National Express Corp. transports one million students with its buses annually.

With its operations centered on the transportation of children, National Express Corp. (NEC) has no greater concentration than passenger welfare. “Our focus is to get the students to school on time safely, securely – every time,” declares Barry Stock, executive vice president of customer development.

The company, a North American subsidiary of National Express Group (NEG) PLC, transports one million students with its buses annually. Its parent company, based in the United Kingdom, is a multi-modal transportation provider with bus, train, light rail and express coach operations. NEC offers its services through two divisions, Stock says. In the United States, NEC provides student transportation through Durham School Services in Downers Grove, Ill., while the company serves Canada through Stock Transportation, located in Ontario.

Stock’s father, Jeff Stock, founded Stock Transportation with his uncle, Jerry Stock, in 1958. Forty-four years later, Barry Stock and his cousin, Brian Stock, sold the amalgamated company to NEG.

Barry Stock says he has enjoyed the opportunity to learn how a public entity works, and the chance to contribute to it, as well. “It’s certainly furthered my career and learning,” he says.

Pulling the Industry
To ensure that its passengers safely reach their destinations, NEC continuously invests in furthering its safety initiatives, Stock says. This has included continuous reinvention of its young rider programs, through which NEC visits schools and teaches students and parents safe ways to ride a bus.

According to School Bus Fleet magazine, private bus contractors such as NEC operate more than a third of America’s school buses. This is a growing trend as more school districts recognize the specialized focus that private companies bring to the table. Stock says “privatization allows school districts to focus on their core competency [of] educating students.”

In addition, NEC works with bus manufacturers to determine the best maintenance programs for its vehicles. “Today, we’ve got some excellent preventative and predictive maintenance programs in place,” he says. “We’re able to fix [buses] before they break.”

For instance, by knowing the age when a starter will historically fail, NEC can prevent a service failure by replacing it 30 days in advance.

NEC also promotes change in its work environment, Stock says. As part of this initiative, “We have taken in excess of 20 of our best [and] hooked them up with a similar number of external experts to transform our organization for the future,” he states.

The company is now engaged in redeveloping its technologies and systems to focus on customers and employees. These changes, he says, will allow NEC to better serve clients and ensure its competitiveness going forward.

NEC also has invested in green technologies. Stock notes that the company has upgraded some portions of its fleet to green diesel technologies. “In some cases where that’s not available, we’ve gone back to gasoline engines, which run cleaner than certain older diesel applications,” he adds.

Contributing to the Vision
Of his associates, Stock praises Executive Vice President of Service Delivery John Elliott. “He has been an outstanding leader to our service delivery team,” Stock says, adding that Elliott is the 2007 recipient of the National School Transportation Association’s Contractor of the Year award.

Stock also praises his cousin and CEO, Brian Stock, for his leadership at NEC, and Executive Vice President Janice Lahti. “Her focus and dedication has and will ensure that this organization realizes its vision,” Barry Stock says.

However, in its quest to be the most responsive, safest and efficient provider of student transportation services, there are no employees more crucial than NEC’s drivers and monitors, Stock says. “[When] the rubber hits the roads, it’s the drivers and the monitors that make us what we are today,” he declares.