Old Buses Graduate to New Duties
By Jeff Raymond, The Daily Oklahoman
Jul. 28–Aging school buses can’t expect a peaceful retirement.
Mr. Ed’s Auction Co. in Catoosa and similar auctioneers serve as halfway houses for buses on their way to church parking lots and south of the border.
When school districts no longer can keep their buses running without spending too much money to make it worthwhile, they often sell them with sealed bids or contract with an auction house to do it for them. Auctioneers then sell the buses to private schools, day care centers and to distributors who may take them abroad.
At least one district sells them on e-Bay. Others trade up the same way a person trades in a car.
“Very, very occasionally, someone like a farmer might buy one and use one like a portable shed on their farm,” said Janna Wilson, a longtime sales associate at Mr. Ed’s, which receives surplus buses a couple of times a year. “The bulk go to used school bus dealers, and they’ve told us that many units go on to Mexico from there.”
Wilson estimated the auction house sold 50 to 60 school buses a year, and prices vary depending on mileage, age of the engine and model.
Buses typically bring in $500 to $5,000 at auction, depending on the condition and whether engines use unleaded gasoline or diesel fuel. The state Department of Education and Department of Public Safety do not require surplus buses to be inspected. But sellers must inform buyers they are sold “as-is.”
People occasionally vow to turn their bus into a motor home, but Wilson said she had never seen proof anyone had done so.
Tulsa Public Schools uses Mr. Ed’s to auction its buses — typically when they are 7 or 8 years old. The district doesn’t necessarily retire buses in any given year, however. Personnel must examine the fleet and consider the amount of time before money will be available for replacements.
“We also evaluate mileage, overall condition and repair history in reaching a decision to retire a bus,” said Doug Charette, the district’s fleet operations manager.
A new bus, he said, costs approximately $67,000 to $74,000, with more posh “activity buses” costing about $120,000. The Tulsa district has 320 buses.
J. Scot Trower, superintendent of Lowrey School, said when the Tahlequah district two years ago passed bonds to buy two buses, it auctioned one and kept the other as an activity bus.
“We basically drive the wheels off them and buy new ones,” he said.
Such is the case for many small districts; few buses and routes means years pass between auctions or sealed bid sales.
The National Association of Pupil Transportation recommends schools classify their buses as surplus when they are 12 to 15 years old.
Joe R. Gill, executive director of the Oklahoma Schools Advisory Council, said most districts either sold used buses via sealed bids to the highest bidder or included them with other surplus equipment to auction.
“Generally speaking, when school districts accept sealed bids, companies out of Central America — Mexico, Guatemala or Honduras — bid on these buses,” he said. Used buses, he explained, don’t “bring a good value” because of their legal liability.
“If a bus has a physical collapse such as a metal fatigue or malfunction, liability goes back to the seller of the equipment,” he said.
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