May 21, 2014, Deposit, N.Y. – The team from Leonard Bus Sales gathered recently with school transportation officials from across New York and with representatives from IC Bus at the latest New York Customer Advisory Panel meeting at the Otesaga Hotel in Cooperstown, April 30- May 1, 2014. The semi-annual meetings, organized by Leonard Bus Sales and IC Bus, serve as a chance for school district officials to interact directly with the engineers and experts who manufacture, distribute and service their school buses.
“These gatherings have become an integral part of the service and support we offer our school district partners,” said Leonard Bus Sales Director of Marketing and Transportation Advisor Jon Leonard. “We’ve held these meetings for more than a decade, and we’ve helped build stronger relationships between what the customers need and what the manufacturers offer. Along the way, we’ve also developed real relationships with our school district partners.”
At this latest meeting, there was another subject on everyone’s mind: the approaching retirement of Arlington CSD Transportation Director George Beckwith. Mr. Beckwith has been a member of the New York Customer Advisory Panel since its founding in 2002.
“George has been such a great leader within the New York school bus industry and a great force on these advisory panels,” said Frank Continetti, Sales Manager at Leonard Bus Sales. “He’s also become a good friend to us all, and we just want to wish him well in his retirement.”
Mr. Beckwith has been serving Arlington Central Schools as its transportation supervisor for over 20 years. He is also the 2005 recipient of the Art Schock Award — the highest honor given by the New York Association of Pupil Transportation to leaders within the school transportation community.
Other districts represented at the spring meeting included Churchville-Chili CSD, Grand Island CSD, South Jefferson CSD, Greece CSD, Lancaster CSD, East Greenbush CSD, Guilderland CSD and Massena CSD. The school officials met with representatives of IC Bus, Navistar and Leonard Bus Sales, and discussed everything from online software and fleet planning tools, to the newly available Cummins engine.
Leonard Bus Sales, Inc. is owned and operated by the Leonard family, a recognized leader in the distribution and support of quality, environmentally-friendly school and commercial buses. A third generation family-owned business, Leonard Bus Sales has nearly 50 years of experience providing cost-saving fleet management and award-winning customer support. Leonard Bus Sales is a leading-distributor of IC BusTM brand buses in Upstate New York. The company also distributes Type-A school and commercial buses from Trans Tech throughout New York and Type-A commercial buses from Champion Bus in Upstate New York. The company is headquartered in Deposit, NY and operates four full-service facilities in Bergen, Rome, Saratoga Springs and a Trans Tech Type-A facility in Garden City Park, N.Y. — www.leonardbus.com.