Absolute Minimum Safety Practices

This Focus on Safety absolute minimum safety practices is the final overriding practices and overrides any other policies, procedures or practices covered in any other manual, booklet, memos, letters, etc.

1. Certification Log

• Every driver hired after March 1, 1997 must have a completed and up-to-date Certification Log, or alternate compliance check system in their personnel file.
• For state-specific items over and above these Logs, your own Driver Development & Safety staff are to create additional pages for your state and add them to the Log, or to the alternate compliance check system.
• An up-to-date accident log must be completed on every driver.

2. Hiring Selection Process

• The pressure to have drivers should not lead to shortcuts in using a thorough selection process. The Laidlaw authorized structured interview and documentation must take place, by a trained Interviewer and in a thorough manner.
• We must avoid ever taking shortcuts or rushing through the interviews as these make the program completely ineffective.
• When an applicant completes a satisfactory interview, the Location Manager must carry out a short interview with the applicant and approve that applicant to proceed to training. To indicate compliance with this, the Location Manager will place his/her initials in the upper right corner of the application.;
• With regard to stock acquisitions, asset acquisitions and conversions, if we have the option to retain or release employees, the Selection Process must be utilized.

3. Pre-Hire/Periodic Reviews

• We will only allow our passengers to be in the care of honest, responsible, law-abiding drivers/monitors. This is absolutely critical to achieve our Mission Statement.
• The Selection Process cannot discern all facets of an individual and we have a serious responsibility to check the past history of potential drivers/monitors before allowing them to carry passengers.

a) No person in a safety sensitive position who fails a substance abuse test will ever be hired or continue working at Laidlaw. There are to be no exceptions to the substance abuse policy.

b) A criminal record check is to be obtained for every new driver/monitor hired, including those people joining Laidlaw via acquisition or conversion. This is to be updated at every CDL re-certification, or every 4 years, whichever is sooner. Drivers/monitors are only to be employed who:

     (i) Have never had a conviction of a crime of violence, sexual offense, manufacturing,

      sale or distribution of drugs, pornography, civil disorder, weapon use or any like crimes.

     (ii) Have no conviction of drug use or drug possession in the past ten years.

      (iii) Have no conviction for driving while intoxicated or impaired by alcohol or drugs in the past ten years.

      (iv) Have no felony conviction or incarceration of any kind in a state or federal correctional institution  inthe past ten year For drivers/monitors who do not meet the above standard, the determination of their  employment shall be based on individual facts and any such exceptions must be approved, in writing, by the Regional Senior Vice President.

c) A motor vehicle record check is to be obtained for every new driver hired, including those people joining Laidlaw via acquisition or conversion. This is to be updated annually. Drivers are only to be employed who meet the following criteria:

• Class 1 Conviction - None in past 10 years
• Class 2 Conviction - None in past 3 years
• Class 3 /4 Conviction - No more than 3 moving convictions in 3 years

For drivers who fail to meet the above, their circumstances are to be considered individually and the continuation of their employment determined accordingly and approved in writing by the Regional Senior Vice President.

d) The drivers must be physically able to efficiently carry out the job required and physical examinations must be obtained and reviewed.

e) We must make two (2) attempts to obtain a reference from the prior employer, one written and one verbal, and the attempts documented. If the candidate has no prior employer in the past three years, a reference from a non-related solid citizen is requested. If the driver previously worked for any other Laidlaw location, then a written reference from the former Location Manager is required. A letter, e-mail or fax can be used as a written attempt.



4. New Driver Training

All new drivers (including those having a CDL) will be trained in the following:

a) Classroom Training - Minimum 20 Hours

1) Orientation & Education Program

(i) Welcome to Laidlaw

(ii) Pre-Trip Inspections & Mirror Adjustments

(iii) Brakes

(iv) Reference Points

(v) Special Needs (where applicable)

(vi) Danger Zones/Student Loading and Unloading

(vii) Emergency Evacuations

(viii) What to Do in the Event of an Accident

(ix) Railroad Crossings

2) Smith System

3) Student Management Program

4) Right- To-Know

5) Bloodborne Pathogens

6) Q-Straint/Tie Down Training (where applicable)



b) Hands-On Behind-The-Wheel Training - Minimum 15 Hours

This is described in detail in our Behind- The-Wheel Manual.

The order of these training units is designed to provide the most effective methodology and should be followed in this order, without deviation. No short-cuts.

c) Additional State-Specific Requirements

Where specific states require additional training to the above, this is to be documented and followed in that state.



5. Training of Drivers with Prior Bus License

• No matter how much past experience candidates have had, new hired drivers must receive a minimum of ten hours training (with pay) at Laidlaw, before they ever transport our passengers.
• For drivers who join Laidlaw through acquisition or conversion, they must receive this
  training as soon as practicably possible, but within 3 months for acquisitions or conversions of less than 100 drivers and within 10 months for more than 100 drivers.
• However, training should only take place after an evaluation by our Driver Trainer or Supervisor. If that evaluation reveals any problems, the training should be longer - up to the full training program for a new driver. The evaluation must be properly documented on a Laidlaw approved form.
• This Laidlaw training must include the following and be recorded in the Certification Log or alternate compliance system:
  • Welcome to Laidlaw Evacuations
  • Danger Zones/Student Loading & Unloading
  • What to Do in the Event of an Accident
  • Student Management
  • Railroad Crossings
  • Route Familiarization
  • Right to Know
  • Bloodborne Pathogens
  • Smith System
• Any employee who drives students must be trained to drive students. This includes mechanics, dispatchers and any other spare driver. These drivers must also be trained in . the above subjects, before transporting students.

6. Child Reminder System

• Anytime a driver leaves a vehicle, the driver must check the vehicle for remaining students by walking to the back of the vehicle, looking at every seat, and then either placing the placard in the rear window, clearly visible to the outside, or disengaging the buzzer if a buzzer child reminder system is installed.
• Prior to ever driving the vehicle, the driver must return the placard to the front of the bus.
• The vehicle must never be driven with the placard in the rear window.
  The Branch must have a process in place to monitor and enforce compliance with this policy.
  Not checking a bus for remaining children at the end of a run is extremely serious, whether a child remains or not. The importance of this must be communicated and action taken to enforce this message, in accordance with our policy.

7. Inservice Training

• Ideally, we should attempt to have all drivers attend all monthly safety meetings - this is our goal. However, recognizing that this is often impractical, we have set an absolute minimum attendance of at least five (5) monthly safety meetings per year.
• To ensure the attendance is achieved, we require that at least five (5) one hour meetings are with pay, covering the following topics:
  • Danger Zones/Loading & Unloading Student Management
  • Specific Branch Safety Concerns
  • Right to Know
  • Blood borne Pathogens
• To assure we meet the above criteria, accurate attendance records must be maintained in the "In-Service Log". The record must include instructor's name, date, length of meeting, subject matter and list of attendees.
• These monthly safety meetings need to meet their objectives and be held in a professional, effective manner with good, prior preparedness. Branch Managers, and whenever possible District Managers, must attend to help give credence to the importance of these meetings.
• In addition, every driver is to be re-evaluated at least once every 24 calendar months by a Supervisor/Driver Trainer riding along and documenting this re-evaluation. Additional training can then be provided as necessary.

8. Preventable Accidents

•  The circumstances of all preventable accidents should be fully reviewed and appropriate action taken -- consistently. Our goal is to be firm, fair and consistent.
• After the investigation and evaluation of the cause of the accident, appropriate action should be taken, depending upon the causation factors and these should involve warnings, suspension or termination.
• Any driver who has three preventable accidents in a 24-calendar month period must be terminated.
• For any preventable accident, a Supervisor or Driver Trainer must ride with the driver, evaluate their abilities, discuss the cause of the accident and why it happened, and provide any re-training deemed necessary, prior to the driver returning to their route. At a minimum, the re-training will have one hour behind-the-wheel training based on the cause of the preventable accident, using the five keys of the Smith System.
• There are certain accidents that are of severe enough nature and circumstances, that termination based on that one accident is the appropriate action.
• A preventable accident is defined as any accident in which the driver failed to do everything they reasonably could have done to avoid it. Defensive driving is the ability to avoid accidents in spite of the incorrect actions of other drivers and in spite of adverse weather. These two statements should be the basis for every accident determination.

9. Vehicle Safety Standards-Maintenance

No Laidlaw employee shall allow a vehicle to be on the road when there is a known safety defect which might affect the safety of our passengers or driver.


Overriding Practices

This Focus on Safety absolute minimum safety practices is the final overriding practices and overrides any other policies, procedures or practices covered in any other manual, booklet, memos, letters, etc.



Laidlaw Revision Date 9/1/01