Bad news for us trying to buy a bus.

[Gorzie]

My wife is a teacher in Missouri and she had been talking to the transportation director off and on for the last 6 months or so. He said they were going to replace some nice busses the summer of 2019 or 2020 and he would let us know when. This week my wife said he had bad news for us. As a condition of the sale of the new he was told they had to crush the old ones that were being replaced. Has anyone ever heard of this before? The new busses are Mercedes. I am not sure if that is just engine or manufacturer.

This made me sad and mad at the same time. The director said he was bummed too as they were good running busses. I was hoping to have a bus this summer to start converting. Guess not now

Perplexed,
Michael

[Mark_In_MA]

It depends on where the funding for the new buses is coming from.

There are some environmental grants that specify that the old vehicles need to be crushed/removed from service as a condition of getting the money to buy a new bus. The idea is that the older, more polluting engine is being directly replaced by the newer, cleaner-burning one. Therefore, it would defeat the purpose if the old one was sold to someone else to keep running/polluting.

To the school district, the $3,000 or so they'd get for a used bus is nothing compared to the cost of a new one.

It's not one of my favorite means of reducing pollution.

[Gorzie]

Ahhhhhh I did not think of the cash for clunkers angle.