BusTalk

[Mr. Linsky]

Jindal: company not fulfilling contract for evacuation buses

by Bill Barrow and Robert Travis Scott, The Times-Picayune
Friday August 29, 2008, 7:57 PM

BATON ROUGE -- The private contractor the state hired to provide buses for hurricane evacuations has not come through with enough vehicles in a timely manner, causing the state to look elsewhere to meet the state's timeline for moving people out of New Orleans and other areas prior to the arrival of Hurricane Gustav, Gov. Bobby Jindal said Friday.

The state contracted for 700 buses with drivers to be made available in an emergency but has "run into challenges" with the primary bus contractor, the governor said during a news conference in Baton Rouge.

"The contractor is not necessarily doing what they promised to do, " Jindal said.

State officials later identified the company as Landstar System Inc., a Jacksonville, Fla., company whose shares trade on the Nasdaq stock market.

When asked about the problem in a phone interview Friday evening, company Chief Executive Officer Henry Gerkens initially said, "I'm not aware of that. I won't have any further comment, but that's not my understanding."

Later, after talking to company representatives in Baton Rouge, Gerkens disputed the governor's contention saying he believes the company is on track to meet its commitments under the contract.

The state is making arrangements with another contractor to fill bus orders, while the state is also requesting supplemental buses from the Regional Transit Authority, LA Swift coaches and from Texas public transportation services.

The bus contracts were worked out in advance of the hurricane season. When a bus is put into service, the state is committed to paying for the bus for a minimum of three days. At $2,900 per bus per day, the cost for each bus put into use is a minimum of $8,700. In addition to this minimum charge, there will be a fuel adjustment charge. This fuel adjustment was included in the contract, which was written in 2006, to cover the rising costs of fuel.

Once the buses have been used to deliver citizens to shelters, the state then has to decide whether to keep the buses in service to transport the residents back to their parishes or, if there is so much damage it looks like it will be more than a few days before the residents can return, to call the buses back once it is safe for residents to return.

Most of the buses are brought in from out of state, and each has two drivers, according to the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, which handles the contracts.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

.