School Bus Fleet, November 2015
48 SCHOOL BUS FLEET NOVEMBER 2015 students the flexibility to mix and match tiers of service can be increased greatly by increasing the percentage of vehicles that are lift equipped This flexibility will also make the utilization of more capacity per bus easier with a mix of buses that includes more that are not full size The downside of course is paying more for a few additional buses to be lift equipped although bus trading among school districts in a sub regional area could minimize these costs and in fact adjustments could be made annually to optimize most districts fleets to accommodate their tier efficiency 6 Finally in addition to the three basic tiers of service we must not forget that transportation is often provided in a early buses to accommodate for example breakfast programs b late buses to accommodate after school activities and sports teams and c buses for preschool and kindergarten which are often only a half day of school typically in either the a m or p m period The positioning of half day kindergarten and preschool programs within the school day can be a handy tool to enable the school system to optimize its use of tiers particularly in those cases where the distances the students must travel serves as a constraint to operating tiers of service in the first place Complexity or simplicity By now the readers head may be swimming from the complexity of achieving what these opportunities tantalizingly suggest Yet at the same time one can see that there are numerous tools and approaches available to make it work and that making it work can save a considerable amount of money As a general rule time spent in planning represents a fraction of the cost savings at the operating level especially since every solution will be used roughly 180 times a year One thing that must obviously change and that also causes a considerable number of incidents and accidents as well as several weeks of chaos at the beginning of the school year is the practice that many school districts employ by beginning service each fall with the same routes as they ended the previous years service with and making often radical adjustments to them during what is commonly referred to as a shake out period Koro TransTM ProductsProfusion Industries3875 Embassy Parkway Fairlawn OH 44333Tel 800 939 2858 Fax 330 668 7705Download FREE Step Tread Replacement VideoImprove Safety in Your Fleet Replace with PebbleTreadTM Eliminate Safety HazardsProfusion products last the life of the busScan to View VideoOr visit Profusionblog comMade in USAMade in USAMade in USA TRANSPORTATION TIERS Optimum efficiency must be achieved by making adjustments for example not using some buses for all three tiers
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