that perform the overhauls, are enthusiastic advocates of the concept. Tey say it gives buses longer lives, pleases students and parents, cuts costs, and gives school districts flexibility to meet changing needs.
LIKE BRAND NEW Cody Cox said that Bellville Independent School
District in Texas, where he is transportation director, had been spending lots of money purchasing new buses with air conditioning, in a move to cool down its entire fleet. Tat’s especially after the state specifications were updated several years ago to allow the systems. He decided to try and cut costs by retrofitting existing buses instead, doing so with nine buses of the 2004 to 2007 vintage. While the district was at it, it also decided to install new LED lights, new seat covers and new floors, while also giving the buses a new coat of paint and much-needed body work. “Te bus looks brand new—all the bumps, and any dings are coming out of it,” Cox said. “Tey’re basically redoing the whole bus.” Te work was done by family-owned company
Buck’s Wheels, located about a three-hour drive away. Cox said the refurbishment cost about $20,000 per bus, while purchasing a new 77-passenger bus would have cost $105,000. “It’s like we got five buses for the price of one.” Cox added that he plans to replace new buses on their routes with the refurbished buses, run the refurbished buses until they hit 200,000 miles, then turn them into spare vehicles and put the newer buses back on the road. Sandra Laxson is corporate secretary and trea-
surer for Buck’s Wheel & Equipment, which was founded by her grandfather in 1951. She said the desire to install three-point seat belts in response to the state’s new law enacted last year has driven many Texas districts to refurbish, while often giving the bus a larger overhaul at the same time. “Tese are sturdy buses that are well-maintained but just outdated,” she said. “A lot of districts can’t afford a charter bus or band bus, so they take one of their older fleet and paint it white, put the school logo on it … [and] all of a sudden they have a brand new charter bus at an affordable price.”
REFURBISHING FOR FUN & LEARNING Alabama school buses are not allowed to run
routes when they are more than 10 years old. Tat makes refurbishing of little value for regular fleets. But an extravagantly refurbished bus has proved a valuable learning tool for Birmingham
City Schools, and it also shows the possibilities of refurbishment. Shop Foreman Anthony Gary hatched the idea of turning an older bus into a mobile recruiting venue for trade skills programs that teach students to conduct similar work themselves. Inside the bus, professional mechanics show students how to change brakes and other garage skills that could provide a good career for those who drop out of high school or don’t plan to go to college.
Refurbishing costs about $20,000 per bus for
Belleville ISD in Texas, while purchasing a new 77-
passenger bus would cost $105,000
“Tis bus was getting ready to be demolished,” explained Gary. “We changed the inside of it, put in LED lights, a TV and DVD, a sound system, hardwood floors, we lowered it six inches, [and included] a lot of chroming.” Instead of “typical school bus yellow,” as Gary said, the bus is now gold, with tinted windows. “We can’t haul kids, but we go to individual schools and have kids come out to see it, so they can admire the bus and we can talk to them about vocational skills,” he added. “We have a 52-inch screen on the back door, two TV monitors over the driver, amplified 12-inch subs—it beats really hard for them. And we lowered the seats, it’s not high-backed, so they can sit in it and face one another as if in a classroom.” Transportation Director Casey Foster noted that the bus conversion essentially cost the district nothing, as vendors and mechanics donated the materials and time. “A lot of times, transportation is not seen as part of the education process,” he said. “Te mechanics took it a step further, where this is truly an education- al experience.”
FUEL-DRIVEN CONVERSIONS As districts increasingly look to alternative fuels to
save money and decrease emissions, refurbishment may be an option. Agility Fuel Solutions is among the companies that can repower a district’s existing bus fleet to run on propane. Charles Silio, Agility’s vice president of strategy, corporate development and marketing, said districts in North Carolina are “lining up” to make such conversions with funding from the Volkswagen Mitigation Trust Fund—which is an option for many states. “Engines usually don’t last as long as the bus itself,
so you put a new engine in and it can run another 10 years, and the bus body can last forever,” Silio said. “You can do that with a newer diesel engine or what we’re seeing increasingly—take out the old diesel engine, put in a new propane engine and propane tanks.” Meanwhile, XL has been working with school bus contractor Careful Bus in New York City to convert small buses to hybrid electric power with regenerative braking. Tis spring, five such conversions were com- pleted and hit the road for route service.
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