By Stephane Babcock
Why some school districts turn and run when the option of leasing is thrown into the discussion
FEAR CAN KEEP YOU FROM DOING ANY NUMBER OF THINGS
THROUGHOUT LIFE, AND FOR MANY SCHOOL DISTRICTS, IT CAN KEEP THEM FROM LEASING THEIR SCHOOL BUSES.
“To be honest, we have found the words ‘finance’ or ‘lease’ to
be non-existent in most of our schools’ vocabularies,” said Rick Harbour, from Truck Sales & Service, Inc., an IC Bus dealer lo- cated in eastern Ohio. “Tey seem to run and hide when they hear these words.” Whether it’s a fear of liability or a fear of what might happen
at the end of a lease, very few school districts take advantage of leasing as an option to keep the newest models on the road. In- stead, the an unintended consequence occurs: the districts wind up extending the lives of their school buses. “We keep our buses until the wheels drop off,” said Cameron
McRae, transportation director for Nye County School District some 200 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
42 School Transportation News Magazine April 2010
What’s to Lose? Aside from obviously not owning the vehicle outright at the end
of the lease, districts vary on their anti-leasing reasoning. But, with new engine model year 2010 buses costing approximately $6,000 to $8,000 more and the rising costs involved with keeping aging fleets on the road, some dealers are surprised by the hesitation. “Putting fresh units in their fleets would help reduce their mainte-
nance costs and help them to save money today rather than waiting for available funding,” said Harbour. “Tey can also make more time- ly purchases of buses to avoid paying for the EPA surcharges.” Of course, there will always be disagreements, particularly due
to differentiating experiences. Tom Simpson, transportation direc- tor for three different school districts in central Iowa, is not a fan of leasing and would rather keep up on bus maintenance schedules. “Often it takes a year or two to work bugs out of new buses,”
said Simpson. “If they are maintained properly, you are turning in buses that are just reaching their most hassle-free and produc- tive part of their life-cycle.”
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