Capebase exposed

One of the many shonky and corrupt assisted school travel operators across NSW, Capebase Pty Ltd has been reported in recent days as refusing to cater to the special needs of students in the Blue Mountains. The company has been reported on this blog a number of times for defrauding the department, having incompetent and dangerous drivers and student abuse.

Despite the many issues, the company is repeatedly praised by Neil Moon - who told parents in Blayney at the beginning of the year that the new bus operator would provide a far superior service to their former operator and that there is no problems with driver Steve Minshull, who is also the school's music teacher.

A former Capebase employee has spoken to Carenne Gate about the company, exposing its manager Les Ross.

According to the former employee turned whistleblower, Capebase consists of two parts - its Pacific South West Shuttle service and its assisted school travel service. According to the whistleblower, when vehicles are no longer suited to the shuttle service in Sydney they are retired to become assisted travel vehicles.

"On some of his buses you can see where he took the stickers off with a hairdryer, they are just the old shuttles used for student transport. I remember asking him why he didn't use his good vehicles for the school runs and I got told that 'we use the shit for the schools because we are only transporting retards anyway, Wollongong doesn't care, my mate George looks after me'", said the whistleblower.

The whistleblower said the standard of some of the vehicles used to transport disabled students was appalling. They claim to have made Les Ross aware of issues with vehicles, only for him to wait until the school holidays to fix them himself. They claim that most major work was done in his backyard at Moorebank. According to the whistleblower major alterations were done by Ross himself and never cleared by the RTA.

The former driver claims to have been told by transport manager, Lyn Ross (wife of Les Ross) not to 'take shit' from parents and to tell them to call her if they had any problems. She said there was a standing agreement with George at the assisted school travel unit that troublesome parents would have their children allocated to another run.

How Capebase can continue to operate under the ASTP and receive glowing reports from Neil Moon is bizarre given this history.

Who is Capebase?

With Capebase Pty Ltd engulfed in scandal surrounding the assisted school travel program, it is appropriate to provide the public (and mainstream media) with information related to the company.

Capebase was formed in February 1991 to provide business services to clients. It started providing a shuttle bus service around Sydney before entering into contracts with the education department for assisted school travel. It's history with the department has been colourful but it appears to be protected by an officer known only to Carenne Gate as George. The organisation has over 25 runs under the assisted school travel program.

The company's directors are Les Ross, a 65 year-old from Moorebank who was raised in the Lithgow area and his wife Lyn, aged 63, raised in Sydney. Mr Ross also directs two other companies - Halsend Pty Ltd and Lcross Pty Ltd.

Capebase has a touring vehicle accreditation from the Ministry of Transport and uses its accredited vehicles for its shuttle bus operation before retiring them to student transport.