By Dave Millhouser

Our boss was at his wits end. Hed accumulated a fine group of drivers for the summer season but we just didnt LOOK the part.

No amount of driving skill could overcome the perception created by ratty blue jeans and T-shirts.

So, Joe mandated we all wear blue shirts, clip-on ties and name tags. Folks, this was the 1970s and blind obedience was not in the cards.

One rascal discovered you could get a discount on name tags -- if they were all the same. The next time we were together, we sported ties clipped to our back pockets and all of us wore name tags emblazoned "ETHEL."

Times have changed but one thing has remained constant: Drivers are the face of your company. Their appearance and demeanor may be the only thing your customers remember about a trip.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Hard times have ended the driver shortage and created an opportunity to mold your folks into a team positioned to take advantage of fading competition, and the good times that will eventually return.

For the first time in a while, its possible to unload the weak links (and put the mediocre ones on notice). Not a bad idea, but theres also a ton that can be done on the more positive side.

One naïve, but well intentioned, lady wrote a letter to the editor of her local paper to the effect that we should not call them Bus Drivers, but rather Bus Captains. She pointed out that their job was as responsible as that of an airline pilot, and they should be attired, regulated and paid similarly. She may be on the right track (if slightly around the bend).

Driving a motorcoach IS a responsible job, and doing it well should be a source of pride. Good drivers should look the part (for bad drivers, see paragraph seven). What they wear doesnt have to be expensive or fancy, but it ought be consistent and convey the fact they are professionals.

Would you be happy flying in a 747 whose pilot was wearing cutoffs and flip flops? Were not THAT different, lives and sophisticated equipment are at stake.

Part of the deal is personal grooming. Haircuts, bathing, shaving, jewelry and the like all have to be within boundaries that have been set -- and understood.

By the way, that roaring in your ears isnt tinnitus, thats the laughter of people who know me. What the last few paragraphs prove is that, in real life, Im still able to serve as a bad example.

Its important that professional appearance be an accurate reflection of behavior. The trigger for this column was a Washington Post article about a Washington, D.C.-to-New York City bus trip. It was a horror story involving, but not limited to, a driver engaged in cell phone chatter, car nudging, tailgating, obscene gestures, littering and driving under the influence of a hamburger in his lap.

In my misspent youth I did many of those things, but not all at once, and NOT at the wheel of a loaded coach.

The Post article named the operator, and heads have rolled, but real damage was done to both the bus company and our industry.

Airlines correctly make the distinction between skills and demeanor. When pilots have accumulated enough seniority to become captain, theyre sent to the airline version of "finishing school," where they learn how to look and act the role of Airline Captain.

Good coach drivers take pride in their driving, navigational and mechanical skills. The best know how to convey that pride to their passengers.

When you plan drivers meetings, consider having a component similar to the "Captains School" where you set guidelines, and discuss the appearance, behavior and demeanor that will best serve your company and customers. Role playing can useful (and fun).

Drivers will enjoy telling war stories, and learn from each other.

Read, then post, comments from customers. Tips (in the form of crisp greenbacks) are a powerful incentive for charter drivers to get this aspect right. Good line drivers take justifiable pride in their work, for the ones who dont, refer back to paragraph seven.

Stress how important appearances are to your business, and their future. For a motorcoach driver, people skills are nearly as important to driving well.

In ye olden days we had a driver we called the Granola Kid. At mealtime hed drop his passengers off at the restaurant entrance. Once they were inside, he set up his little Bunsen Burner and pot in the parking lot, then cooked some concoction of nuts and twigs. He wasnt so much a vegetarian as a nut case.

Before we got to point out to him that his behavior made his passengers squirrelly (pun intended), he parked his bus near a forest, and disappeared. Hope hes not working for you.

Dave Millhouser is a bus industry marketing consultant and freelance writer. Contact him at: dave_millhouser@hotmail.com.