I Spy: Motor coach driver lauded for his passion
Ron Peters was busy cleaning his Coastal Carolina University bus on a chilly day in early December after delivering the basketball team to a game at Auburn University. He was detailing the tires of the shiny Chanticleer motor coach when he caught the attention of George Blanks.
Blanks, who is retiring director of Auburn’s engineering school, was at the Auburn Arena for a robotics competition, but what he saw stopped him in his tracks. He stopped to give the bus driver a compliment on his beautiful vehicle.
“Peters thanked me and then said it was his labor of love!” Blanks wrote in an email to Greg Weisner, CCU’s director of transportation. “He said it was his passion that the bus always look its best because it reflects the pride he takes in his work and draws attention to CCU. That floored me; it’s not something I would associate with a bus driver – taking pride in the bus itself, that is,” said Peters. “He said he always gets compliments on the bus when he’s driving CCU athletes to and from events. He certainly caught my attention – and my respect.”
And that describes Peters perfectly. A CCU employee for less than a year (he joined the staff in May 2014), Peters has unbridled enthusiasm for his job. “I suffer from motor coach madness,” he likes to joke, but he really means it. In charge of bus #68210, Peters is one of 28 drivers who ferry the athletic teams to away games on three of the 45-foot Setra Motor Coaches.
“It’s one of my quirks,” says Peters. “I always keep my bus clean. You are going into enemy territory, and I want those other teams to be 99 percent sure who beat them.”
Peters points out that his height – he’s 6-foot-6 – enables him to clean the large bus even without water or a hose. With a bucket and squirt bottle, he can reach most of the coach he needs to reach, and presto, the bus is as shiny and clean as its first day out of the garage. “They told me it couldn’t be done [without water], so I devised a system. I love a challenge,” says Peters.
He attended the University of Maryland for two years as a student of math and engineering, but when the economy went southward, he had to go to work. From driving construction and dump trucks for a living, Peters discovered buses and limousines and “fell in love with the ride.” He’s been a commercial driver for 20 years and has worked for two tour companies where he was trained in professionalism and “taking care of your customers because you want your customers to request you.”
And request him they do. A regular driver for CCU’s basketball team, Peters is known as “BDR” or Bus Driver Ron. Since the team gave him a jacket, and with the added advantage of his height (yes, he is a former basketball player), he is able to walk in and enjoy the game about anywhere and anytime he wants. “I get to hear Coach [Cliff] Ellis talk to the team, which is top secret, but very interesting,” he says.
When asked what he likes to do for fun, Peters is quiet. Studying the Bible is a favorite pastime, he says, that and his job, which he approaches in a recreational yet professional manner.
Blanks, back at Auburn, went on to say: “It doesn’t matter how seemingly small or insignificant one’s role might appear to be, it’s important to take pride in doing one’s best. It’s for that reason that I needed to tell you about my uplifting and meaningful experience yesterday with Ron. He’s an exceptional man and certainly an asset to your department, CCU Athletics and the institution. Great hire!”
