have three lines coming into the office and uh so we have two people here in the morning answering three lines which should be adequate if you have to realize there's 54 children on a bus approximately or 4 up to 54 and if even 10 parents call at the same time because the child is waiting on the corner it could tie up our lines in no time and sometimes the mother calls as where's my bus and the the dispatch just hold one minute I'll get the driver on the radio such a call could take 3 4 minutes if you have a few of those calls and crunch time is everybody's crunch time is between 8:15 and 9 on a bad day we could have 100 calls coming in this morning I myself after I went finished with the yard I came into the office to help with the phones it was impossible just second hang up another few is there busing today is the early dismissal there's a thousand calls we just answering straight so we do apologize but I don't know what more to do than three or four lines coming in here with three people answering it should be adequate and if it's busy I apologize and they should keep trying and eventually I hope they'll get through and what about notifying principles or um you know the you know people at the school about the delays as that as that I would gladly do it the official uh director we have from the board of education is to contact them and they will contact the school which is what we do if the board would tell us otherwise or if a principal would have my cell phone number which most of them do or my dispatch his cell phone number and they get through we would tell them then also but our directive is if we have a problem an accident or late we call the Border that's if it's an accident it's the police in the border of Ed if it's late or something else it's the Board of Ed not the school now what do you propose to generally improve improve the um to improve matters and to improve the bus company and to to satisfy the parents uh my we have the equipment we have we have the drivers we have the Manpower we have everything what I am seeing now that I when I started this company I started it for a hobby really I wasn't intended to get involved full-time believe from this from last week on I am involved fulltime if it has to be fixing a flat tire and no one else is doing it I will do it but I'm out this week 5:00 I'm Every Morning in the yard as long as it takes whatever it takes I myself I'm going to take a personal hand on top of it and be AEM will be perfect from now on I hope very good thank you very much you're welcome