Please provide an overview of your history in the industry
Coming up in July will be 32 years with Navistar . I started right out of college with Navistar Financial and spent 20 years there in various , operational roles . Mostly front line , interacting with dealers and customers , both truck and school bus . I then led a specialty parts division , where we focused on light-duty parts . Along with light duty , which included Type A buses , I interacted with dealers and customers . Then , about six years ago , I had an opportunity to be general manager , vice president of IC Bus . It was a wonderful opportunity because throughout my career I always thought there was something special about the school bus industry and the people in it . To be a part of an iconic brand in IC Bus , and to work with our dealers , is very exciting .
Trish Reed
School BUSRide recently spoke with Trish Reed , vice president / general manager of IC Bus at Navistar . Reed provided her insight on the most significant industry developments of the past five years , speculated on future developments , and outlined how IC Bus plans to meet these changes head-on .
What do you think have been the most significant changes in pupil transportation within the last five years ?
Five years ago , propane gas was just being introduced . Now , we are looking at various powertrain choices between diesel and propane . Gasoline was introduced and brought back into the industry in that same timeframe . Then , obviously , electric options are coming . Student and bus tracking , student ridership , Wi-Fi coming onto the school bus , and connected diagnostics . Supporting the customer with predictive analytics and being able to manage fleets that way . We play in that with our own command connection so that has been a big change in the evolution of connected space . The next thing would be safety technology . School buses are the safest way for kids to get to and from school . Bringing automotive technology into the school bus , like we did in 2018 with active collision mitigation and electronic stability control . Taking some pretty inexpensive features that most of us have on our automobiles today and making that standard . The external cameras , the stop-arm cameras , the lighted school bus sign , anything that we can do to make the bus safer is a trend we are continuing to see . The amount of technology that has been added on to school buses has been exponential in the last five years . In dealing with driver shortage , we have seen a big focus on best-inclass driver ergonomics . The culture in a transportation department to recruit and retain drivers , and then paying benefits – that has been a big change , a big focus for the school bus industry . Lastly , and top of mind , is the pandemic and how that has impacted the industry in the last year in terms of ridership . Obviously , it delayed replacement cycles for school bus purchases and had a lot of trickle-down effect . I think the industry has probably lost a lot of drivers and technicians as a result .
What significant changes do you hope to see in the upcoming five years ?
Firstly , the connected integration of technology and safety features . What is really going to be critical is figuring out how to integrate more of the safety technology as an OEM built-in option for the school bus with less aftermarket add-ons . This is important . Customers do not want to feel like they work at NASA with five screens trying to manage everything from beta feeds . Some of us probably have an app in our car that lets us know everything that is happening around us , and that would be great to really make things safe for loading and unloading passengers onto a school bus . I think we will get there and that will be a game changer within the school bus industry .
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