DESIGNED FOR SAFETY. BUILT FOR COMFORT.
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Through our trusted brands Freedman Seating and Trans/Air, Lippert delivers integrated
solutions that support how school buses are built and how students and caregivers ride.
timely access to service, warranty support and tech- nical assistance when needed. “We also factor in safety technology, parts avail-
ability and total cost of ownership when evaluating replacement versus continued service,” Carlisle noted. While sound planning makes for best results, carrying out replacement plans is dependent on financial realities, noted Scott Latham, director of attendance and transportation at Bristol City Schools in Tennessee. While yearly price increases have long been the norm, dealing with costs has become even more problematic in recent years. “Typically, we purchase new activity buses when
buses come to the end of their 15th year,” he said. “The key to their longevity is preventive mainte- nance and staying on top [of] oil changes, tire wear/ replacement, lights and cleanliness.” Some districts follow a less structured sched-
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ule. That has become the practice at Sand Springs Public Schools in Oklahoma, where it’s not always possible for transportation staff to meet its aim at keeping a school bus for no longer than 10 years. “New buses are obviously great to have, but with the cost of buses more than doubling in the past 10 years, we sometimes have to get creative,” noted Erich Anderson, the district’s director of transpor- tation. He added that diminishing returns play a big factor in deciding when to retire a school bus. “If the cost of repair is going to exceed the value,
Upgrade today’s buses with safer solutions while investing in tomorrow’s new school bus fleet.
then often the decision is easy to make, unless that bus is needed as a spare,” he explained “We play this game of how much will it cost to repair versus is this bus needed as a spare? We often will keep a bus for many years beyond what we probably should because we just don’t have enough spare buses in the fleet to keep up with activity trips.” In some cases, replacement cycles are affected
learn more Scan to
not only by increasing costs but budget constraints due to enrollment shrinkage or other factors. At Indian River Schools in Vero Beach, Florida,
budget restrictions recently caused the transpor- tation department to adjust the bus replacement cycle. Replacements were based on a 10-year or 200,000-mile cycle. Budget challenges changed that to 12-years or 240,000-miles. “This change has increased our repair costs
and decreased our warranty coverage,” said Gary Crumbacker, the district’s service center manager and a 2025 STN Garage Star.
Wisdom in Warranties In addition to following a set schedule, taking
full advantage of warranties can serve as a major pillar of an overall procurement strategy. “When we’re looking at new specs, we aren’t just
28 School Transportation News • APRIL 2026 2026_04 - School Transportation - Half Page -
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