School Bus Prospecting

Transportation directors & supervisors sound off
on the costs of operating

Forty-nine months from now, yet another federal engine requirement from the Environmental Protection Agency will kick in. What affect will it have on pupil transportation?

That answer as well many others affecting the industry remains a great unknown. Quantifiable data is slow to trickle in on the recent 2007 engine regs that introduced ultra-low sulfur diesel and dropped the particulate matter emissions to 15 parts per million from the previous level of 300. The EPA says its mandate coming at the start of 2010 will decrease that number to 0.01 parts per million as well as reduce oxides of nitrogen to 0.2.

The possible benefits are obvious, as they target rising incidences nationwide of childhood asthma and basic air quality in communities, namely that around school sites. But what are the real-life cost implications?

It was but one issue addressed in the recent School Transportation News 2007-2008 Director and Supervisor Survey sent to approximately 1,426 magazine subscribers who list themselves with such job titles. A total of 319 replied for a response rate of more than 22 percent with nearly 93 percent of those completing all 11 questions centering on school bus procurement, school district bus operations and the total number of employees in the transportation department.

The survey spoke in generalities and was far from scientific, still its results showed interesting trends.

Down on the Cost Upside
Of those who completed the survey from Aug. 23 through Sept. 24, 292 said they forecasted school bus purchases or leases during the 2007-2008 school year, with 246 indicating those vehicles would specifically be new school bus models. Meanwhile, 174 said the buses would be bought used, and 179 said they would be multi-function school activity buses (MFSABs).

Those surveyed who chose to answer indicated an estimated total of more than 43,800 new purchases this year regardless of vehicle type. In comparison, STN reported OEM production numbers of 47,915 units last year, but not including MFSABs. The survey’s numbers hint at a possible return to pre-2004 production reports.

According to the OEMs earlier this year, new bus prices increased by $6,000 to $8,000 per unit in association with the 2007 diesel engine regs, an issue 290 respondents addressed, with 29 readers skipping the question. When asked if the cost increases affected their decision to pre-buy 2006 vehicle models, 68 percent answered “no,” and 32 percent said “yes.”

Similarly, more than three quarters said the cost increases did not weigh heavily on their mind when purchasing the model-year 2006 buses. But one of those responses from a transportation supervisor at a Ohio district said the decision ended up hurting the bottom line.

“I tried to encourage my board to purchase buses last year to avoid the price increase but was unsuccessful,” she said. “We recently bid for buses, and I was questioned why the bid was so much higher. I tried to tell them.”

More on Costs
Respondents weighed in on the variety of concerns, from increased costs to seat belts to driver retention.

“The rising cost of school buses coupled with the rise in fuel costs have impacted budgets severely,” wrote one reader from Georgia. “It also seems that our student population is spreading out more with new home construction thereby increasing the number of miles driven annually. The impact has been a system that is faced with fiscal restraints in an era of added demand for increased services. [It’s] definitely a challenge.”

While perhaps a pipe dream, a reader from Michigan said costs for school districts might start to come down if prices from the manufacturers followed a more rigid national standard. “You will note the sometimes vast differences in configurations across the country,” he said.

Wrote another reader from Louisiana: “My biggest concern is recruitment of drivers. The legislators (understandably to a point) keep adding requirements of prospective drivers and basically scare these prospects off. Too many hoops for part-time employment.”

“My concern at this point is the monies needed for a person to become a school bus driver with all the requirements necessary and the costs involved,” commented a Pennsylvania reader.

Said yet another from Maine: “I continue to be concerned about our ability to recruit, hire, and retain high quality bus drivers due to our inability to provide affordable health care and/or more hours than our standard routes, 23.75 hours per week.

“The fact that we rely on public funding and strive to operate as efficiently as possible and still maintain the safest form of transportation in the United States is the ‘nature of the beast.’ We continue to be a victim of our success.”

Snapshots of District Operations
The average number of students transported one way each school day from 310 responses was 9,280, with a high of 127,102 as reported by Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia to 2.5 students in contracted one-way special needs service (accounting for one child finding another ride in either the morning or the evening) at Punxstuwaney Public Schools, the home of the famous groundhog “Punxstuwaney Phil.”

The average fleet consisted of 105 Type C and D buses, 45 Type A buses and 4.5 school vans.

Back to contracting for a moment, nearly 39 percent of 301 responses said at least a portion of their service was provided by a private company compared with 61 percent of districts that handled all of its student transportation. The breakdown was all across the board, as several districts reported a one- to 99-percent split in contracted vs. district transportation or vice versa. Another district said 10 percent of its service was contractor supplied specifically for out-of-district special needs. Historically, the industry has prescribed to the figure of 30 percent of the total pupil transportation services being rendered by private for-bid companies.

When it comes to employees, 96 was the average number of school bus drivers employed at the 303 responding school districts. The high number was 1,630 drivers at Dallas County Schools. The number of total mechanics across 294 responding schools was 1,515, with 293 responses giving a figure of 1,942 support staff (many answers included aides in this number) and 299 schools tallying 958 total administrative staff.

Respondents indicated that unionized vs. non-unionized workers was a demographic that is nearly split down the middle. A total of 300 readers answered the question “Is any segment of your transportation department unionized?” Fifty-one percent of the 300 responses said “yes” compared to 49 percent that answered “no.”