Shuttlebus Fleet Retired

Shuttlebus

Fleet Retired

By Meredith Siegel | Spring 2018

service is funded by a general service fee that the students are charged. The fee itself should remain unchanged; it’s been costing us more to run it than the fee was covering. This will allow us to lower that cost so that the fee is sufficient to cover that cost.”

According to an email sent out in January 2018, the buses will need around $250,000 for replacement and maintenance costs, and the decision to outsource will save $200,000 to $250,000.

This agreement will start July 1, 2018. Leigh said with lower costs, students should be expecting news buses and better technology, hopefully with “the same friendly service they’ve been accustomed to and appreciated.”

Students have loved the service from the shuttles, especially from Richard L. Van Horn, who goes out of his way to develop personal relationships with all the students who ride his bus. He goes to their sporting events, their performances and keeps track of where they end up when they leave the University.

He is determined to make them smile. Van Horn continually expressed love for students he has met while driving the buses, which he estimates to be about 50,000. He has been vocal on Facebook about his opposition to the outsourcing and he feels that he is not receiving support from the University. The students love Van Horn in return.

He expressed his disappointment with the outsourcing on Facebook and students responded with messages of love for him.

There is now a petition on iPetitions.com for Van Horn to keep his job with 1,090 signatures. Though, Van Horn has stated before the announcement that if the University decided to outsource his last day driving would be May 15, 2018.

He feels the changes will make it hard on him, but he loves the students nonetheless.

“I’ve never had a decision made by the University that I passionately did not agree with. I’m all for finding ways to save money, finding ways to give the students here the same services, but I truly believe that this decision will not be a great decision for the University.

For many different reasons for not providing charters, not hiring students,” Kody Korbas, a gerontology senior who has been driving the buses for three years, said. However, one problem that others have is persons under the age of 25 cannot drive for Groome Transportation.

“Their current policies do say that the drivers should be 25 years of age. That is where it becomes a challenge for some of our student drivers, and we’ve asked them to revisit that, and they’ve agreed to go back and talk with their group to see if there could be a way they could make an adjustment to their current policy to allow for student employees at BGSU to continue to be drivers under this news agreement.

So, all we can do is ask them to revisit it and they have agreed to do that. If, in the event that there are not able to change that, we would gladly work with all of our students to find them other employment opportunities on campus,” Leigh said. Seven students will have to be considered as drivers or find new jobs next year.

Shuttle salaries are among the highest for student on-campus jobs at $11.57 per hour.

“A lot of things that I view that could be problematic because the reason we started hiring student drivers was because there was not enough interest in the community and so I foresee that being a problem with the potential outsourcer,” Korbas said. 

“I’ve never had a decision made by the university that I passionately did not agree with.”

—Kody Korbas
Shuttlebus driver
BGSU Senior, Gerontology

Korbas loves driving the buses and he thinks it a great opportunity for students to meet people, get to know the campus and surrounding areas, and have a job that isn’t sitting at a desk.

Korbas considers his fellow bus drivers a “second family” and worries about the impact on them. The University’s current drivers will be considered for employment with Groome, but there is no guarantee.

All drivers must be able to obtain an Ohio Department of Transportation Operator Card. This includes a physical. “I’m all for saving money, making the University as best as it can be, but to the fact where I don’t want this decision to impact so many people it will be impacting.

Not just student shuttle drivers, but full time and part time people as well. Third party company compared to an employee from the University… can be completely different,” Korbas said.

Current employees that are hired may not necessarily be taking a pay cut, but their pay is no longer up to the University and will be determined by Groome Transportation, Leigh said.

Groome will also not be providing charters, which Korbas finds problematic. “Won’t be providing charters and so the people on campus will have to go through a different company.

So, money that could be staying in the University will not be because the new company will not be providing that service.

Someone who uses the charter service often will have to be paying an outside service for it and have to be paying more for it because it’s an outside service.

For instance, Childers is a company in Toledo that we use for like, big events that we can’t provide enough buses for, like preview days, stuff like that, they are more expensive to charter bus than we offer,” Korbas said.

Charter buses are something the shuttle department is looking at with Groome, Leigh said. Other departments on campus have been outsourced, like the dining halls and the Falcon Health Center. Leigh said new buses should be arriving on campus next fall.