First Student Bus Sales

[BusFiend]

Hi guys!

First Student has hundreds of buses for sale, all across the country. Below is the link to their sales page. Prices are not listed. That probably means they want a lot for them. Anyone with any experience buying a rig from First Student or other large contract carriers?


First Bus Sales | Used Bus Inventory

[EastCoastCB]

I've heard they run em hard and put em away wet.

[BusFiend]

I figured that would be the case. I suppose the best deals come directly from individual school districts, assuming they have a reasonable maintenance staff.

[Scooternj]

Originally Posted by BusFiend

I figured that would be the case. I suppose the best deals come directly from individual school districts, assuming they have a reasonable maintenance staff.

Govdeals.com and PublicSurplus.Com are the preferred auction sites; that being said, you can also talk to your local bus barn, and see what's being retired.

[milkmania]

Don't forget Craigslist....

[jake_blue]

I think others have had the same notion, and the consensus is First Student, Durham, Miller and the like aren't going to be the best deals and not going to offer the most reliability for your money. They are for-profit school transportation contractors so every mile they can squeeze out of a unit is another dollar before they have to replace it. As long as it keeps passing annual inspection they can run it even if it's listed as being for sale and only care to unload it because the cost-benefit analysis says that its costing more in maintenance than the price of financing on a new one.

[cadillackid]

our local school system here.. the main one in the city.. dumped first student a few years ago due to safety and maintenance concerns with the busses... they went out and bought 300+ Brand new IC busses at once.....

in my opinion if a school district is gonna spend 20-30 million all at once on new busses then first student mustve been pretty bad..

-Christopher

[WIbluebird]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

our local school system here.. the main one in the city.. dumped first student a few years ago due to safety and maintenance concerns with the busses... they went out and bought 300+ Brand new IC busses at once.....

in my opinion if a school district is gonna spend 20-30 million all at once on new busses then first student mustve been pretty bad..

-Christopher

Bus driver here, I've never worked for First Student but I work with several people that were drivers/dispatchers/managers/mechanics for them.

One thing you have to understand with First Student is that their quality of service can vary wildly from district to district. If it's a big contract with a wealthy district, they will get new(er) buses and decent support staff. If it's a small district in the middle of nowhere, they'll get away with running old junky buses and safety and management are usually not the top priorities.

First Student is a global corporation that is very much run by the bean counters. They spec buses with only the absolute bare minimum required options and their driver pay is usually low compared to other companies.

First Student has been on the decline in Wisconsin. A few years ago, corporate management decided to let the contracts expire on most of their smaller school districts and focus only on the very largest ones in the big cities. This strategy has had mixed results, mainly due to the massive driver shortage but their aggressive cost-cutting has also been a big reason as well.

FS was huge in my area years ago, at one point they serviced dozens of districts in the southern Wisconsin region. Now there's 3 terminals left and 2 of those are going up for bid sometime this year.

[cadillackid]

like I say they got booted out of columbus ohio... they were running over 300 Busses here... the busses were definitely old and beat up... im not sure how some ofthem got DOT stickers as ohio is a pretty tight state when it comes to that... unless some under-the-table pencil whipping was done... but it mustve been expensive and bad service for a district to ditch em and order a bunch of new busses all at once... columbus Ohio is a decent size city but not a rich district...

all the new busses in columbus are SPEC'd tinted windows, white roofs , full compliment of heaters, fan vented roof hatches and all have or are getting cameras installed.. the city Buys A/C on any handicap / wheelchair busses.. and any special program busses (MRDD, disability, etc)... as these are run year round including summer.. some other select busses have A/C.. my guess is team / band / choir / orchestra busses also get the A/C..

-Christopher

[PNW_Steve]

Here are some price quotes from FS:

Bus# - Price
924266 - $2500.00
227053 - $3500.00
922575 - $3500.00
220511 - $3500.00

I have not checked to see if these are still on their site.

[BusFiend]

Thanks, Steve! I wish we could tell more about the condition of their buses from the listings. Pictures are too few and undetailed. The listings are undetailed. One might think they're hiding the details on purpose or over-pricing their buses. I can't make many 400-500-mile road trips simply to inspect a bus. Perhaps there are better sources of used buses?

[PNW_Steve]

Originally Posted by BusFiend

Thanks, Steve! I wish we could tell more about the condition of their buses from the listings. Pictures are too few and undetailed. The listings are undetailed. One might think they're hiding the details on purpose or over-pricing their buses. I can't make many 400-500-mile road trips simply to inspect a bus. Perhaps there are better sources of used buses?

I was on PublicSurplus and saw a couple of busses from a local school district. I called and the folks at the bus barn were extremely friendly and accommodating. I bid on one of the busses and thought that I had it and stepped away to the little bus drivers room and someone outbid me in the last 10 seconds.

I didn't get the bus but I did learn that my local bus barns are the first place I will look in the future. Unfortunately for me, there are no longer any Crown's in my area

Call your local school districts and get in touch with their bus maintenance folks and ask when, where & how they dispose of their busses.

I am shopping for a bus for my sister as well. The local district has one coming up that the maintenance guys told me is a solid ride so I am waiting for that auction to come up. 30 minute drive to inspect.

Something else to consider, First Students has busses all over the country. The list that they sent me has busses in numerous states. They may have some close to you.

[Dapplecreek]

Originally Posted by PNW_Steve

... someone outbid me in the last 10 seconds....

Does PublicSurplus.com have a hidden maximum bid feature, or is there an automated sniping service one can use on that site? My local district (great folks and what look like really good buses) uses them and I don't want to lose in a similar situation.

[EastCoastCB]

Pretty impossible to snipe. It has bid extensions.
I bid what I'm willing to pay early and anyone that wants it can pay more than I'm willing to pay. Simple.

[Elliot Naess]

Recently, I inquired with First Student about two or three buses on their website.
Long story short... I found FS clearly not interested in selling me a bus.

As I understand it, most of their buses are bought by wholesalers who buy a whole bunch at the time and take them to Mexico and also further south.
So a one-bus-a-decade-or-two customer isn't worth their time.

I don't blame them for this. It is a simple business decision.

Also, I have found that FS seldom updates their website listings.

[WIbluebird]

Originally Posted by Elliot Naess

Recently, I inquired with First Student about two or three buses on their website.
Long story short... I found FS clearly not interested in selling me a bus.

As I understand it, most of their buses are bought by wholesalers who buy a whole bunch at the time and take them to Mexico and also further south.
So a one-bus-a-decade-or-two customer isn't worth their time.

I don't blame them for this. It is a simple business decision.

Also, I have found that FS seldom updates their website listings.

I think individual FS terminals sometimes sell buses locally. I found a few First Student buses on Minneapolis Craigslist for example.

2002 FREIGHTLINER THOMAS SCHOOL BUS

2003 THOMAS SCHOOL BUS

2003 FREIGHTLINER SCHOOL BUS

[cadillackid]

you can easily write a program to auto-bid .. but moist of the auction have a 5 minute bidding window... it will keep extending the auction end time by 5 minutes as long as someone bids within that window of time.. so everyone has 5 minutes.. i think its a great feature.. I wish FleaBay would go to the same methids.. ive been sniped so much on there it isnt funny..

but not all govedeals auction will extend.. some DONT have the message 'auction may extend'.. those auctions you can be sniped on..

-Christopher

[PNW_Steve]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

Pretty impossible to snipe. It has bid extensions.
I bid what I'm willing to pay early and anyone that wants it can pay more than I'm willing to pay. Simple.

I do agree.

You can't really "snipe" on this site because any bid in the final moments does extend the auction by a few minutes to give competing bidders a chance to drive the price up at the end.

Proxy bid is my favorite. Bid once and you are done. On this one there was some change of mind as to what the max bid should be so there was bidding at the last moment.

[WIbluebird]

Any opinions on this batch of 1999 - 2001 Bluebird buses? They all have the T444E motor and the Spicer 2500 manual trans. Is the Spicer an overdrive unit or otherwise geared for highway driving? Seller mentions that the buses are currently governed at 55 mph.

Public Surplus: Auction #1644069

[EastCoastCB]

I put in a serious bid on one of those last time they were listed. Looks like someone was jacking around and wanted to "bus block" me.