In its eleventh year, the four-day program brings technicians from IC Bus customers across the country to the company’s Tulsa Bus Plant to teach them how to best service school buses from the people that design and build them.
More than 240 attendees took part in one of this year’s four sessions, joining a network of more than 2,000 alumni who have graduated from the program since its inception.
“As we finish up another year of training, we are so proud to have a new group of technicians graduate from the program equipped with the training, knowledge and experience necessary to best serve their fleets at home,” said Trish Reed, vice president and general manager, IC Bus. “We are committed to providing the very best customer experience in the industry, and this program plays an important part in helping us achieve that.”
The training is specifically designed to provide everything technicians need to service IC Bus® products, including updating them on the newest safety features. With the recent announcement of IC Bus making electronic stability control and collision mitigation standard, Bendix participated in this year’s program and shared best use and maintenance practices for these features.
“As we continue adding new, advanced technologies to our buses, it is extremely important that our technicians know how to best utilize and maintain them,” said Reed. “We believe that bringing in our suppliers to share that information first hand brings the best results.”
Attendees are informed of the program through IC Bus® dealers. They can ask to be invited or may be identified by their dealer as a customer who can either enhance their fleet performance by attending or can just use a refresh. .
“Our dealers are instrumental in identifying customers that need this training,” said Alan Stegich, senior product manager, and lead of the IC Bus University program. “The training not only teaches them the best ways to maintain our products, but they can also bring that information back and share it with their peers.”
IC Bus is already looking for ways to improve on the success of the current program for next year. As requested by attendees, the company will look to offer five sessions of training, with two advanced programs featuring more hands on training and a competition for attendees.
