£ Ways to Save: A


Napa Valley Unified School District employee (left)


checks tire pressure. Southeast Polk


Community School District (right) has used fuel hedging to its benefit.


“We’re living in tough times right now, and


school districts are going to be forced into more creativity to save costs,” he continued. Noting his experience at the Spencer (Iowa)


school district, which shared a fueling station with the city, Dan Schultz, the current director of transportation for Southeast Polk Community of Schools, said his district was able to save money despite a 5-percent fee attached to maintain the pumps and computers and to pay the personnel to do billing for the different users. “If you do it right, you’ll save money,” he said.


Schultz, the former purchasing head for a


regional airline, puts his extensive experience at price hedging to work when buying fuel in his fast-growing district of more than 6,400 students just east of the state capital. “We’ll hedge sometime — and sometimes we


won’t. I hedged this year and we’ve been benefiting from that,” Schultz explained. “When others are dealing with price fluctuations, I’m not seeing that because I locked in prices last year. If fuel prices go up, I’m going to look like a hero.” He quickly cautioned transportation directors to


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1-800-201-8589 www.americanbusproducts.com 74 School Transportation News March 2013


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