Save the Date: 2019 Florida Triple Crown Bus Roadeo

The 2019 Florida Triple Crown Bus Roadeo will be held approximately 3 weeks earlier next year. The dates for the 2019 event has been set for April 5 – 6, 2019 in Jacksonville, Florida. Mark these dates and location on your calendars and plan your local roadeos accordingly.

2018 Florida Triple Crown Bus Roadeo

On April 27-28, Florida’s best bus drivers and technicians participated in the 2018 Florida Triple Crown Bus Roadeo in Daytona Beach, Florida. The 2018 Florida Triple Crown Roadeo once again combined the FPTA and RTAP roadeos into a single, colossal weekend honoring all of Florida’s maintenance technicians, paratransit and fixed route operators. Over 300 competitors, judges, sponsors, guests and dignitaries participated in the two day event.

The year’s event was a joint effort of the Florida Public Transportation Association (FPTA), the Florida Rural Transit Assistance Program (RTAP), the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), and the Florida Association of Coordinated Transit Systems (FACTS), and hosted by the Votran.

There were training opportunities for the participants. Then the bus operator participant’s skills were tested with a written test and the on-course competition. The maintenance technicians faced similar challenges with a written test and a series of diagnostic tests.

As always, the event concluded with an Awards Banquet that crowned and recognized the 2018 champions in the paratransit van and cutaway divisions, the fixed route bus division, the individual paratransit maintenance technician, and the maintenance technician’s team competition.

Sherman Polydare from Jacksonville Transit Authority took the top honors is the second annual paratransit maintenance technician competition, outpacing his fellow paratransit technicians.

JTrans’s Tommy Griffis drove away with the Van Category Championship, with Lee Tran’s Chris Cowles repeating as the Cutaway Category Champion. Both will travel to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in early June to represent Florida at the Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) national roadeo.

 

Florida RTAP Paratransit Roadeo Winners

 

Above and Beyond Award Winners

Between 2004 to 2012, each year at the RTAP Florida Paratransit Roadeo, the Florida Department of Transportation Public Transit Office, with the assistance of Sure-Lok, Inc., selected and recognized an exemplary Florida paratransit operator for the “Above and Beyond Award.”

The purpose of the award was to honor a driver who consistently performed in an outstanding manner and showed great care and concern for passengers with special needs.

There were three primary eligibility criteria. They were:

1. The driver took time on a regular basis to create a safe and secure environment for passengers with special needs,
2. The driver properly secured the mobility aid and occupant restraints, and
3. The driver demonstrated sensitivity toward individuals with special needs.