ABA Hosts Two Well-Attended Education Sessions in Baltimore

L to R: American Bus Association (ABA) Director of Regulatory Affairs Brandon Buchanan of, CD’s Managing Editor Susan Rose, and ABA President & CEO Peter Pantuso Two councils of the American Bus Association—Bus Industry Safety Council (BISC) and Bus Maintenance and Repair Council (BusMARC)—recently held back-to-back summer meetings that included tons of seminars, networking, and operator site visits. The June meetings, both sponsored by ABC Companies, took place at the BWI Airport Marriott Hotel in Linthicum, Md. Managing Editor Susan Rose was in attendance for parts of each meeting.

BISC, which is comprised of security, mechanical, safety, operational, and maintenance leaders from across the North American motorcoach industry, was the first of the meetings held June 28-29. Over 100 operators met for sessions that focused on the most pressing bus issues, including the adoption of electronic logging devices (ELDs), legislative and OSHA updates, and driver training. As a highly regulated and politically focused industry, fire safety training and policies topped the docket.

The newer council of the two, BusMARC, was created in 2015 specifically to address the needs of maintenance education and compliance training among motorcoach operators. As one of its first meetings, held June 29-30, about 50 operators from all over the country joined the two-day event. Like its counterpart, BusMARC’s education was dominated by current regulations, compliance, safety, and training, but also included roundtable discussions with major bus and parts manufacturers, as well as site visits to area operator Dillion’s Bus Service.

We will have more information and pictures from the two meetings in the August issue of Chauffeur Driven.

Visit buses.org for more information on the American Bus Association, its councils, and educational opportunities. Its annual conference, Marketplace, is scheduled for January 14-17, 2017, in Cleveland, Ohio.

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