Sims in Texas said a strong preventive maintenance
schedule remains critical to reducing enroute break- downs, increasing uptime and extending vehicle life. “Like many districts, staffing challenges can occa-
sionally impact shop capacity when mechanics support route coverage, but maintaining a disciplined PM program continues to be essential,” he said. “When in- spections are delayed, PM-related service calls increase, reinforcing the importance of protecting maintenance time in large fleet operations.”
Collaboration Builds Uptime School bus OEMs continue to boost planned and pre-
ventive maintenance with digital maintenance hardware and software integrated into new buses. They also offer digital maintenance programs that accompany the bus- es, once procured. For example, IC Bus strives to maximize uptime
through predictive insights, proactive execution and seamless digital communication that connects the customer, dealer and IC Bus in real time. The company offers several solutions and maintenance programs to accomplish this. “This includes digital service notifications, repair recommendations and approval of workflows that
ensure issues are addressed early and efficiently,” said Ira Kuenzli, the associate director of service contract product management for International Motors. “While the underlying platforms which enable this are evolving. The philosophy remains the same: Strong execution en- abled through a digitally connected dealer network and direct linkage to the customer. For our predictive repair pilots, we see that customers are experiencing fewer unplanned downtime events, leading to more on-time student transport and less dwell time to address repairs.” IC Bus offers its “proactive service planning” program
with every planned maintenance contract. “This service monitors vehicles as a service event ap-
proaches, works proactively on behalf of the customer to schedule that vehicle at the dealer of the customer’s choice, and works with the dealer to ensure the parts, tools and bay is ready upon arrival of the vehicle,” he said. “This results in a high-quality and efficient maintenance event.” When maintenance is considered an event, it improves
the efficiency of the action and time required to perform the maintenance. “We have performed over 750 planned maintenance
events with more than 200 unique customers,” said- Kuernzil. “Across these events, our network has averaged less than five hours per maintenance event. Proactive
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36 School Transportation News • MAY 2026
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