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14 Friday, February 28, 1986

.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Hillel Day School students prepare for a field trip.

VIN' A HEA D

•

It is early morning and through-
out the metropolitan area buses are
rolling.
In Farmington Hills, youngsters
are being dropped off at Hillel Day
School. Senior adults from Oak Park
and Southfield are being striven to
their volunteer jobs at Sinai Hospital
in Detroit. Mentally impaired adults
are arriving at the Jewish Vocational
Services' workshop in Oak Park. And
in Redford, students 'at Bishop
Borgess High School arc hurrying off
the buses.
The buses are rolling . . . and the
"United Hebrew Schools" name on the
side is showing up everywhere: at
Jeleish agencies and schools, syna-
gogues, United Foundation agencies
and Catholic schools.
It is the symbol of% success story
that is helping the community roll
with activity, for the buses are part of
a unique communal transportation
system that is offering top-notch serv-
o ice — first to the Jewish community
and secondarily to the general com-
munity's social service organizations.
And it is the only system of its kind in
the country.
The United Hebrew Schools'
transportation operation is run under
the supervision of the Jewish Welfare
Federation. It comprises a fleet of 55
buses and vans, with 25 to 45 of them
in service on any given day, Base of
operations is the UHS transportation
garage in Oak Parkoyhickc i49KAA ,
weeks a year. Transportation director

.

Isadore Goldstein oversees a staff re-
sponsible for administration, routing
and dispatching, and vehicle mainte-
nance.
How did such an ambitious oper-
ation evolve? The. United Hebrew
Schools had been providing bus serv-
ice to' its students since the 1950s.
However, as the number of post-
baby-boom school-age children de-
creased over the years, so did the
number of youngsters riding the
buses. With half-empty buses and ris-
ing costs, the transportation opera-
tion began losing money — to the
tune of $95,000 per year.
In addition, the fleet of aging ve-
hicles was approaching a crisis point,
with a decision needed on replacing
them or changing the system.
The Jewish Welfare Federation
—parent agency for UHS and for
other communal social service agen-
cies who were also experiencing
transporation problems — recognized
the need to deal with the problem.
Under the leadership of Mark E.
Schlussel, a subcommittee of the Con-
ference of Division Chairmen was es-
tablished.
The-committee was charged with
reviewing each 'agency's transporta-
tion activities as part of Federation's
budgetary process, as well as overse-
eing member agencies' transportation
and supervising the management of
was based
fleet . This
the community's
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.
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e 409
attained
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fleet were centrally managed.
"We wanted to bring discipline to
an undisciplined use of transpora-
tion," says Schlussel. "We were fear-
•ful that if we did not act in an ex-
peditious manner, each agency would
seek its own transportation and, when
added together, the bottom line would
be that it cost the community more."
Among the options the committee
studied were the purchase of trans-
portation services from private ven-
dors (found to be nearly 40 percent
higher than existing service costs), or
discontinuation of all transportation
services (which would lead the agen-
cies to purchase their own vehicles at
a cost significantly higher to the
community).
As a result, the committee
recommended that ownership of the
fleet remain with United Hebrew
Schools, with over-all supervision
coming from Federation's Transporta-
tion Committee. In addition to other
recommendations which included a
phased replacement of outmoded
equipment, the committee asked that
UHS explore ways to modify service
to attain cost reductions.
The restructured operation was
initiated in 1982, with veteran staffer
h Goldstein at the helm. Schlussel
credits Goldstein with being an able
administrator who has fostered "a
quality, operation that is more cohe-
sive and cost-effective" than anything
,hehrc., ?ctOstItri wocks conjunc-
kvithVegraita'g
'

portation Committee, headed by Mil-
ton Lucow.
With the new system's im-
plementation, operations were con-
solidated so that the agencies could
meet new needs. Used.school buses
and vans were purchased and totally
refurbished at the UHS garage.
"This is no spit-and-wire opera-
tion," Goldstein notes. He says that
although his staff is cost-conscious,
they never cut corners when it comes
to parts for their equipment. Golds-
tein, who describes himself as some-
thing of a rarity — he is a mechanic as
well as an administrator — has a staff
of one part-time and three full-time
mechanics . . I says that head
mechanic Dave Ellis has been par-
•ticularly instrumental in ensuring .
' the safe, cost-effective operation of
vehicles. "Dave watches over the fleet
like a mother watches over her chil-
dren," Goldstein says with a chuckle.
Maintenance operations even in-
clude bumping and painting the
buses. The end result is a safe, reli-
able vehicle that also looks good.
"There's a big difference between
spending $36,000 for a new bus or
$1,200 for a good-as-new refurbished
one," according to Goldstein, who
adds that all vehicles are inspected by
the Michigan State Police.
_ The garage even performs
maintenance on outside vehicles, such
as Sinai Hospital's security-patrol
vans. "But wel` of here to make
firittreolig'
•money,"