The company’s midwest regional sales manager, who served 35 years in the transportation safety industry, helped industries address their transportation safety equipment needs.
Q’STRAINT/Sure-Lok announced the retirement of Bud Fears, the company’s midwest regional sales manager, who served 35 years in the transportation safety industry — assisting school districts, transit properties, and paratransit operators — address their transportation safety equipment needs.
Fears established a reputation as being both an expert and trusted advisor to his expansive client-base throughout the nation. One of his specialties was conducting wheelchair securement training programs both on-site and at conferences at the local, state, and national level. Fears also excelled at determining and communicating to each client the most practical and effective wheelchair securement solution that fit their needs.
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Fears began his prodigious transportation safety career selling roof hatches for transit and school buses. He gained additional pupil transportation safety sales experience for a school stop arm maker.
At Q’STRAINT, Fears represented both the school bus and paratransit segments, playing a vital part in expanding the company’s wheelchair securement market throughout the midwest region by drawing from his 25 years of previous transportation safety product experience.
“Bud always represented the company with the utmost professionalism and integrity,” said Jim Reaume, Q’STRAINT/Sure-Lok, director of national transit sales. “He was also determined to find new ways to help his customers ensure that their students were safe and secure every time they traveled on a school bus.”
The region’s fixed-route system finished out the year with a total of 373.5 million rides. Adding 12.3 million rides over 2024 represents an increase that is equal to the annual transit ridership of Kansas City.
The service is a flexible, reservation-based transit service designed to close the first- and last-mile gaps and connect riders to employment for just $5 per day.
The upgraded system, which went live earlier this month, supports METRO’s METRONow vision to enhance the customer experience, improve service reliability, and strengthen long-term regional mobility.
The agreement provides competitive wages and reflects strong labor-management collaboration, positive working relationships, and a shared commitment to building a world-class transit system for the community, said RTA CEO Lona Edwards Hankins.
The priorities are outlined in the 2026 Board and CEO Initiatives and Action Plan, which serves as a roadmap to guide the agency’s work throughout the year and ensure continued progress and accountability on voter-approved transportation investments and essential mobility services.