[Pupiltransportation] Back-to-school message for Pupil Transportation

[pupiltransportation at listsmart.osl.state.or.us]

Good morning, everyone -

Well, it's that time of year again when ads in the newspaper signal it's time to start shopping for back-to-school supplies and we all agree the summer months went by way too fast. Along those same lines, and with Labor Day quickly approaching, I would like to remind everyone to make sure your applications for school bus certificates are current to meet your demands for the upcoming school year. Please don't wait until the last minute to send in your applications.

Similar to last year, we are anticipating an increase in the volume of applications during the latter part of August, and I want to remind everyone it can take up to two weeks to process an Application for School Bus Driver Permit or Certificate (State form 581-2278b). This is due in large part for the need to process documents via the U.S. Postal Service. The volume of applications and turnaround time in August has created another problem with the Request for Approval of Temporary School Bus Driver (State form 581-2240-M).

In the final weeks before the start of school, the requests for temporary school bus drivers will take approximately 48 hours to process from the time they have been received here at the department. Depending on the number of Temporary requests, if you wait until the last days in August there is a chance you may not have all your drivers available to drive when school starts the following Tuesday.  Again, it just depends on the number of last-minute requests we receive, so please plan accordingly.

Please note: Temporary requests received by noon on Thursday, August 28, 2014, should be completed and returned to you by the start of school on Tuesday, September 2, 2014.  Please know we are doing everything we can to accommodate the increased workload.

Good news: We recently started working on an online system to process permits and certificates, but that project will take some time to implement, so we appreciate your patience in the meantime.

Also, please plan accordingly for your activity drivers. The department does not have a temporary request process for activity drivers, so please make sure you allow one to two weeks for processing when sending in the Approval Request for Drivers of Type 10 Non-school Bus Pupil Transporting Vehicles (State form 581-2279-M) and the Application for Type 20 Driver's Certificate (State form 581-1276-M).
Lastly, I want to thank you all for your great work out there and extend my appreciation for your understanding and cooperation during this time. If you should have any questions, please contact T.J. Crockett at 503-947-5724 tj.crockett at state.or.us<mailto:tj.crockett at state.or.us>, or you can contact me at 503-947-5914.
Mike Wiltfong

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://omls.oregon.gov/pipermail/pupiltransportation/attachments/20140821/331c4cee/attachment.html>