Our History

Where it began

One bus, and the man who drove it

Francis Levett founded Independent Coach Corporation in 1941 with a single bus, which he drove and maintained himself. From there, the company grew steadily.

Independent Coach’s first client was Lawrence Public Schools. Eighty-five years later, that relationship continues—making it the longest-standing client relationship in the company’s history.

Eighty-five years

1941

Independent Coach begins

Francis Levett establishes and incorporates Independent Coach Corporation, with a single bus that he drives and maintains himself. Lawrence Public Schools becomes the first client.

Independent Coach in its first years.
1955

Kayo joins the company

Nicholas “Kayo” Fabrizio is hired as a bus driver and mechanic. He grew up in Inwood, a few streets from the yard.

Nicholas Fabrizio in his early years at the company.
The 1970s

A second yard, in Hewlett

Independent Coach buys a second bus yard, in Hewlett. The Inwood yard, the original one, stays. The company still runs from both.

The Hewlett yard.
1973

General Manager

Kayo becomes general manager, eighteen years after arriving as a driver and mechanic. He keeps arriving at six in the morning.
1999

A new chapter in family ownership

In 1999, Nicholas “Kayo” Fabrizio and his four children purchased Independent Coach from the estate of founder Francis Levett. After 58 years, the company changed hands for the first time—beginning a new chapter of family ownership.
Today

Eighty-five years on Long Island

Independent Coach is still family-owned, still working from Inwood and Hewlett, and still carrying children to school across the south-west corner of Nassau County.

Select a year to read more

Nicholas “Kayo” Fabrizio

A life dedicated to Independent Coach

Nicholas Fabrizio came to Independent Coach in 1955, hired to drive buses and work on them. His family called him Kayo. He had grown up in Inwood, just a few streets from the yard, and for the next eighteen years he learned the business alongside Francis Levett—from the ground up, one vehicle and one route at a time.

Becoming general manager in 1973 changed his title and very little else. He was at the yard by six in the morning. He spent his days alongside the drivers and mechanics, and he knew the drivers by name—not most of them, all of them. He continued driving buses himself long after there was any need for him to.

That was not a management style he had read about. He had done both jobs. He knew what a driver’s morning actually involved, what it cost to keep a bus on the road, and the people in the yard knew that he understood their work.

School bus work is often done alone: one driver, one route, one group of children, early in the morning and, for part of the year, before daylight. What holds an operation like that together is knowing the company will stand behind the people doing the work. For decades, Independent Coach was led by someone who was in the yard at six o’clock alongside them. That is more than a detail of the company’s history. It helped shape the way Independent Coach operates today. In loving memory of Nicholas “Kayo” Fabrizio. His legacy will forever remain a part of Independent Coach.

Family ownership

A new chapter, in 1999

When Francis Levett’s estate sold Independent Coach in 1999, Nicholas “Kayo” Fabrizio purchased the company with his four children. By then, Kayo had spent 44 years with Independent Coach and had led the company as general manager for 26 years.

That distinction is an important part of the company’s story. Independent Coach was not simply passed down through its founding family. Its next owner was a man who had arrived as an employee, learned the business from the ground up, and eventually purchased it with the children who had grown up around the company. Today, a third generation is helping carry that legacy forward.

Family ownership has shaped more than who owns Independent Coach. It has influenced how the company operates: with long-term relationships, familiarity with the people behind the work, and a belief that employees should be treated fairly and with respect. Those principles have carried across generations as the company has grown.

In the community, for the community, since 1941.

From the archive