At Kiessling Transit, we are committed to providing every transportation program and transit management project with the highest level of customer care, as well as unparalleled quality, safety and reliability of service. Each group and agency we serve has a unique set of requirements, and their passengers have varying transportation-related needs. We embrace these differences and are proud to be able to consistently exceed our customers’ and passengers’ expectations as well as meet their goals.
How do we do this? It starts with our five-pronged approach – what we call Kiessling’s Five Golden Principles – that guide every relationship we have. Located on this page, you will find real stories from our customers, our partners, and our employees, who will share more about the principles that drive our entire team, not only at work, but also in our daily lives.
Since our inception in 1970, one mission has remained constant: to do everything we can to accommodate our passengers and our customers. This is not just a management philosophy; this attitude is on display company-wide, from drivers and dispatchers, to call takers and schedulers, to customer relations and insurance claims processors. Our dedication to customer service is the driving force behind everything we do at Kiessling Transit and is just one of the many reasons our company has become the model transportation firm in the area.
This Real Story features Dave Drucker, Assistant Vice President, Student Life & Dean of Students, Dean College. The college hired Kiessling Transit to provide a campus shuttle program which enables students to get off campus and take advantage of the many retail, restaurant, and entertainment offerings in the Franklin area. Shuttles to Patriot Place or to the Wrentham outlets are also available on the weekend and, during winter recess and spring break, Kiessling provides shuttles to major transportation hubs like Logan Airport in Boston, MA and the Amtrak Station in Providence, RI.
Kiessling Transit is proud of our reputation for adhering to the strictest guidelines to ensure safe transportation for all of our passengers. Our benchmark driver education program, which is designed to carefully screen, thoroughly train, and continuously monitor and retrain our employees on the industry’s best practices, sets us apart from our competition. But, you don’t have to just take our word about our safety record; we recently joined an insurance captive, TRAX Insurance, Ltd., which is an invite-only group that caters to the safest passenger transport companies who have excellent insurance claim histories.
This Real Story features Lenny Scarano, Manager of Safety, Kiessling Transit, Inc. As safety manager, one of Lenny’s most important roles is the training of new hires on everything from Defensive Driving Skills, to Lifting and Boarding Procedures, to First Aid, CPR, and AED Usage, to Passenger Assistance and Sensitivity, and much more. This comprehensive training, retraining and monitoring program ensures that each and every candidate for employment is equipped with the knowledge and skills that will make them successful in their Kiessling role.
Our owners, Lars and Roger Kiessling, who are the sons of the founders, Paul and Carl Kiessling, manage the day-to-day operations of the company. Following in their parents’ footsteps, Lars and Roger have taken an extremely proactive approach to management, staying involved in all aspects of the company and readily available with answers to any questions or concerns from employees, passengers or customers. While other transportation companies have a reputation for unstable management teams, which can cause headaches for transit administrators, Kiessling’s retention rate for managers is the highest in the area. Collectively, our top managers have worked at the company for over 150 years and, together, we have more than 200 years of transportation experience.
This Real Story features Edward J. Carr, Administrator for MetroWest Regional Transit Authority (MWRTA). For the past four years, MWRTA has partnered with Kiessling Transit to provide both Fixed Route and Demand Response services to fifteen communities in the MetroWest area. The clientele that utilize these services is quite broad, ranging from daily commuters to students to the homeless. A Dial-A-Ride service also provides transit for the elderly and/or disabled. For the past 10 years, MWRTA and Kiessling have partnered to make public transportation available, accessible, reliable, and safe for everyone in the community that needs it.
While our company has grown, and continues to expand, we always want to remain true to the family atmosphere created by our founders, Carl and Paula Kiessling. We value and respect each and every employee, customer and passenger that we do business with. The Kiessling family name is on every vehicle we own because we are genuinely proud of the quality product we provide and the honesty, transparency, and integrity with which we run our business.
This Real Story features Lars Kiessling, CEO, and Roger Kiessling, COO, Kiessling Transit, Inc. Their parents, Carl and Paula, founded the company in 1970 and originally called it Kiessling School Transportation. They started with just three employees and two vehicles and their primary goal was to provide safe and reliable transit for school children with special needs. Today, Kiessling has 400 plus employees and there are more than 320 vehicles in our fleet. However, even though the company has grown exponentially through leadership and innovation in the industry, and will continue to expand in the future, Lars and Roger strive to always maintain a familial atmosphere in the workplace and focus on relationship-building with their customers, partners and passengers.
Among the area’s transit authorities, colleges and universities, and other groups or organizations requiring specialized transportation services in Massachusetts and beyond, Kiessling is recognized as a top transit management company. Our team has extensive local knowledge and the expertise required to make any operation, route, or program run smoothly. We live in the communities we serve, and many of our customers and passengers are our neighbors, which is one of many reasons why we are so committed to delivering unparalleled customer service, focus and attention, and a high-quality rider experience. Most important, our team will get to know you personally, and it will be these real people that will drive your vehicle, answer the phone, return emails promptly and respond immediately to any concerns.
This Real Story features Angela Penny, Regional Director of Marketing, Landmark Management Solutions, which manages and operates the Saint Francis Adult Day Health Program. Landmark hired Kiessling Transit to provide door-to-door ride services for participants in the Day Health Program, whose average age ranges from 50 to 98 years old. The service Kiessling provides includes at-home pick-up, assisting passengers from their door into the vehicle, driving them to the Adult Day Health Program, helping them off the van and into the facility, curbside pick-up at the end of the day, and drop-off at the participants’ homes. Kiessling’s highly trained, professional, and caring drivers are the key to making this process run so smoothly day in and day out.
When Leonard retired from the United States Postal Service (USPS) in 2004, he moved to Florida and intended to enjoy the rest of his non-working life in the sunshine state. However, Florida never really felt like home nor did retirement feel that comfortable, so Leonard moved back to Medway, MA and applied for a position as a driver at Kiessling Transit.
Over the next several years, Leonard distinguished himself by thoughtfully assessing situations, creating thorough plans of action, and implementing his ideas quickly and effectively. Plus, he demonstrated an incredibly energetic and enthusiastic personality. These skills and traits were exactly what Kiessling was looking for in a Manager, and so Leonard was first promoted to a General Manager role and then eventually to his current position, Manager of Safety and Training.
Leonard’s role at Kiessling is critical to the company’s success. He is responsible for ensuring the safe, efficient, and pleasant transport of the individuals entrusted to our care.
I am grateful for the opportunity to work with, and for, the mentally and physically challenged. The transportation services we provide greatly contribute to the quality of life of this special population of people, and helps them improve their overall well-being. My job gives me an incredible sense of accomplishment every day.
Leonard gained invaluable experience supervising people when he worked for the USPS, where he started as a letter carrier but was later promoted to a managerial position. He has overseen several different USPS locations in the Boston area, both clerical and carrier operations, and hundreds of postal staff members. At USPS, Leonard received several Superior Achievement Awards, including one in 1984 for Letter Carrier and another in 1989 for Supervisor.
According to Leonard, being a good listener and always remaining very sensitive to people’s needs is an essential part of being a great manager no matter where you work, but especially in the transportation industry.
Outside of work, Leonard spends much of his time doing physical activities, like hiking trails with his dog and traveling throughout the East Coast. Dogs have always been prominent in Leonard’s life and he cannot recall a time over the past 40 years when one wasn’t by his side. Leonard earned a Canine Obedience/Training Certification from Mount Ida College, Newton, MA and has trained dogs for obedience and agility, as well as to curb behavioral issues. He supports any organization that places canines with returning veterans and those suffering with disabilities, including Canine Companions for Independence, an organization that provides assistance dogs free of charge to recipients.
Leonard grew up in and around Boston, and anywhere else he has lived has paled in comparison to what this city offers!
Over the course of the 13 years that Jon has been with Kiessling Transit, he has held many roles and taken on a variety of responsibilities. Essentially, Jon’s path has paralleled the trajectory of the company. As Kiessling Transit has transformed and grown in the past decade into a leader within the transportation industry, so too has Jon developed from an IT professional and office administrator at the company to a key executive of the organization.
Jon is both a longtime friend and employee of the Kiesslings, having joined the company in 2004. At the time of his hiring, Kiessling was entering into a new MBTA RIDE contract that required a fully dedicated IT person to manage all facets of the company’s technical infrastructure, systems and support. The Kiesslings hired Jon for this critical role for many reasons, including his expert problem-solving skills, his ability to effectively streamline business practices, and, most important, his collaborative and easygoing demeanor. During Kiessling’s contract management of the MBTA’s THE RIDE services on the South Shore, Jon was solely responsible for managing the Wide Area Network (WAN) installation connecting Kiessling’s Norfolk location with the MBTA’s 10 Park Plaza offices in downtown Boston. Jon has also successfully led a number of company projects, with a heavy emphasis on software migrations of multiple company on-premise systems ranging from Microsoft Exchange/Office365 to cloud based Payroll/HR solutions, many which trimmed annual company IT costs significantly.
Today, as Vice President of Operations, Jon works in lockstep with the Kiessling owners, Lars and Roger, and, with great attention to detail, he oversees all the day-to-day operations at the company. His responsibilities include investigating, recommending, installing and upgrading all company software and reviewing company backups of all databases. Jon’s quick thinking and response time, as well as his proactive IT planning, mean that equipment downtime and other operational issues are kept to a minimum.
It’s truly exciting to see the impact that my team and I have had on improving the practices and processes at Kiessling and at our partner companies. Our goal is always to go above and beyond to help our clients accomplish their desired goals. I look forward to helping you make positive changes at your place of business and a genuine difference in the lives of the people you employ and serve.
Before joining the Kiessling team, Jon was already an accomplished manager, operating internal IT departments and new system rollouts. He has held technical roles at a variety of Massachusetts-based companies, including serving as a systems administrator in the IT departments of both Centra Software Inc. (now SABA Software), in Lexington, MA, and TJX Companies in Framingham, MA. He was also a technical recruiter at Judge.com, previously located in Needham, MA.
Jon grew up in Walpole, MA and now lives close by in Wrentham, MA. He earned a Management Information Systems degree from Salve Regina University in 2000.
While leading the operations team at Kiessling is a consuming job, Jon makes sure to build in time for his family, friends and sports. He devotedly coaches his sons’ athletic teams and loves the opportunity this gives him to watch them grow on many different levels. Jon’s other favorite pastimes include attending concerts and Patriots games, enjoying local restaurants, and playing many, many rounds of terrible golf!