SPECIAL REPORT
ry, repairs, training. If you’ve seen an issue once on a Blue Bird, the next time it comes up, you know exactly what to do. It might take you 10 minutes instead of a half hour.” Ryan Waters, head bus garage technician with the
Lake Shore Central School District in Angola, New York and a 2024 Garage Star, agreed that “standardization” is a foundational best practice. “That helps us the most. If we run the same lights, the same tires on everything, we have to keep less parts in stock,” he explained. Tim Dooley, bus mechanic supervisor at the North Kansas City School District in Missouri, added his district runs all Thomas Built Buses. “It might not always be the cheapest [solution] up front, but standardizing the fleet saves us a lot in the long run, when it comes to stocking parts and training mechanics,” Dooley said. “Keeping one manufacturer simplifies inventory and service. We looked at other brands, but the potential savings didn’t outweigh the added complexity.” Andrew DeBolt, fleet management coordinator with
Californa’s San Jose Unified School District, purchases original equipment manufacturer parts for consistency with service manuals and wear indicators. “Using OEM parts means the wear indicators match the service pro- cedures,” he said. “It keeps everything consistent.” San Jose also operates with an all-Thomas Built Buses fleet, necessitating fewer parts to stock, a simpler diag- nostics process, easier training for mechanics and better pattern-failure predictability. DeBolt, a 2020 Garage Star, said he operates a hybrid
inventory management system that consists of stocking high-use items like tires, mirrors and other common parts while relying on local vendors for just-in-time delivery of infrequent items. He noted the system is streamlined yet responsive to the department’s needs. “When I started, we had parts for buses we hadn’t
owned in 15 years. Now we keep it tight. If we only use it once or twice a year, we don’t stock it,” he said. Proactive maintenance is another must-do, according to the garage experts. “We try to be proactive. If we see it’s close now, let’s
just do it,” DeBolt commented. “Don’t wait until it be- comes a bigger issue.” Dooley said an important aspect of maintenance North Kansas manages is inspecting the brakes every time a bus is in the shop. “I keep a spreadsheet to monitor wear, and once a set drops to 30 percent, we schedule the replace- ment,” he said. “If the bus is already in the shop, we take care of it right then. No sense pulling it twice.” DeBolt applied that strategy to brakes and tires, ac-
knowledging “there is a tradeoff. “If you’re purely focused on trying to get every last penny out of that tire, you would run it down till it was at
20 School Transportation News • AUGUST 2025
its minimum spec and then swap it out at that point, but you run the risk of a collateral issue (such as) a tire coming apart, taking out mud flaps and doing body damage,” he said. “Even if they have 8/32ths of tread left, we say, ‘They’re 10 years old and they’re coming off the bus.’ We sacrifice a little bit of service life on a brake pad or a tire, but we’re saving two weeks of shop time by the time we cut the mangled metal back, weld it and get it undercoated.” San Jose Unified, which buys tires through California’s
state school bus tire program to secure better pricing, opts for recaps on rear axles to stretch tire life and save dollars. But DeBolt noted the COVID-19 pandemic, which kept students at home and buses off the road for an extended period, skewed maintenance cycles and caused some tires to age out before wearing out. “We save 50 percent with recaps, but only if the tire’s being consumed in three or four years. Now we’re see- ing 10-year-old tires,” he said. “All these tires that we had been using for recap on the rear axle, now they’re so old they’re failing. It kind of caught up to us.” Waters’ department in Lake Shore, which maintains 57 buses and another 20 to 30 district vehicles, does use retread tires but does not keep casings longer than five years. When buying new tires, he opts for higher-end Goodyear options that he said improve longevity and cost effectiveness. “Even if you’re buying a tire that’s twice as expensive, if it lasts twice as long it’s less maintenance work for us to do, so it’s worth it in the long run,” he noted. Waters said he initially tried multiple vendors before settling on one that consistently meets the district’s expectations. A requirement to secure at least three bids and the practice of conducting ongoing price checks with competitors maintains accountability. Decision-making is based on best value and service, not just price. “Sometimes paying a little bit more for a part will get us the better service. Value really does figure into it. It’s just not low bid,” he said. While the COVID pandemic didn’t significantly disrupt
tire deliveries, it did cause major price hikes. Those sharp price increases have largely remained in place. While a simmering global trade war has threatened to increase prices on bus parts from other countries, DeBolt said the uncertainty hasn’t influenced his approach to tire pur- chases, prioritizing U.S. manufactured brands. “In the past, we’ve used other brands and had varying
levels of success, but we’ve had the best success with Bridgestones, specifically the Bridgestones made in the U.S. And then Goodyears. Their stuff is all made in the U.S., too. The rubber quality is better. The build quality is better.” Does a commitment to purchase quality parts at a
higher price fall into the best-practices category? Abso- lutely,” DeBolt insisted.
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