overall maintenance requirements are, how they handle heat, cold, dirt, dust and the shocks of being on the road.” He said he encourages fleet managers to


work with a vendor that recognizes the value of listening. “Tere are varying comfort levels among fleet directors. Some are very slow adapters and others are on the fore- front, eager for new technology,” Raridon


said. “Often, someone drives a bus for years, the fleet director retires and suddenly they’re anointed as the new director (with a steep learning curve). Finding out their fears involves being willing to listen to what their concerns are.” Clint Bryer, sales manager for Safety


Vision, said options do exist for cash- strapped districts. “If you are operating


inadequate equipment and can’t trust the reliability of your system … we have to start looking for immediate solu- tions,” he said. He touted the company’s Evergreen


heavy duty mobile lifts


Project, a payment plan for retrofitting bus fleets to ease the sting of what oth- erwise could be a one-time expenditure of $750,000 or more for larger districts. “Typically, what we’ve seen is districts take a five-year plan, which works out to about $1 a day. It creates budget predictability down to the penny,” Bryer explained. “In five years,” he noted, “the district could be in the same situation because technology is always changing, and I guarantee it will be more advanced with more features.” He added, “At that time, the district


either owns their equipment or we can come out, replace everything on the bus and maintain those payments or see them go down as technology becomes more affordable.”


We STAND BEHIND Our Product


So You Can STAND SAFELY UNDER Yours >Eco friendly >ALI Certified


>12,000 and 18,000 lb per column capacities >Made in the USA


slec@slec.com | www.slec.com | 1-800-826-3486 44 School Transportation News • AUGUST 2018


Another benefit to payment plans is the potential to draw from other revenue pools beyond the capital expense fund, including operating and maintenance accounts. Reinforcing Carter’s advice, Bryer added, “Cameras can fall under risk management or safety budgets and even the IT department.” Bryer said Safety Vision has also formed an alliance with educational- grantshelp.com, which will research potential grants for school districts. Partial retrofits are another cost- saving possibility. Installing new DVRs to existing cameras provides the latest technology, such as wireless con- nectivity, passive GPS and software that records vehicle speed and movement, Bryer said. Finally, Campbell urged fleet managers to avoid the “it’s-working- for-us-now mindset.” “Tey really don’t see it as worth their time to research (the latest technology) and they think it’s cost prohibitive to do a fleet swap. Tey need to regularly explore options and opportunities to understand what’s available,” he added. “I haven’t met anyone who’s done a fleet swap and regretted it,” he concluded. 


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