There's no doubt that maintaining and running a school bus fleet is one of the most expensive aspects of school budgeting. It's often the 2nd or 3rd largest line item in many school budgets. Buses are costly to run and maintain but are absolutely required in every district.

This makes it vital that districts do everything they can to keep bus transportation costs low - especially now that the coronavirus is creating new budget strains. Here are a few tips on lowering your fleet costs.

 

School transportation budgets are often tight, and that can make proper school bus fleet development a real challenge. It becomes easy – perhaps unavoidable – to look at fleet development in terms of small ad-hoc changes as budget allows, without much planning for the future.

Of course, those tactics can also backfire over time, particularly if they are holding your district back from realizing much better solutions that would be safer, easier, or more cost-effective. Sometimes, a more major overhaul is needed for long-run improvements.