Jas Kumar was driving his charter bus in January to pick up Oakland Unified School District students in West Oakland when he saw a Chevrolet Suburban strike a woman who was crossing San Pablo Avenue. Kumar stopped the bus and called 911. The woman, Kim May Barranco, was pronounced dead at the scene.
With police asking him to provide a witness statement, Kumar called his boss, Avtar “Avi” Josen, owner of the charter bus operator Busloop, to let him know about the incident. Josen, he recalled, was interested only in how quickly Kumar could get back to work, even demanding to be put on the phone with the police officer in an attempt to hurry things up.
“It didn’t seem to cross his mind that a person died,” Kumar said. “There was no feeling, no sympathy. It felt like he didn’t give a shit.”
Kumar, who has since left Busloop, said the behavior was part of a pattern of callous disregard by Josen and his company. He is one of four former and current Busloop employees who described a company that overworked and failed to pay drivers, skipped critical maintenance on buses, and flagrantly disregarded rules meant to ensure the safety of student passengers.
Busloop contracts mainly with school districts like Oakland Unified School District and Fresno Unified School District. The company is responsible for transporting students to field trips and sporting events with its fleet of seven buses.
Josen was previously managed with two now-defunct Bay Area charter bus operators that experienced safety issues: Charter Pros and Charter Bros.
In 2014, a worker at Charter Pros was killed when he became wedged between two buses at the company’s Oakland repair yard. In 2017, A Charter Bros bus flipped on its side on Highway 101, injuring its 29 passengers with conditions ranging from scrapes to broken bones.
Josen told The Standard he was brought in to help manage Charter Pros after his father — who co-founded the company — died. He said he started Busloop in 2019 in an effort to shed concerning safety practices and address compliance issues he witnessed in his roles at the other firms.
“There are a lot of different compliance rules, and the [California Highway Patrol] does annual and safety inspections that continue to bring satisfactory results,” Josen said. “That should speak volumes.”
Reza Khouie, a motor carrier specialist with CHP, said the agency’s first inspection of Busloop in 2023 was unsatisfactory, but subsequent inspections met legal standards.
But current and former employees describe cases in which Josen retaliated against drivers who raised safety or maintenance issues. What’s more, the employees report that in many cases, Busloop drivers were transporting students without the legally required School Pupil Activities Bus, or SPAB, certification.
“I think he should learn a really hard lesson about not messing with people’s children, because, honestly, it’s been going on for a long time,” Kumar said. “I know he charges a lot less than what these other big companies do; that’s the only reason why I think he’s getting away with it. They’re going for the cheaper option.”
Esther Chavez, a school bus coordinator with the CHP, said having noncertified drivers transport students could lead to a company’s SPAB status being revoked, meaning it could no longer work with schools.
In order to get a SPAB certification, a driver must complete classroom or behind-the-wheel training, a background check, and written and driving tests.
“The background check and written test and road test is meant to prove you can drive that bus safely without killing anybody,” said former Busloop driver Arron Friedman. “He didn’t care; he just wanted that money.”
Friedman, who worked at Busloop between 2022 and 2023, said the buses were not properly maintained, and brake pads and other parts were used past the point of normal wear and tear.
“I would want to see maintenance records on those buses,” Friedman said. “They should be shut down, big time, especially with safety problems that I saw.”
Friedman said he and other drivers regularly worked past the maximum 10 consecutive hours in a day that are legally permissible by California’s vehicle code. Three other employees confirmed that they were forced to work past that legal limit. The drivers allege that Josen failed to pay overtime for these hours of hour, or failed to pay them at all in some cases.
Additionally, four former and current Busloop employees said they were ordered by Josen, or witnessed him ordering others, to dump raw sewage from the buses directly into public drains near the company’s Oakland bus yard, in violation of laws against proper disposal. Josen denied the allegation.
Two employees said a bus caught on fire while transporting passengers and was forced to be taken out of service due to neglectful maintenance. Drivers said that equipment or mechanical issues they reported were not addressed or not fixed properly.
“The way he’s going about things is foul,” said one employee who asked to be anonymous for fear of retaliation. “I’m not a snitch, but when it comes to the kids, there has to be something done.”
Josen attributed the claims against him and his company to a disgruntled employee who was let go after developing Parkinson’s disease, which impaired his judgment on the road. When asked why former and current employees confirmed some of the charges of negligence, Josen said he believed the allegations were part of a “false narrative.”
A review of inspection records of the 11 charter bus companies with which Oakland Unified School District works found that 16.7% of Busloop’s vehicles were out of service, the most by a wide margin.
“When you’re talking about passenger transportation, that’s an ungodly high number,” said the owner of a fellow Bay Area charter bus company. “That says they found some serious violations, safety and maintenance issues that forced them to put that vehicle out of service. They don’t make that decision lightly.”
Kim Raney, the executive director of transportation, warehouse, and procurement for Oakland Unified School District, said she was unaware of the allegations by the current and former Busloop drivers and has temporarily suspended the company pending an investigation.
“Typically, how you get caught is that something bad occurs,” Raney said. “My job is to keep our students safe. There’s bad apples that ruin it for everybody, and that’s my concern with this company.”