Sackett added that Easy Way learned about across-the-board price increases at the end of De- cember for the current year. But that conflicts with the fiscal calendar of schools.
“Schools really can’t allocate and
budget for that until July 1,” said Sackett. “Unless you have a con- tract that says you are going to sell something at a certain price for their calendar year, you’re still able to raise your price. So, I will say it has been affected on long-term bids. A lot of schools used to like three-year bids because they could lock in their pricing. I do not know anybody who is really doing that anymore because the pricing is so all over the place, that for you to commit to a school district for three years, I do not think you can economically do it. You’d probably just bail out of the contract if your prices increase too much.” Sue Weaver, the president and
Supply chain issues have affected longer term plans for many purchases, including bigger things such as electric school buses. But the worst could be behind us as STN wrote in an earlier blog. The industry may be nearing an inflection point and things could be taking a turn for the better. But hold on to your seats. There’s still trepidation (though it is mixed with optimism) about inflation and material availability from the supply chains that school bus fleet managers and manufacturers rely on. In an earnings report late last year, Blue Bird CEO Matt Stevenson stated that Blue Bird’s
business, in parallel to the automotive and commercial vehicle sectors, faces ongoing sup- ply chain problems; suppliers continue to have trouble keeping up with demand. “Our Tier 1 suppliers face challenges, including a shortage of labor, COVID outbreaks, a
scarcity of raw materials, semiconductor shortages and other impacts from their Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers,” he stated during a 2021 fourth-quarter and fiscal-year earnings conference call on Dec. 16. Stevenson also specified that the unavailability of parts slowed production down and
even resulted in down days in bus production. “In many instances, we are missing over 25 parts per bus in our production,” he said. “These supplier disruptions dramatically slowed down our production and caused us to take numerous unexpected down days. It also drove decreased efficiencies and productivities in our manufacturing operations. In addition to the supply chain disruptions, we saw the inflationary pressure everyone has seen in labor, raw materials and minor or major components.”
Read STN Publisher Tony Corpin’s 2022 Buyers Guide column “Inflection Point” at
stnonline.com/go/az.
www.stnonline.com 21
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