Where is everyone #5

Thought of you the other day. Few school dist away from me now have shinny aluminum wheels on the buses.

I recall doing PDIs on buses 99,00 with daytons. Districts still bought them simply because under state bid still cheaper. Bunch of dealers got together and got daytons and standard seat value increased. Forced them to get uni mounts and air ride drivers seat. As they claim a school district cares about child safety, yet shows there is a price tag on safety. School owned buses are bought strictly on the bottom line. Yet I know a handful are deleted in my district.

Interviewed for superintendent at a dist east of me sometime back. Guy retiring said I was his pick for candidate. He came out of retirement to save them after a local guy was sent up the river for theft from them. 3-400 grand of theft. Fundled parts into his family truck repair shop. Superintendent's brother inlaw with no experience got the job.

 

Oh baby that's nice one. Can't tell from the pic how many points?

We had 3-4 slammers last year and my dad saw one a few days ago he thought was a 10. Doubt it will last, i have an idiot neighbor about 1/3 mile down the hill who will probably take it out of season like a scumbag. Almost all the nice bucks he has mounted on his wall weren't exactly legal. If he didn't have apple trees around his house he probably would never got a single deer.

 

In a bus chassis they are easy to work on. Basically a 3800 but they have a dog house as well.
We have 1 with a cummins ISB. Still has a dog house and its not needed. Room enough for your lawn chair, lunch kit and beach umbrella when your working on it.

 

It didn’t go, I ended up buying a used trailer in Missouri to run for a while instead of borrowing one from a friend in FL.

 

Now a griddle like that is what i need.

 

It is a chronic low bid business and it shouldn't be. Our contracts have had 1 raise since 2009. It was 1% in 2015.
If me and the misses didn't do everything from accounting to wrenches we would be in trouble. We have some steller runs because we run a tight ship.
Compared to board owned fleets most contracted operations are way cheaper, at least up here. Average mechanic wage is 40-50/ hour.
Big turmoil is happening now. Our goberment de regulated insurance, rates have skyrocketed. Usesd to be 730$ a year per bus. Last year was 4300$, this year its 6523$. Insurance companies won't even look at small 1-2 bus operations, so the rural farmer mom and pops are done.
I see a lot of sketchy stuff lately. Here is a pic of a route bus of another contractor. Just passed a cvip (our dot inspection). No friggan way I'd pass it. I'm a licensed inspector. Drive tires also are to the wear bars. Minimum to pass a cvip is 3 mm on drives.

 

No private entities around me. But you would never see a bus look like that. Now the paint might not match, but its painted. Lucky if the top mechanic is 25 per hour. If that.

 

I'm in a public environment. Coming from you with that title. I'm gonna wait till later to open that.