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chool buses are built to last for years transport- ing students in a wide variety of operational conditions. But then comes the inevitable time a yellow school bus reaches retirement age. If
you are looking to sell rather than scrap, how do you preserve the value of a school bus to get the best price possible? This process is Dave Mendenhall’s bread and butter, as he has honed the intricacies of pre-owned bus sales and fleet value appraisal. As president and chief executive officer of Bus Solutions, he has spent decades learning the transportation industry inside and out, starting with a college job driving a charter bus. That led to a position at ABC Companies, where he bought, sold, leased and financed pre-owned buses to charter, tour and school bus operators. As he continued to build his expertise in the industry,
the million-dollar question—or in Mendenhall’s case the $180 billion dollar question—from clients and vendors was, “What are pre-owned buses worth when it comes time to sell?” The quest for this answer resulted in the creation of a
blue book to determine the value of used school buses. Mendenhall founded Bus Book Publishing in 1987 (the predecessor company to Bus Solutions) and then “The Official Bus Blue Book.” In 1995, the “Official School Bus Resale Guide” was released and later renamed to the “Official School Bus Blue Book” for the student trans- portation industry, published annually since. Creating an edition involves many hours of research and is described as a publication that provides “wholesale and retail values for nearly all bodies and chassis of used school buses produced in the U.S. and Canada over the last fifteen years.” Over the course of four decades, Mendenhall and his team have valued over 1,025 million buses, totaling $180 billion in opinions of value. “Today, they understand that we’re not just a box to check off in a process of financing or selling your oper- ations, but it’s a prudent, smart way to look at the overall financial picture and health of your company [or opera- tions],” he said. “For most people, their bus fleet is the most asset-intensive thing they have, and so it makes sense to care for it, understand it and preserve the value of it.” Mendenhall explained that this proactive mindset will enable student transportation operators to get the best value for their buses, when it’s time to sell, trade or move them onto the next phase. He noted that it’s a philos- ophy that starts from the beginning of ownership and includes a dedication to regular fleet maintenance. When talking to school districts about their process
of selling school buses and maintaining the value of the fleet, the approach varies in different operations. For in- stance, Mike Bullman, the state director of transportation for the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE),
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said maintaining a 15-year replacement cycle means “we need to replace approximately 375 to 400 buses each year. As a result, we must sell a similar number annually.” Bullman, who’s maintenance team is this month’s magazine cover subject for the Garage Star profiles, noted that fleet maintenance, including tracking of scheduled service and repairs as well as inventory management is run through AssetWorks, an integrated software system. He said that keeping track of this data is crucial as “most customers place a higher value on well-maintained, fleet-serviced vehicles.” Robert Leach, transportation director at Fountain-Fort
Carson School District in Colorado, said he uses Fleet Vision by Tyler Technologies to track parts inventory and costs. He continued that his district has “a general rule of thumb of 15 years of service as a typical life cycle of a school bus. However, we also look at mileage, fuel economy and cost to maintain.” True to the spirit of Garage Stars and the importance
of a strong garage team, Mendenhall said that finding and sticking to a maintenance program is important as well as ensuring that the fleet manager and mainte- nance staff are sufficiently knowledgeable to carry out the program.
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