by Dennis Dalman
With its brand-new 110,000 square-foot building, Trobec’s Bus Service opened in March in St. Joseph’s Industrial Park after being based in St. Stephen for 85 years.
A public open house at the facility will be announced this summer.
The new space will be large enough to house Trobec’s large number of buses – school buses and charter-trip buses. The building also has a lounge for bus drivers, a huge work-shop area and a place to wash the buses.
The new, larger space will also make it possible for the company to hire more employees such as drivers and mechanics.
Trobec’s Bus Service began way back in 1938 with only one bus by Tony and Frances Trobec. They bought the bus so students in the St. Stephen area could be bused to Holdingford in order to continue their educations beyond eighth grade. A bit later, another bus was purchased in order to transport students to Cathedral High School in St. Cloud.
Then, in 1956, the Trobecs expanded the business once again to transport students from the St. Joseph and Collegeville areas to St. Cloud schools. Currently, Trobec’s buses serve transportation needs for the school districts of St. Cloud and Sartell-St. Stephen. Almost 60 Trobec buses accommodate those school students’ needs.
In addition, the company also provides a charter service that has in its 80-plus-year history provided special trips for many millions of people throughout Minnesota, the United States and Canada. In addition, Trobec’s operates a fleet of buses to transport wedding parties from place to place.
Trobec’s has an outstanding safety record with the highest rating possible from the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration. The company is a member of the National School Bus Transportation Association and the Minnesota School Bus Operators Association, of which Trobec’s chief executive officer, Tim Schubert, serves on its board. Trobec’s President Bethany Bertram also serves on that board of directors and is board president.
Schubert, who oversees all of Trobec’s staff members, has been part of the transportation business for more than 30 years.
Bertram has been an employee of the company since 2009 when she was 19 years old. She grew up in the school-bus business and would beg her father to take her along on motorcoach trips and would hang out at the office on summer breaks from school. She has worked virtually every kind of job at Trobec’s and even though she is now its president, she still works now and then with hands-on work – such as working in the bus-washing bay or driving buses when needed.
