P
Leonard Bus Sales Customer Support Facility in Saratoga Springs, New York
roper and timely main- tenance is imperative to the overall safety of a school bus. While
many school districts have an in-house maintenance team, they often turn to dealer service centers for more special- ized repairs, such as warranty work or when the demands of a particular job go beyond the district’s resources. Rick Eckert, general manager at A-Z
Bus Sales, a Blue Bird and Collins Bus dealer serving California and Hawaii, says smaller school districts sometimes seek out dealer service centers because of limited resources. “Most school districts have their own
service facility and they have anywhere from two to six techs on staff. Some of them are very capable, they do complete engine replacement, they do their own brake work, rebuilding, fabricating, welding,” he said. “Ten you have some of the smaller guys that really don’t have the full capabilities. We see them come in really for items that they can’t figure out. Sometimes they don’t have the skill set for it or they don’t have enough pow- er to keep up with the demand.” Eckert also noted that smaller contractors without their own ser- vice facilities could opt to use dealer service centers for maintenance and repair jobs. Larger contractors, meanwhile, can sometimes serve as service centers to generate extra revenue, according to Frank Gazeley, vice president of client relations at Transfinder. “Many contractors are like service centers. Often they will service other customers, working on other vehicles besides school buses in order to keep their maintenance crews busy and generate additional revenue. Often, larger school dis- tricts will provide service to smaller
districts that do not have the resources for a maintenance center. Tese are just a sample of the types of clients we have using Servicefinder,” he said, referring to the company’s maintenance manage- ment software.
WARRANTY WORK Many school districts, both large and small, use dealer service centers during the warranty period of a school bus pur- chase. School bus OEMs offer different warranty programs, with some of these lasting a certain length of time after a school bus is delivered to a customer, and others for a certain amount of mile- age, often whichever comes first. Other warranty programs often cover specific parts or services. For example, Tomas Built Buses recently announced it would be offering extended coverage on select- ed Allison Transmission products for a total of seven years. Eckert said jobs that are covered under warranty are some of the most common at A-Z Bus Sales, as clients like to take advantage of their program benefits. Sonny Merryman, a Tomas Built Buses dealer in Virginia, offers options
Technicians at the A-Z Bus Sales service center in California.
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