Birmingham, Pelham, Alabama, Love the Bus, Transportation South — “Love the Bus” at Transportation South in Pelham. Photo submitted

Every school day, Alabama bus drivers travel 488,000 miles—the equivalent of 20 trips around the earth—while safely transporting our most precious cargo. Every year a national event called “Love the Bus,” held locally in Pelham, honors their service.

The Big Event

Transportation South, which is Alabama’s largest school bus provider, hosts the state’s “Love the Bus” celebration each year. The 10th annual event on February 13 honored 41 of our state’s best school bus drivers, plus Driver of the Year 2019, Becky Suits of Arab City Schools.

“There are thousands of great drivers, but we also have many drivers that have a real heart for their jobs. They realize that in a lot of cases when a student gets on the bus, their face might be the first smiling face they see all day long, and in the afternoon when they drop that student off, it might be the last. All of these drivers are like that, or they wouldn’t be here today. We are so proud to honor Ms. Suits with this great honor as the 2019 Alabama ‘Love the Bus’ Driver of the Year.”
Bucky Law, president of Transportation South

Birmingham, Pelham, Alabama, Love the Bus, Transportation South, Becky Suits, Arab City Schools — WVTM 13 News interviewed Suits after her big win. Photo by Terri Robertson for Bham Now

Prior to the event, students, parents and teachers across Alabama voted on their best school bus drivers and submitted nominations for Driver of the Year. The Alabama State Department of Education chose the winner.

For the Win

Suits’ nomination letter highlighted her 34 years of service, as well as the many ways she goes beyond the call of duty, such as buying warm jackets for students in need. The best part?

“I didn’t have a clue,” Suits said of winning the award.

Birmingham, Pelham, Alabama, Love the Bus, Transportation South, WendellSmith, Becky Suits, Arab City Schools — Wendell Smith (left) nominated Suits. Photo by Terri Robertson for Bham Now

Her boss, Wendell Smith, transportation director of Arab City Schools, nominated her on the sly. Then he got her there by casually asking if she wanted to tag along to eat some good food at an event. (That part was true. Barbecue and Edgar’s Bakery chocolate and strawberry cakes were on the menu.)

Big Yellow Bus Facts

schoolbus 81717 640 10th annual "Love the Bus" event honors 2019 Alabama school bus driver of the year

The American School Bus Council founded the “Love the Bus” program in 2007. Local events happen throughout February in school districts across the country to raise awareness and appreciation for school bus drivers. Check out these cool facts.

480,000 school buses roam the U.S. roadways.
Bus drivers safely transport more than 26 million schoolchildren each day.
In Alabama, 70 percent of our population—yep, that’s the little ones—hop on the bus on school days.
The nation’s school bus system is the largest and safest transportation system in the country.
A child is 13 times safer in a school bus than the average of other transportation methods.
School buses remove an estimated 17.3 million cars from the road each morning, saving approximately 2.3 billion gallons of gas annually.
Drivers receive specialized classroom and behind-the-wheel training in driving a school bus, student loading/unloading procedures, student evacuation, student behavior, security management and emergency medical procedures.

Birmingham, Pelham, Alabama, Love the Bus, Chad Carpenter, Lazarus Lewis, Birmingham City Schools, Bucky Law, Transportation South — Chad Carpenter (left) and Bucky Law (right) with “Love the Bus” honored driver Lazarus Lewis (center) of Birmingham City Schools. Photo by Bham Now

Chad Carpenter, e-coordinator of pupil transportation at the Alabama State Department of Education, and Bucky Law, president of Transportation South, gave out certificates and gift bags to each honored driver. Here’s the full list of 2019 Alabama “Love the Bus” honorees. Give them a big hand for all they do.