School Bus Manufacturing Companies
In June 2011, another school bus manufacturer was added to the mix: Lion Bus of Saint-Jérôme, Quebec was formed in partnership with Spartan Chassis, a division of Spartan Motors. The two companies executed a supply ...
School Bus Manufacturing Companies
News Videos Video Details School bus Images Related Links Twitter BBC Results Shopping DNA India 2012-10-17: Maharashtra School Bus Owners Association, who wanted to stay the state notification issued in June on safety measures to be adopted by bus owners, failed to get interim relief from the Bombay high court on Tuesday. Posting the matter for final hearing, a division bench of justices DY Chandrachud...
1973 oil crisis Alabama Albert L. Luce AmTran Arkansas Automotive lighting baby boom generation Badge engineering Birmingham, England Blue Bird Mini Bird Blue Bird TC/2000 Blue Bird Vision brand bus California Canada car accident Carbon County, Utah Collins Bus Collins Industries Columbia University Conway, Arkansas Corbeil Buses crossing guard Crown Coach CSX Transportation Cummins ISL demolition derby drawstring ergonomics figure 8 racing First Student First Student UK fleet management Florida Ford Ford E-Series Frank W.
Randy Pettapiece, MPP Perth-Wellington, spoke on February 27, 2012 in the Ontario Legislature blasting the McGuinty government for their failed school bus RFP process: Today we welcome the Ontario Independent School Bus Operators Association. They're here because the McGuinty government's RFP policy still threatens the livelihoods of school bus operators in Perth--Wellington and across Ontario. They are small business owners, they drive children to school, and they drive our local economy. In good faith, they have negotiated contracts with school boards under a process that has worked. What doesn't work is the McGuinty government's RFP process. Their policy ignores independent operators' many years of cost-effective service, and it ignores what's most important: their long history of transporting children safely. That's what John Chapman and his company have done, and that's what Sandi Ahrens and her company have done. They employ local people. Their drivers know our communities. They know the children that they drive to school and back each day. The RFP moratorium expired December 31, and now independent school bus operators are left in limbo. Twice I have written the Minister of Education on this issue. More than two months after sending my first letter, I have yet to see a response. The minister has run out of excuses. We call on her to stop hiding the task force recommendations from the public. We call on her to fix her failed policy. Press release: pettapiece.ca ... 2:
New Jersey School Bus Owners Association President Tim Wallace outlines the inspections and regulations in place to ensure safety. 1:
Firetrace systems offer bus and coach owners, operators and manufactureres a unique approach to fire protection of many of the fire prone areas of these vehicles. Firetrace systems detect fire using the proprietary Firetrace Detection Tubing. This heat sensitive polymer tubing is pressurized and reacts to the heat and radiant energy of a fire by bursting, thus activating the fire suppression system. Firetrace Detection Tubing is ideal for fire detection in buses as it tolerates the vibration, dirt, temperature extremes of the environments in which the buses operate. Also, as Firetrace systems are pneumatically operated, they require no power from the vehicle to operate and do not place additional strain on the vehicle's electrical system. www.firetrace.com 1:
Here's something I decided to uploaded. This is the instrumental version of the Magic School Bus theme song. You can hear this on any of the DVDs Warner Bros released. Enjoy! Everything is copyrighted to their rightful owners 1:39 300 MPH School Bus!!!!
www.indyboysinc.com Jet School Bus? School Time was never like this when I was a kid! Watch Paul Stender's 361 MPH Jet Powered School Bus racing to beat the morning bell... "LIKE" Indy Boys Inc. on Facebook http 0:06 ST. TAMMANY SCHOOL BUS DRIVER NO.
What an unsafe blatant running of a stop sign with a bus FULL of children! Local law enforcement tells me that they want to take care of this situation. They don't want me taking videos while I am driving. It is unsafe they say. It is not unsafe and it is perfectly legal. I see local police on their cell phones all the time. I point my small camera in the general direction of a bus as it approaches an intersection and I hope for the best. I keep my eyes on the road in front of me at all times and I DO NOT look at the view window on the back of the camera. This is all done by feel. Think about this; here is a police officer pointing a radar gun at local citizens as they travel through a school zone yet a few minutes later these same officers watch local school bus drivers running stop signs, stop lights and intersections and they look the other way. I would call that corruption, because it lacks integrity and ignoring this negative and unsafe behavior masks the truth. If law enforcement wants to take care of this situation then start giving some of these unsafe bus drivers warnings and/ or tickets. In the mean time I will continue to tape these folks, because they are being unsafe with a load of children on board. I have seen via YOUTUBE that other state law enforcement agencies are pulling school buses over. Let's get moving men. Mr. Donald Caserta who is the investigator (STPB Transportation) spoke with me via phone conversation recently and he told me that his school ... 1:
the owners of the bus came to Boo's birthday party and gave all the kids rides . The bus is taken to monster truck shows and they give rides around the burms . I think if you look close you will see there web sight on the rear bumper . 1:
1991 Thomas Pusher (1156) 5.9L Cummins Diesel Allison Automatic Air Brakes 78 passenger (13 rows) Very well maintained. Ready to work. This bus hauled kids all of last year for an after school program in Florida. The owners have moved onto a newer bus, and no longer need this one. Ready to work today. 3:
Another St. Tammany school bus driver runs a stop light. What an unsafe blatant running of a stop light with a bus FULL of children! Local law enforcement tells me that they want to take care of this situation. They don't want me taking videos while I am driving. It is unsafe they say. It is not unsafe and it is perfectly legal. I see local police on their cell phones all the time. I point my small camera in the general direction of a bus as it approaches an intersection and I hope for the best. I keep my eyes on the road in front of me at all times and I DO NOT look at the view window on the back of the camera. This is all done by feel. Think about this; here is a police officer pointing a radar gun at local citizens as they travel through a school zone yet a few minutes later these same officers watch local school bus drivers running stop signs, stop lights and intersections and they look the other way. I would call that corruption, because it lacks integrity and ignoring this negative and unsafe behavior masks the truth. If law enforcement wants to take care of this situation then start giving some of these unsafe bus drivers warnings and/ or tickets. In the mean time I will continue to tape these folks, because they are being unsafe with a load of children on board. I have seen via YOUTUBE that other state law enforcement agencies are pulling school buses over. Let's get moving men. Mr. Donald Caserta who is the investigator (STPB Transportation) spoke with me via ... 1:
PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: I do NOT own ANY part of this video AT ALL. I am only uploading it for people who, like myself, enjoy the show. PLEASE DO NOT DELETE THIS VIDEO. ALL RIGHTS / CREDITS AND CONTENTS ARE OWNED BY THE SCHOLASTIC COMPANY AND THE ORIGINAL OWNERS. I Do NOT own this. remove add to playlist show more results video results for:
photo: WN / Aruna Mirasdar photo: photo: WN / Marzena J. photo: photo: WN / Aruna Mirasdar photo: photo: WN/Rajkumar Senapati photo: photo: WN / Aruna Mirasdar photo: photo: Public Domain / IFCAR photo: photo: WN / Bhaskar Mallick photo: photo: WN / Aruna Mirasdar photo: photo: WN / Aruna Mirasdar photo: photo: WN / Aruna Mirasdar « » Transport department to ensure safety of schoolchildrenThe Times of India2012-10-11 16-year-old pushed off bus, crushed under wheelsThe Times of India2012-10-17 School bus fares go up 10%-15%The Times of India2012-10-21 School bus plunges from I-37 downtownSan Francisco Chronicle2012-10-05 Guilty plea over bus stop dog attackNZ Herald2012-10-11 Schoolboy thrown off bus, crushed to death A STAFF REPORTER A 14-year-old boy returning home ...The Telegraph India2012-10-18 LBS South closes deal to become new distributor for IC Bus(tm)
Herald Tribune MANATEE COUNTY - With Manatee County workers set to get a 3 percent raise, angry school bus drivers lobbied the School Board on Monday night demanding to know why they are not getting a similar pay hike. Bus drivers, who are among the lowest paid of the district's 5,000 employees, said they had not received a raise for more than four years and that changes in operations had...
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Linda Witherspoon was inside her West End house Friday morning, getting her two grandchildren ready for school, when "all hell broke loose," she said. A tractor-trailer -- with the phrase "Jesus is the road" written in white on the front of the red cab -- was barreling toward her McKnight Street home. "He was going so fast, he had to be going 100 miles an hour, but he was...
MSNBC The state Transportation Department will require the driver of a large truck that brought down a popular pedestrian bridge Tuesday in Aiea to pay for repairs. DOT spokeswoman Caroline Sluyter said Wednesday estimates are still preliminary, but it's believed repairing the bridge could cost $200,000 to $300,000. She said the driver of the dump truck, Don Tibbitts, did not have a...
Newsday (AP) -- A school bus carrying 40 children in Southern California has been knocked on its side in a crash that has injured 13 children and the bus driver. San Bernardino County fire spokeswoman Tracey Martinez says two of the children have "serious but non-life threatening" injuries. They were taken to Loma Linda University Medical Center. The rest of the injured passengers were...
Newstrack India Tweet New Delhi, Oct 18 (IANS) Two juveniles were apprehend for murdering a bus conductor after the victim attempted unnatural sex with them, police here said Thursday. "The juveniles were apprehended from Janakpuri area of west Delhi Thursday and produced before the Juvenile Justice Board that later sent them to observation home," said a senior police officer....
CBC Ottawa-area businesses are losing money after some teachers stopped leading extra-curricular activities, including field trips, as well as sports teams. School bus companies are taking the hit because, besides transporting students to and from school, the day-trips have disappeared after teachers responded to a provincial...
Business Journal James Fink Buffalo Business First Reporter- Business First Email When it comes to tour buses, Doug Switzer has heard all of the perceptions - or, more accurately misperceptions. The tour bus world of today is far different from decades ago when many, perhaps falsely, assumed it was filled with nothing more than gray- and blue-haired retirees looking for inexpensive vacations...
Newsday (AP) -- New York City says it will add three high speed bus routes to LaGuardia Airport from Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens starting next year. City and transit officials announced the new Select Bus Service routes on Thursday. The faster service will have dedicated travel lanes and curbside payment. Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the new service will cut travel time for people...
A school bus is a type of bus designed and manufactured for student transport: carrying children to and from school and school events. The first school bus was horse-drawn, introduced in 1827 by George Shillibeer for Newington Academy for Girls, a Quaker school in Stoke Newington, north-east of London (UK), and was designed to carry 25 children.
The primary vehicle used for student transport in North America, school buses are distinguished from other types of buses by design characteristics necessitated by federal and state/provincial regulations. Federal safety standards require school buses to be painted school bus yellow and equipped with specific warning and safety devices. This service is almost always provided without charge to families. In other parts of the world, the term "school bus" refers more to the destination of the bus and its student passengers than the specific vehicle designed for that purpose; the vehicles used for student transport are more closely related to other types of buses than their North American counterparts.
In the United States, school buses provide an estimated 10 billion student trips every year. Every school day, over 480,000 school buses transport 26 million children to and from schools and school-related activities; over half of the country's student population is transported by school bus. School buses are leased or purchased by school districts, while other school districts use school bus contractors to transport students. In the United States, approximately 40% of school districts use contractors to handle student transportation; in Canada, they are used almost universally.
Wayne Works, predecessor of Wayne Corporation, was founded in the United States in 1837. By the mid-1880s, it is known that the company manufactured horse-drawn school carriages colloquially referred to as "school hacks", "school cars", "school trucks", or "kid hacks". ("hack" was a term for certain types of horse-drawn carriages.)
Initial "horseless" school buses retained the rear entry of the kid hacks (a feature designed as to not startle the horses when loading or unloading passengers). Inside, many kid hacks and early school buses had perimeter seating with benches mounted to the outside walls of the vehicle. Early school buses served predominately rural areas where it was deemed impractical for students to walk the distances necessary to get back and forth from school on their own. Like the kid hacks, they were essentially no more than a truck with a tarpaulin stretched over the truck bed.
Wayne Works was one of the first manufacturers to offer glass windows in place of roll-up canvas curtains in the passenger compartment in the early 1920s, although Gillig Bros had invented and patented the design long before. Known as the "California top", Gillig's design featured a slightly curved reinforced metal roof, with windows separated by pillars at regular intervals, and each window was adjustable by the use of a latching mechanism. Other manufacturers continued using curtains until the 1930s. Wayne began manufacturing its first model of all-steel body school buses in 1930. Crown Coach followed in 1932 with its steel-bodied transit-style Crown Supercoach. The Supercoach was the highest-capacity school bus at the time, seating 76 passengers.
The 1930s were a decade where the school bus evolved from an adaptation of existing vehicles (wagons, carriages, trucks) into a vehicle type of its own. The "California top" introduced by Gillig was quickly adopted industry-wide. As it was becoming popular in other places in the automotive industry, all-metal body construction became featured by manufacturers as the decade progressed.
The custom-built nature of school buses created an obstacle to their profitable mass production on a large scale. Although school buses had begun to evolve from wagons, there was not yet an agreed upon set of industry-wide standards for school buses. A 1939 conference at Teachers College, Columbia University organized by rural education expert Dr. Frank W. Cyr forever changed the design and production of school buses; it was attended by transportation officials, representatives from body and chassis manufacturers, and paint companies. The conference resulted in a set of 44 standards adopted by all manufacturers (interior dimensions, seating configuration). Many of those standards allowed for consistency among body manufacturers, reducing the complexity of production as well as the price of their products; large-scale production was now possible.
Other standards at Dr. Cyr's 1939 conference also applied to improving school bus safety. The most recognizable standard was the development of school bus yellow as a standardized school bus color; the attendees considered yellow the easiest to see in dawn and dusk, and it contrasted well with black lettering. Yellow is now the shade associated with school buses worldwide; officially it is known as National School Bus Glossy Yellow in the United States, and Chrome Yellow in some parts of Canada. Although it is not a government specification outside of the United States and Canada, school buses outside North America often feature some shade of yellow in part or in whole.
Following World War II, the baby boom resulted in rapid growth in both urban and suburban areas, initially outpacing school construction. This led to an increase in the demand for school buses in cities, suburbs and rural areas.
As the school bus evolved from a primarily rural form of transportation to something used in both urban and suburban population centers, two new variants emerged. Transit-style school buses had increased capabilities (seating capacity, handling) over conventional-style school buses. Small school buses were developed for the transportation of special-needs students and for routes unsuitable for larger buses. However, conventional-type school buses on a truck chassis still proved popular among the majority of operators in the decades to come.
In the 1930s, Crown Coach, Gillig Bros., Wayne Works, and other school bus manufacturers produced some buses with a relatively flat front-end design; this was influenced by buses used mass-transit as well as motorcoaches. In present-day nomenclature, they are known as "Type D" school buses. Crown Coach built the first heavy duty, high capacity, transit-style school coach in 1932 and named it the "Supercoach", as many California school districts operated in terrain requiring heavy-duty vehicles. In 1948, Albert L. Luce, founder of the Blue Bird Body Company, developed a transit-style design which evolved into the company's All American. In 1959, Gillig Bros. introduced the rear-engine diesel-powered school bus; soon afterwards, the Gillig Transit Coach School Bus became the most popular example of the type on the West Coast.
Although the design first appeared in 1932, it became more commonly used after World War II. A factor in the rapid rise of school bus sales in the 1950s (especially on the West Coast) was the baby boomers' entry into school. Faced with a rapid rise in student counts, school districts were forced to consolidate, buy larger school buses, or both. Transit-style school buses offered a solution, as their higher capacities (up to 97 passengers) meant that fewer buses needed to be driven and maintained, offsetting their higher initial purchase price. As a result, the use of the transit-style school bus increased during the mid-1950s. However, the conventional or "Type C" design with a truck-type chassis would still dominate U.S. school bus manufacturing into the 21st century.
In the early 1960s, conventional-type school buses gained increased capabilities as their manufacturers switched the source of donor chassis from pickup trucks to medium-duty trucks. Although the heavier-duty components allowed for much larger buses, certain urban neighborhoods could not accommodate full-size buses. Initially, conversions of vans and SUVs into minibuses filled the role of small school buses. In 1967, the first dedicated small school bus was introduced by Collins Bus, followed by the Wayne Busette in 1973. Along with van-based vehicles (known as "Type A" school buses), the industry also developed several heavier-duty products that used the chassis of a delivery van or "step-van" (known as "Type B" buses); the best known of these is the Blue Bird Mini Bird, produced from 1977 to 2005.
Although small school buses are also used for magnet school programs, transporting exceptionally talented and gifted students, and for routes with low volumes of riders, they are also associated in urban slang with mentally disabled riders. This association has given them derogatory nicknames, such as "the short bus". For the transportation of special-needs students, these buses are often equipped with automated lifts for wheelchair-bound passengers unable to climb steps into the bus. In addition to the driver, these buses often have attendants or aides on board to deal with physical or mental issues of student passengers.
In 1977, the federal government brought into effect a number of safety regulations that changed the design and construction of school buses. Most visibly, these standards —known as Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards for School Buses— mandated taller seats and thick padding on the front and back. Under the sheetmetal, school buses were now required to be built stronger for improved crashworthiness.
In 2002, NHTSA published a report to Congress that highlighted the safety of school buses. NHTSA's Research and Development Office said that U.S. students are eight times safer riding in a school bus than with their own parents or guardians in cars. NHTSA also stated that the fatality rate for school bus passengers is 0.2 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, compared to 1.5 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles for cars.
Towards the end of the 20th century, a variety of economic factors affected the school bus industry. During this time, while school buses themselves evolved, the producers of school buses had changed far more by comparison.
The "Big Six" manufacturers produced bodies for chassis from three truck manufacturers (Ford, General Motors, and International Harvester) in addition to two coach-type school bus manufacturers who serviced the West Coast (Crown and Gillig).
Through the 1980s and 1990s, several manufacturers filed for bankruptcy or were purchased by other manufacturers. One of the few new firms that gained entry into the industry was Freightliner, who became a chassis supplier in the late 1990s. By 2005, only three of the original "Big Six" had survived (Blue Bird, Thomas, and IC Corporation—a rebranding of Ward successor AmTran).
As a result of the 1970s fuel shortages, steps were also taken to improve the fuel economy of school buses. In the 1980s, manufacturers began to include diesel engines as options in conventional and small school buses; previously, diesel engines were considered a premium option only used on transit-style school buses. In 1986, Navistar International became the first chassis manufacturer to phase out gasoline engines entirely. Other manufacturers followed suit, and diesel engines replaced gasoline engines in virtually all full-size school buses by the mid-1990s.
Other changes involved making school buses easier to drive and operate for a wider variety of drivers. During the 1980s, automatic transmissions became commonly specified on school buses; this was most often the case for urban and suburban routes with stop-and-go driving. The issue of ergonomics led to increased attention towards the layout of controls and switches and how they were positioned. In addition to better ergonomics, many school bus manufacturers began to improve the safety of their school buses by increasing forward visibility for the driver. The demand for better forward visibility and better handling led to a major expansion of market share for transit-style school buses in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Initially, this was led by the Wayne Lifestar; the Blue Bird TC/2000 and Thomas Saf-T-Liner MVP would prove far more successful. In 1996, AmTran introduced the AmTran RE, the first low-cost rear-engine school bus.
After the closure of Carpenter in 2001, General Motors and Ford were gradually shut out of the full-size school bus industry. After building its last bus chassis in 1998, an agreement with Ford to supply Blue Bird with bus chassis fell through in 2002. General Motors, unable to find a body manufacturer to buy its chassis, produced its last full-size school bus chassis in 2003. Today, GM and Ford remain in the industry as the exclusive chassis suppliers for Type A school buses.
The consolidation of school bus manufacturers of the 1980s and 1990s necessitated several design changes throughout the industry. In the past, school bus manufacturers had been second-stage manufacturers; in nearly all cases, the buyer chose the chassis the body would be assembled on. The mergers and acquisitions of the past two decades had reduced the possible combinations of buses a manufacturer could build. Although choice was gone, this led to several product innovations that were previously impossible.
In the past, conventional-style buses had been built on a chassis built from a separate manufacturer. In 2004, two school buses were introduced that led to buses being built from the ground up in-house. Blue Bird introduced the Vision conventional; in the same fashion of the All American, the chassis was designed by the company specifically for bus use and built in its own factory. Also in 2004, Thomas Built Buses introduced the Saf-T-Liner C2. Although bearing a strong visual resemblance to the Freightliner M2 Business Class, the C2's chassis was designed together with its body; as such, it could not be used by another body manufacturer.
In 2008, a redesigned Blue Bird All American was introduced as a 2010 model, showing the most extensive changes to the Blue Bird body design in over 45 years; similar changes have been made to other Blue Birds since then.
In November 2009, Starcraft Bus, a manufacturer of shuttle buses and Type A school buses, announced a joint venture with Hino Motors to produce full-size school buses, marking the first time since the 1990 departure of New Bus, Inc., that a body manufacturer has entered the full-size school bus market. The first prototype was scheduled to be shown in mid-2010.
In June 2011, another school bus manufacturer was added to the mix: Lion Bus of Saint-Jérôme, Quebec was formed in partnership with Spartan Chassis, a division of Spartan Motors. The two companies executed a supply agreement to manufacture a new Type C school bus on June 16, 2011. Lion Bus was co-founded by the former president and the former senior board adviser of Les Enterprises Michel Corbeil, a former full-line school bus manufacturer whose manufacturing facilities were shut down after the company was acquired by Collins Industries in 2007.
In the small school bus industry, the end of the 2000s was a period of major changes. As General Motors ended production of its P-chassis in the late 1990s, Type B school buses (already in decline) all but disappeared. Virtually all small school buses today are of Type A design; General Motors and Ford are the sole chassis producers.
Collins Bus Corporation, the largest independent manufacturer of Type A buses, purchased Canadian manufacturer Corbeil out of bankruptcy in 2007. Corbeil joined Ohio-based manufacturer Mid Bus as a Collins subsidiary; manufacturing of all three product lines was consolidated at the Kansas factory owned by Collins, leaving Girardin Minibus as the lone Canadian bus manufacturer. During the past decade, several smaller firms had gained entry into the industry with varying degrees of success. Of them, Starcraft Bus and Trans Tech are still in existence. In late 2009, Blue Bird Corporation and Girardin Minibus entered into a joint venture. In an effort to better focus on full-size bus design, Blue Bird discontinued its Type A product line (in production since 1975) in favor of Girardin-developed products built in Canada. Today, Blue Bird Corporation manufactures full-size buses exclusively.
The late 2000s have seen a variety of innovations introduced into school bus design; some changes are aimed at improving their environmental impact while others are intended to improve school bus safety. Several manufacturers have introduced hybrid school buses while alternatives to diesel fuel are also being explored. Seatbelts, always a controversial topic, have become more common in school buses; buses with 3-point seatbelts have been introduced. School bus crossing arms, first introduced in the late 1990s, have been adopted by a number of jurisdictions. Electronics have started to play a role in school bus operation. GPS tracking devices have been added to school buses in the past decade; this is used in a dual role of fleet management as well as a means of keeping parents updated. In addition, alarm systems have been developed to prevent children from being left on unattended school buses overnight.
In the current North American school bus industry, there are eight active manufacturers. Three of them—Collins Industries, Girardin, and Trans Tech—specialize in small buses, while two others—Blue Bird Corporation and Lion Bus—produce only full-size school buses. The remaining three companies—IC Bus, Starcraft Bus, and Thomas Built Buses—produce both small and large buses.
In most cases, school bus manufacturers work as second stage manufacturers. However, some school buses (typically those of Type D configuration) have both the body and chassis produced from a single manufacturer.
Of the manufacturers that no longer produce school buses, several are wholly defunct (Carpenter, Crown Coach, Wayne) while others have been absorbed into different manufacturers. IC Bus is the descendant of both AmTran and Ward; Collins owns and distributes Mid Bus and Corbeil products. Other manufacturers have moved into other enterprises; Gillig Corporation makes buses for mass-transit buyers, while Kenworth lives on as a manufacturer of Class 8 trucks.
The North American school bus industry produces buses in four different body configurations, listed alphabetically (along with trade name). All school buses in North America are of single deck design.
Type A ("cutaway van") school buses are the smallest type of school buses. They are also commonly referred to as "short buses". These buses are also the basis for the Multi-Function School Activity Buses (MFSAB) that are replacing 15-passenger vans as a means of transporting students in non-route service. :;Design characteristics :*A bus body placed on a cutaway van chassis with a left-side driver's door. :*Single or dual rear wheels on drive axle. :;Capacities :*At least 10 passengers; typical passenger capacity ranges from 16-36 passengers. :*Type A buses are further classified into two sub-classes based on their gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR). :**Type A-1: GVWR of or less :**Type A-2: GVWR over 14,500 lb; A-2 buses typically use a medium-duty truck as a donor cab and chassis instead of a full-size van. Type B ("integrated") school buses are larger and heavier than Type A school buses while still smaller than Type C/D buses. Type B buses are less commonly produced today than in the past. IC BE is the only type B bus still produced from the competition between IC, Blue Bird Corporation, and Thomas Built Buses. :;Design characteristics :*A bus body mounted to either a stripped chassis. :*The entrance door is mounted behind the front wheels. :*In most versions (stripped-chassis models), the engine compartment is located partially inside the passenger compartment next to the driver. :;Capacities :*At least 10 passengers; typically between 30-36. :*Type B buses are further classified into sub-classes based on their GVWR. :**Type B-1: GVWR of 10,000 pounds or less :**Type B-2: GVWR over 10,000 lb Type C ("conventional") school buses are the most common large school buses; as such, these have become the most synonymous with the depiction of large school bus in photography, film, and television. :;Design characteristics :*A bus body mounted to a cowled medium-duty truck chassis (in the past, the chassis was often supplied from another manufacturer, but more recently, the chassis manufacturer and the bus body manufacturer are the same company). :**Although typically of cowled-chassis chassis design, a few Type C buses also are of cutaway-cab design. :*The entrance door is mounted behind the front wheels. :
An "activity bus" is a school bus used for providing transportation for students. Instead of being used in route service (home to school), the intended usage of an activity bus is for transporting students for extracurricular activities. Depending on individual state and provincial regulations, the bus used for this purpose can either be a regular yellow school bus or a dedicated unit for this purpose. Dedicated activity buses, while not painted yellow, are fitted with the similar interiors as well as the same traffic control devices for dropping off students (at other schools).
In the past, groups that transport children and adults that did not need (or afford) a large bus commonly used 15-passenger vans to handle their transportation. However, such vehicles were at a disadvantage by comparison in terms of meeting safety regulations. To provide an alternative to 15-passenger vans (called "non-conforming vans" because they do not meet any safety standards for school buses), manufacturers have designed buses that can replace 15-passenger vans. These are called Multi-Function School Activity Buses (MFSABs).
The basic design of MFSABs differs from yellow school buses because of their intended use. These differ from yellow school buses in that they are not intended for route service; therefore, they are not fitted with traffic control devices (red warning lights, stop arm). Also, they are not painted school bus yellow. MFSAB buses are typically based on Type A school buses, although manufacturers offer MFSAB configurations for all four body styles of school buses.
If used by schools, MFSABs are primarily used for extracurricular activities requiring transportation; in the private sector, the MFSAB bus is commonly being purchased by child-care centers.
Canadian school buses are similar to their U.S.counterparts both in terms of overall design and their usage by school systems. The primary difference is the adaptation to Canada's bilingual population. In francophone Quebec, the signage on the outside of the bus is in French; the front and rear legends read —French for "Schoolchildren"—and the stop signal arm legend may read , French for "Stop", though Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 131 requires the legend to read . Speedometers are calibrated in metric units and buses, like all other Canadian vehicles, are equipped with Daytime running lights. Buses are sometimes marketed differently, as well; the Blue Bird All American, for example, is rebadged as the Blue Bird TX3 in Canada and other export markets.
Along with the United States, Canada has its own history of school bus production. Along with Canada's two domestic firms (Corbeil and Girardin), several U.S. firms (Blue Bird, Thomas, Wayne) have located facilities in Canada in the past. Canadian-produced school buses are exported to the United States, and Canada imports many U.S.-produced buses. The Corbeil designs manufactured in Canada before the firm's 2008 closure are now manufactured and sold in the United States by current parent company Collins Industries. In Canada, Girardin Minibus manufactures Type A buses for the U.S. market branded as Blue Birds as part of a joint venture. In 2011, production of full-size school buses resumed in Canada as Lion Bus commenced production of Type C buses for both Canadian and U.S. operators.
In Mexico, in addition to yellow school buses seen from the United States, various other types of buses are used in the role of student transport. As in the United States, many schools own their own fleets of school buses; school bus yellow is not a government regulation, so most buses are painted in individual school colors. Depending on capacity needs, vans, minibuses, and midibuses are also used. Among retired American school buses, some newer ones are imported into Mexico and put back into school service.
Most of the changes made to the American school bus over the past 70 years have been safety-related, in response to progressively more stringent regulations. Along with federal mandates, advances in engineering have made school buses safer for drivers and passengers alike. Because of their size, school buses have many blind spots which can endanger passengers getting on or off the bus and people standing or walking nearby. This safety challenge is addressed through the design and configuration of a bus' windows, body panels, and mirrors. Controversy exists over the installation of seat belts as a restraint system for school bus passengers.
Yellow was adopted as a standard color for North American school buses beginning in 1939. In April of that year, Dr. Frank W. Cyr, a professor at Teachers College at Columbia University in New York organized a meeting to establish national school bus construction standards, including yellow body paint. It became known officially as "National School Bus Chrome", later renamed "National School Bus Glossy Yellow." The color, which has come to be frequently called simply "school bus yellow", was selected because black lettering on that specific hue was easiest to see in the semi-darkness of early morning and late afternoon.
The conference met for seven days and the attendees created a total of 45 standards, including specifications regarding body length, ceiling height, and aisle width. Dr. Cyr's conference, funded by a $5,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, was also a landmark event inasmuch as it included transportation officials from all 48 states (at the time), as well as specialists from school bus manufacturing and paint companies. The conference approach to school bus safety, as well as the yellow color, has endured into the 21st century.
By the mid 1940s, most states had traffic laws requiring motorists to stop for school buses while children were loading or unloading. The justifications for this protocol are:
Since at least the mid 1970s, all U.S. states and Canadian provinces and territories have some sort of school bus traffic stop law; although each jurisdiction requires traffic to stop for a school bus loading and unloading passengers, different jurisdictions have different requirements of when to stop. Outside of North America, the school bus stopping traffic to unload and load children is not provided for. Instead of being given traffic priority, fellow drivers are encouraged to drive with extra caution around school buses.
Around 1946, the first system of traffic warning signal lights on school buses was used in Virginia. This system comprised a pair of sealed beam lights similar to those employed in American headlamps of the time. Instead of colorless glass lenses, the warning lights utilized red lenses. A motorized rotary switch applied power alternately to the red lights mounted at the left and right of the front and rear of the bus, creating a wig-wag effect. Activation was typically through a mechanical switch attached to the door control. However, on some buses (such as Gillig's Transit Coach models and the Kenworth-Pacific School Coach) activation of the roof warning lamp system was through the use of a pressure sensitive switch on a manually controlled stop paddle lever located to the left of the driver's seat below the window. Whenever the pressure was relieved by extending the stop paddle, the electrical current was activated to the relay.
In later years, electromechanical wig-wag flasher controls were replaced by electronic ones, and the warning lights were increased from four — two front and two rear, all red — to eight — two amber to warn of an impending stop, and two red to indicate a stop in progress, front and rear. Some jurisdictions, such as Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada still do not permit the amber-and-red system; all-red warning systems are still used in such locales. Newer buses with provisions for the amber-and-red eight-lamp system generally use eight red lenses where amber is not permitted. Plastic lenses were developed in the 1950s, though sealed beams — now with colorless glass lenses — were still most commonly used behind them until the mid 2000s, when light-emitting diodes (LEDs) began supplanting the sealed beams.
During the early 1950s, states began to specify a mechanical stop signal arm which the driver would swing out from the left side of the bus to warn traffic of a stop in progress. The portion of the stop arm protruding in front of traffic was initially a rectangle with painted on it. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 131 regulates the specifications of the stop arm as a double-faced regulation octagonal red stop sign at least across, with white border and uppercase legend. It must be retroreflective and/or equipped with alternately flashing red lights. As an alternative, the legend itself may also flash; this is commonly achieved with red LEDs. FMVSS 131 stipulates that the stop signal arm be installed on the left side of the bus, and placed such that when it is extended, the arm is perpendicular to the side of the bus, with the top edge of the sign parallel to and within of a horizontal plane tangent to the bottom edge of the first passenger window frame behind the driver's window, and that the vertical center of the stop signal arm must be no more than from the side of the bus. One stop signal arm is required; a second may also be installed. The second stop arm, when it is present, is usually mounted near the rear of the bus, and is not permitted to bear a or any other legend on the side facing forward when deployed.
In addition to the entry door, all school buses have at least one emergency exit door (in rear-engine buses, a window exit) in the rear of the bus. The rear door was a feature retained from when school buses were horse-drawn wagons and the entrance door was rear-mounted to avoid frightening the horses. Additional exits may be located in the roof (roof hatches), window exits, and/or side emergency exit doors. All are opened by the use of quick-release latches which activate an alarm. The number of emergency exits in a school bus depends on the size of the bus (its seating capacity) along with individual state regulations.
Building on the longstanding requirement for school bus yellow, many North American states and provinces — Colorado, for example — call for school bus yellow retroreflective conspicuity tape on the sides and rear of buses to mark their length, width, and height. This makes it easier
1973 oil crisis Alabama Albert L. Luce AmTran Arkansas Automotive lighting baby boom generation Badge engineering Birmingham, England Blue Bird Mini Bird Blue Bird TC/2000 Blue Bird Vision brand bus California Canada car accident Carbon County, Utah Collins Bus Collins Industries Columbia University Conway, Arkansas Corbeil Buses crossing guard Crown Coach CSX Transportation Cummins ISL demolition derby drawstring ergonomics figure 8 racing First Student First Student UK fleet management Florida Ford Ford E-Series Frank W.
Randy Pettapiece, MPP Perth-Wellington, spoke on February 27, 2012 in the Ontario Legislature blasting the McGuinty government for their failed school bus RFP process: Today we welcome the Ontario Independent School Bus Operators Association. They're here because the McGuinty government's RFP policy still threatens the livelihoods of school bus operators in Perth--Wellington and across Ontario. They are small business owners, they drive children to school, and they drive our local economy. In good faith, they have negotiated contracts with school boards under a process that has worked. What doesn't work is the McGuinty government's RFP process. Their policy ignores independent operators' many years of cost-effective service, and it ignores what's most important: their long history of transporting children safely. That's what John Chapman and his company have done, and that's what Sandi Ahrens and her company have done. They employ local people. Their drivers know our communities. They know the children that they drive to school and back each day. The RFP moratorium expired December 31, and now independent school bus operators are left in limbo. Twice I have written the Minister of Education on this issue. More than two months after sending my first letter, I have yet to see a response. The minister has run out of excuses. We call on her to stop hiding the task force recommendations from the public. We call on her to fix her failed policy. Press release: pettapiece.ca ... 2:
New Jersey School Bus Owners Association President Tim Wallace outlines the inspections and regulations in place to ensure safety. 1:
Firetrace systems offer bus and coach owners, operators and manufactureres a unique approach to fire protection of many of the fire prone areas of these vehicles. Firetrace systems detect fire using the proprietary Firetrace Detection Tubing. This heat sensitive polymer tubing is pressurized and reacts to the heat and radiant energy of a fire by bursting, thus activating the fire suppression system. Firetrace Detection Tubing is ideal for fire detection in buses as it tolerates the vibration, dirt, temperature extremes of the environments in which the buses operate. Also, as Firetrace systems are pneumatically operated, they require no power from the vehicle to operate and do not place additional strain on the vehicle's electrical system. www.firetrace.com 1:
Here's something I decided to uploaded. This is the instrumental version of the Magic School Bus theme song. You can hear this on any of the DVDs Warner Bros released. Enjoy! Everything is copyrighted to their rightful owners 1:39 300 MPH School Bus!!!!
www.indyboysinc.com Jet School Bus? School Time was never like this when I was a kid! Watch Paul Stender's 361 MPH Jet Powered School Bus racing to beat the morning bell... "LIKE" Indy Boys Inc. on Facebook http 0:06 ST. TAMMANY SCHOOL BUS DRIVER NO.
What an unsafe blatant running of a stop sign with a bus FULL of children! Local law enforcement tells me that they want to take care of this situation. They don't want me taking videos while I am driving. It is unsafe they say. It is not unsafe and it is perfectly legal. I see local police on their cell phones all the time. I point my small camera in the general direction of a bus as it approaches an intersection and I hope for the best. I keep my eyes on the road in front of me at all times and I DO NOT look at the view window on the back of the camera. This is all done by feel. Think about this; here is a police officer pointing a radar gun at local citizens as they travel through a school zone yet a few minutes later these same officers watch local school bus drivers running stop signs, stop lights and intersections and they look the other way. I would call that corruption, because it lacks integrity and ignoring this negative and unsafe behavior masks the truth. If law enforcement wants to take care of this situation then start giving some of these unsafe bus drivers warnings and/ or tickets. In the mean time I will continue to tape these folks, because they are being unsafe with a load of children on board. I have seen via YOUTUBE that other state law enforcement agencies are pulling school buses over. Let's get moving men. Mr. Donald Caserta who is the investigator (STPB Transportation) spoke with me via phone conversation recently and he told me that his school ... 1:
the owners of the bus came to Boo's birthday party and gave all the kids rides . The bus is taken to monster truck shows and they give rides around the burms . I think if you look close you will see there web sight on the rear bumper . 1:
1991 Thomas Pusher (1156) 5.9L Cummins Diesel Allison Automatic Air Brakes 78 passenger (13 rows) Very well maintained. Ready to work. This bus hauled kids all of last year for an after school program in Florida. The owners have moved onto a newer bus, and no longer need this one. Ready to work today. 3:
Another St. Tammany school bus driver runs a stop light. What an unsafe blatant running of a stop light with a bus FULL of children! Local law enforcement tells me that they want to take care of this situation. They don't want me taking videos while I am driving. It is unsafe they say. It is not unsafe and it is perfectly legal. I see local police on their cell phones all the time. I point my small camera in the general direction of a bus as it approaches an intersection and I hope for the best. I keep my eyes on the road in front of me at all times and I DO NOT look at the view window on the back of the camera. This is all done by feel. Think about this; here is a police officer pointing a radar gun at local citizens as they travel through a school zone yet a few minutes later these same officers watch local school bus drivers running stop signs, stop lights and intersections and they look the other way. I would call that corruption, because it lacks integrity and ignoring this negative and unsafe behavior masks the truth. If law enforcement wants to take care of this situation then start giving some of these unsafe bus drivers warnings and/ or tickets. In the mean time I will continue to tape these folks, because they are being unsafe with a load of children on board. I have seen via YOUTUBE that other state law enforcement agencies are pulling school buses over. Let's get moving men. Mr. Donald Caserta who is the investigator (STPB Transportation) spoke with me via ... 1:
PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: I do NOT own ANY part of this video AT ALL. I am only uploading it for people who, like myself, enjoy the show. PLEASE DO NOT DELETE THIS VIDEO. ALL RIGHTS / CREDITS AND CONTENTS ARE OWNED BY THE SCHOLASTIC COMPANY AND THE ORIGINAL OWNERS. I Do NOT own this. remove add to playlist show more results video results for:
photo: WN / Aruna Mirasdar photo: photo: WN / Marzena J. photo: photo: WN / Aruna Mirasdar photo: photo: WN/Rajkumar Senapati photo: photo: WN / Aruna Mirasdar photo: photo: Public Domain / IFCAR photo: photo: WN / Bhaskar Mallick photo: photo: WN / Aruna Mirasdar photo: photo: WN / Aruna Mirasdar photo: photo: WN / Aruna Mirasdar « » Transport department to ensure safety of schoolchildrenThe Times of India2012-10-11 16-year-old pushed off bus, crushed under wheelsThe Times of India2012-10-17 School bus fares go up 10%-15%The Times of India2012-10-21 School bus plunges from I-37 downtownSan Francisco Chronicle2012-10-05 Guilty plea over bus stop dog attackNZ Herald2012-10-11 Schoolboy thrown off bus, crushed to death A STAFF REPORTER A 14-year-old boy returning home ...The Telegraph India2012-10-18 LBS South closes deal to become new distributor for IC Bus(tm)
Herald Tribune MANATEE COUNTY - With Manatee County workers set to get a 3 percent raise, angry school bus drivers lobbied the School Board on Monday night demanding to know why they are not getting a similar pay hike. Bus drivers, who are among the lowest paid of the district's 5,000 employees, said they had not received a raise for more than four years and that changes in operations had...
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Linda Witherspoon was inside her West End house Friday morning, getting her two grandchildren ready for school, when "all hell broke loose," she said. A tractor-trailer -- with the phrase "Jesus is the road" written in white on the front of the red cab -- was barreling toward her McKnight Street home. "He was going so fast, he had to be going 100 miles an hour, but he was...
MSNBC The state Transportation Department will require the driver of a large truck that brought down a popular pedestrian bridge Tuesday in Aiea to pay for repairs. DOT spokeswoman Caroline Sluyter said Wednesday estimates are still preliminary, but it's believed repairing the bridge could cost $200,000 to $300,000. She said the driver of the dump truck, Don Tibbitts, did not have a...
Newsday (AP) -- A school bus carrying 40 children in Southern California has been knocked on its side in a crash that has injured 13 children and the bus driver. San Bernardino County fire spokeswoman Tracey Martinez says two of the children have "serious but non-life threatening" injuries. They were taken to Loma Linda University Medical Center. The rest of the injured passengers were...
Newstrack India Tweet New Delhi, Oct 18 (IANS) Two juveniles were apprehend for murdering a bus conductor after the victim attempted unnatural sex with them, police here said Thursday. "The juveniles were apprehended from Janakpuri area of west Delhi Thursday and produced before the Juvenile Justice Board that later sent them to observation home," said a senior police officer....
CBC Ottawa-area businesses are losing money after some teachers stopped leading extra-curricular activities, including field trips, as well as sports teams. School bus companies are taking the hit because, besides transporting students to and from school, the day-trips have disappeared after teachers responded to a provincial...
Business Journal James Fink Buffalo Business First Reporter- Business First Email When it comes to tour buses, Doug Switzer has heard all of the perceptions - or, more accurately misperceptions. The tour bus world of today is far different from decades ago when many, perhaps falsely, assumed it was filled with nothing more than gray- and blue-haired retirees looking for inexpensive vacations...
Newsday (AP) -- New York City says it will add three high speed bus routes to LaGuardia Airport from Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens starting next year. City and transit officials announced the new Select Bus Service routes on Thursday. The faster service will have dedicated travel lanes and curbside payment. Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the new service will cut travel time for people...
A school bus is a type of bus designed and manufactured for student transport: carrying children to and from school and school events. The first school bus was horse-drawn, introduced in 1827 by George Shillibeer for Newington Academy for Girls, a Quaker school in Stoke Newington, north-east of London (UK), and was designed to carry 25 children.
The primary vehicle used for student transport in North America, school buses are distinguished from other types of buses by design characteristics necessitated by federal and state/provincial regulations. Federal safety standards require school buses to be painted school bus yellow and equipped with specific warning and safety devices. This service is almost always provided without charge to families. In other parts of the world, the term "school bus" refers more to the destination of the bus and its student passengers than the specific vehicle designed for that purpose; the vehicles used for student transport are more closely related to other types of buses than their North American counterparts.
In the United States, school buses provide an estimated 10 billion student trips every year. Every school day, over 480,000 school buses transport 26 million children to and from schools and school-related activities; over half of the country's student population is transported by school bus. School buses are leased or purchased by school districts, while other school districts use school bus contractors to transport students. In the United States, approximately 40% of school districts use contractors to handle student transportation; in Canada, they are used almost universally.
Wayne Works, predecessor of Wayne Corporation, was founded in the United States in 1837. By the mid-1880s, it is known that the company manufactured horse-drawn school carriages colloquially referred to as "school hacks", "school cars", "school trucks", or "kid hacks". ("hack" was a term for certain types of horse-drawn carriages.)
Initial "horseless" school buses retained the rear entry of the kid hacks (a feature designed as to not startle the horses when loading or unloading passengers). Inside, many kid hacks and early school buses had perimeter seating with benches mounted to the outside walls of the vehicle. Early school buses served predominately rural areas where it was deemed impractical for students to walk the distances necessary to get back and forth from school on their own. Like the kid hacks, they were essentially no more than a truck with a tarpaulin stretched over the truck bed.
Wayne Works was one of the first manufacturers to offer glass windows in place of roll-up canvas curtains in the passenger compartment in the early 1920s, although Gillig Bros had invented and patented the design long before. Known as the "California top", Gillig's design featured a slightly curved reinforced metal roof, with windows separated by pillars at regular intervals, and each window was adjustable by the use of a latching mechanism. Other manufacturers continued using curtains until the 1930s. Wayne began manufacturing its first model of all-steel body school buses in 1930. Crown Coach followed in 1932 with its steel-bodied transit-style Crown Supercoach. The Supercoach was the highest-capacity school bus at the time, seating 76 passengers.
The 1930s were a decade where the school bus evolved from an adaptation of existing vehicles (wagons, carriages, trucks) into a vehicle type of its own. The "California top" introduced by Gillig was quickly adopted industry-wide. As it was becoming popular in other places in the automotive industry, all-metal body construction became featured by manufacturers as the decade progressed.
The custom-built nature of school buses created an obstacle to their profitable mass production on a large scale. Although school buses had begun to evolve from wagons, there was not yet an agreed upon set of industry-wide standards for school buses. A 1939 conference at Teachers College, Columbia University organized by rural education expert Dr. Frank W. Cyr forever changed the design and production of school buses; it was attended by transportation officials, representatives from body and chassis manufacturers, and paint companies. The conference resulted in a set of 44 standards adopted by all manufacturers (interior dimensions, seating configuration). Many of those standards allowed for consistency among body manufacturers, reducing the complexity of production as well as the price of their products; large-scale production was now possible.
Other standards at Dr. Cyr's 1939 conference also applied to improving school bus safety. The most recognizable standard was the development of school bus yellow as a standardized school bus color; the attendees considered yellow the easiest to see in dawn and dusk, and it contrasted well with black lettering. Yellow is now the shade associated with school buses worldwide; officially it is known as National School Bus Glossy Yellow in the United States, and Chrome Yellow in some parts of Canada. Although it is not a government specification outside of the United States and Canada, school buses outside North America often feature some shade of yellow in part or in whole.
Following World War II, the baby boom resulted in rapid growth in both urban and suburban areas, initially outpacing school construction. This led to an increase in the demand for school buses in cities, suburbs and rural areas.
As the school bus evolved from a primarily rural form of transportation to something used in both urban and suburban population centers, two new variants emerged. Transit-style school buses had increased capabilities (seating capacity, handling) over conventional-style school buses. Small school buses were developed for the transportation of special-needs students and for routes unsuitable for larger buses. However, conventional-type school buses on a truck chassis still proved popular among the majority of operators in the decades to come.
In the 1930s, Crown Coach, Gillig Bros., Wayne Works, and other school bus manufacturers produced some buses with a relatively flat front-end design; this was influenced by buses used mass-transit as well as motorcoaches. In present-day nomenclature, they are known as "Type D" school buses. Crown Coach built the first heavy duty, high capacity, transit-style school coach in 1932 and named it the "Supercoach", as many California school districts operated in terrain requiring heavy-duty vehicles. In 1948, Albert L. Luce, founder of the Blue Bird Body Company, developed a transit-style design which evolved into the company's All American. In 1959, Gillig Bros. introduced the rear-engine diesel-powered school bus; soon afterwards, the Gillig Transit Coach School Bus became the most popular example of the type on the West Coast.
Although the design first appeared in 1932, it became more commonly used after World War II. A factor in the rapid rise of school bus sales in the 1950s (especially on the West Coast) was the baby boomers' entry into school. Faced with a rapid rise in student counts, school districts were forced to consolidate, buy larger school buses, or both. Transit-style school buses offered a solution, as their higher capacities (up to 97 passengers) meant that fewer buses needed to be driven and maintained, offsetting their higher initial purchase price. As a result, the use of the transit-style school bus increased during the mid-1950s. However, the conventional or "Type C" design with a truck-type chassis would still dominate U.S. school bus manufacturing into the 21st century.
In the early 1960s, conventional-type school buses gained increased capabilities as their manufacturers switched the source of donor chassis from pickup trucks to medium-duty trucks. Although the heavier-duty components allowed for much larger buses, certain urban neighborhoods could not accommodate full-size buses. Initially, conversions of vans and SUVs into minibuses filled the role of small school buses. In 1967, the first dedicated small school bus was introduced by Collins Bus, followed by the Wayne Busette in 1973. Along with van-based vehicles (known as "Type A" school buses), the industry also developed several heavier-duty products that used the chassis of a delivery van or "step-van" (known as "Type B" buses); the best known of these is the Blue Bird Mini Bird, produced from 1977 to 2005.
Although small school buses are also used for magnet school programs, transporting exceptionally talented and gifted students, and for routes with low volumes of riders, they are also associated in urban slang with mentally disabled riders. This association has given them derogatory nicknames, such as "the short bus". For the transportation of special-needs students, these buses are often equipped with automated lifts for wheelchair-bound passengers unable to climb steps into the bus. In addition to the driver, these buses often have attendants or aides on board to deal with physical or mental issues of student passengers.
In 1977, the federal government brought into effect a number of safety regulations that changed the design and construction of school buses. Most visibly, these standards —known as Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards for School Buses— mandated taller seats and thick padding on the front and back. Under the sheetmetal, school buses were now required to be built stronger for improved crashworthiness.
In 2002, NHTSA published a report to Congress that highlighted the safety of school buses. NHTSA's Research and Development Office said that U.S. students are eight times safer riding in a school bus than with their own parents or guardians in cars. NHTSA also stated that the fatality rate for school bus passengers is 0.2 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, compared to 1.5 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles for cars.
Towards the end of the 20th century, a variety of economic factors affected the school bus industry. During this time, while school buses themselves evolved, the producers of school buses had changed far more by comparison.
The "Big Six" manufacturers produced bodies for chassis from three truck manufacturers (Ford, General Motors, and International Harvester) in addition to two coach-type school bus manufacturers who serviced the West Coast (Crown and Gillig).
Through the 1980s and 1990s, several manufacturers filed for bankruptcy or were purchased by other manufacturers. One of the few new firms that gained entry into the industry was Freightliner, who became a chassis supplier in the late 1990s. By 2005, only three of the original "Big Six" had survived (Blue Bird, Thomas, and IC Corporation—a rebranding of Ward successor AmTran).
As a result of the 1970s fuel shortages, steps were also taken to improve the fuel economy of school buses. In the 1980s, manufacturers began to include diesel engines as options in conventional and small school buses; previously, diesel engines were considered a premium option only used on transit-style school buses. In 1986, Navistar International became the first chassis manufacturer to phase out gasoline engines entirely. Other manufacturers followed suit, and diesel engines replaced gasoline engines in virtually all full-size school buses by the mid-1990s.
Other changes involved making school buses easier to drive and operate for a wider variety of drivers. During the 1980s, automatic transmissions became commonly specified on school buses; this was most often the case for urban and suburban routes with stop-and-go driving. The issue of ergonomics led to increased attention towards the layout of controls and switches and how they were positioned. In addition to better ergonomics, many school bus manufacturers began to improve the safety of their school buses by increasing forward visibility for the driver. The demand for better forward visibility and better handling led to a major expansion of market share for transit-style school buses in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Initially, this was led by the Wayne Lifestar; the Blue Bird TC/2000 and Thomas Saf-T-Liner MVP would prove far more successful. In 1996, AmTran introduced the AmTran RE, the first low-cost rear-engine school bus.
After the closure of Carpenter in 2001, General Motors and Ford were gradually shut out of the full-size school bus industry. After building its last bus chassis in 1998, an agreement with Ford to supply Blue Bird with bus chassis fell through in 2002. General Motors, unable to find a body manufacturer to buy its chassis, produced its last full-size school bus chassis in 2003. Today, GM and Ford remain in the industry as the exclusive chassis suppliers for Type A school buses.
The consolidation of school bus manufacturers of the 1980s and 1990s necessitated several design changes throughout the industry. In the past, school bus manufacturers had been second-stage manufacturers; in nearly all cases, the buyer chose the chassis the body would be assembled on. The mergers and acquisitions of the past two decades had reduced the possible combinations of buses a manufacturer could build. Although choice was gone, this led to several product innovations that were previously impossible.
In the past, conventional-style buses had been built on a chassis built from a separate manufacturer. In 2004, two school buses were introduced that led to buses being built from the ground up in-house. Blue Bird introduced the Vision conventional; in the same fashion of the All American, the chassis was designed by the company specifically for bus use and built in its own factory. Also in 2004, Thomas Built Buses introduced the Saf-T-Liner C2. Although bearing a strong visual resemblance to the Freightliner M2 Business Class, the C2's chassis was designed together with its body; as such, it could not be used by another body manufacturer.
In 2008, a redesigned Blue Bird All American was introduced as a 2010 model, showing the most extensive changes to the Blue Bird body design in over 45 years; similar changes have been made to other Blue Birds since then.
In November 2009, Starcraft Bus, a manufacturer of shuttle buses and Type A school buses, announced a joint venture with Hino Motors to produce full-size school buses, marking the first time since the 1990 departure of New Bus, Inc., that a body manufacturer has entered the full-size school bus market. The first prototype was scheduled to be shown in mid-2010.
In June 2011, another school bus manufacturer was added to the mix: Lion Bus of Saint-Jérôme, Quebec was formed in partnership with Spartan Chassis, a division of Spartan Motors. The two companies executed a supply agreement to manufacture a new Type C school bus on June 16, 2011. Lion Bus was co-founded by the former president and the former senior board adviser of Les Enterprises Michel Corbeil, a former full-line school bus manufacturer whose manufacturing facilities were shut down after the company was acquired by Collins Industries in 2007.
In the small school bus industry, the end of the 2000s was a period of major changes. As General Motors ended production of its P-chassis in the late 1990s, Type B school buses (already in decline) all but disappeared. Virtually all small school buses today are of Type A design; General Motors and Ford are the sole chassis producers.
Collins Bus Corporation, the largest independent manufacturer of Type A buses, purchased Canadian manufacturer Corbeil out of bankruptcy in 2007. Corbeil joined Ohio-based manufacturer Mid Bus as a Collins subsidiary; manufacturing of all three product lines was consolidated at the Kansas factory owned by Collins, leaving Girardin Minibus as the lone Canadian bus manufacturer. During the past decade, several smaller firms had gained entry into the industry with varying degrees of success. Of them, Starcraft Bus and Trans Tech are still in existence. In late 2009, Blue Bird Corporation and Girardin Minibus entered into a joint venture. In an effort to better focus on full-size bus design, Blue Bird discontinued its Type A product line (in production since 1975) in favor of Girardin-developed products built in Canada. Today, Blue Bird Corporation manufactures full-size buses exclusively.
The late 2000s have seen a variety of innovations introduced into school bus design; some changes are aimed at improving their environmental impact while others are intended to improve school bus safety. Several manufacturers have introduced hybrid school buses while alternatives to diesel fuel are also being explored. Seatbelts, always a controversial topic, have become more common in school buses; buses with 3-point seatbelts have been introduced. School bus crossing arms, first introduced in the late 1990s, have been adopted by a number of jurisdictions. Electronics have started to play a role in school bus operation. GPS tracking devices have been added to school buses in the past decade; this is used in a dual role of fleet management as well as a means of keeping parents updated. In addition, alarm systems have been developed to prevent children from being left on unattended school buses overnight.
In the current North American school bus industry, there are eight active manufacturers. Three of them—Collins Industries, Girardin, and Trans Tech—specialize in small buses, while two others—Blue Bird Corporation and Lion Bus—produce only full-size school buses. The remaining three companies—IC Bus, Starcraft Bus, and Thomas Built Buses—produce both small and large buses.
In most cases, school bus manufacturers work as second stage manufacturers. However, some school buses (typically those of Type D configuration) have both the body and chassis produced from a single manufacturer.
Of the manufacturers that no longer produce school buses, several are wholly defunct (Carpenter, Crown Coach, Wayne) while others have been absorbed into different manufacturers. IC Bus is the descendant of both AmTran and Ward; Collins owns and distributes Mid Bus and Corbeil products. Other manufacturers have moved into other enterprises; Gillig Corporation makes buses for mass-transit buyers, while Kenworth lives on as a manufacturer of Class 8 trucks.
The North American school bus industry produces buses in four different body configurations, listed alphabetically (along with trade name). All school buses in North America are of single deck design.
Type A ("cutaway van") school buses are the smallest type of school buses. They are also commonly referred to as "short buses". These buses are also the basis for the Multi-Function School Activity Buses (MFSAB) that are replacing 15-passenger vans as a means of transporting students in non-route service. :;Design characteristics :*A bus body placed on a cutaway van chassis with a left-side driver's door. :*Single or dual rear wheels on drive axle. :;Capacities :*At least 10 passengers; typical passenger capacity ranges from 16-36 passengers. :*Type A buses are further classified into two sub-classes based on their gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR). :**Type A-1: GVWR of or less :**Type A-2: GVWR over 14,500 lb; A-2 buses typically use a medium-duty truck as a donor cab and chassis instead of a full-size van. Type B ("integrated") school buses are larger and heavier than Type A school buses while still smaller than Type C/D buses. Type B buses are less commonly produced today than in the past. IC BE is the only type B bus still produced from the competition between IC, Blue Bird Corporation, and Thomas Built Buses. :;Design characteristics :*A bus body mounted to either a stripped chassis. :*The entrance door is mounted behind the front wheels. :*In most versions (stripped-chassis models), the engine compartment is located partially inside the passenger compartment next to the driver. :;Capacities :*At least 10 passengers; typically between 30-36. :*Type B buses are further classified into sub-classes based on their GVWR. :**Type B-1: GVWR of 10,000 pounds or less :**Type B-2: GVWR over 10,000 lb Type C ("conventional") school buses are the most common large school buses; as such, these have become the most synonymous with the depiction of large school bus in photography, film, and television. :;Design characteristics :*A bus body mounted to a cowled medium-duty truck chassis (in the past, the chassis was often supplied from another manufacturer, but more recently, the chassis manufacturer and the bus body manufacturer are the same company). :**Although typically of cowled-chassis chassis design, a few Type C buses also are of cutaway-cab design. :*The entrance door is mounted behind the front wheels. :
An "activity bus" is a school bus used for providing transportation for students. Instead of being used in route service (home to school), the intended usage of an activity bus is for transporting students for extracurricular activities. Depending on individual state and provincial regulations, the bus used for this purpose can either be a regular yellow school bus or a dedicated unit for this purpose. Dedicated activity buses, while not painted yellow, are fitted with the similar interiors as well as the same traffic control devices for dropping off students (at other schools).
In the past, groups that transport children and adults that did not need (or afford) a large bus commonly used 15-passenger vans to handle their transportation. However, such vehicles were at a disadvantage by comparison in terms of meeting safety regulations. To provide an alternative to 15-passenger vans (called "non-conforming vans" because they do not meet any safety standards for school buses), manufacturers have designed buses that can replace 15-passenger vans. These are called Multi-Function School Activity Buses (MFSABs).
The basic design of MFSABs differs from yellow school buses because of their intended use. These differ from yellow school buses in that they are not intended for route service; therefore, they are not fitted with traffic control devices (red warning lights, stop arm). Also, they are not painted school bus yellow. MFSAB buses are typically based on Type A school buses, although manufacturers offer MFSAB configurations for all four body styles of school buses.
If used by schools, MFSABs are primarily used for extracurricular activities requiring transportation; in the private sector, the MFSAB bus is commonly being purchased by child-care centers.
Canadian school buses are similar to their U.S.counterparts both in terms of overall design and their usage by school systems. The primary difference is the adaptation to Canada's bilingual population. In francophone Quebec, the signage on the outside of the bus is in French; the front and rear legends read —French for "Schoolchildren"—and the stop signal arm legend may read , French for "Stop", though Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 131 requires the legend to read . Speedometers are calibrated in metric units and buses, like all other Canadian vehicles, are equipped with Daytime running lights. Buses are sometimes marketed differently, as well; the Blue Bird All American, for example, is rebadged as the Blue Bird TX3 in Canada and other export markets.
Along with the United States, Canada has its own history of school bus production. Along with Canada's two domestic firms (Corbeil and Girardin), several U.S. firms (Blue Bird, Thomas, Wayne) have located facilities in Canada in the past. Canadian-produced school buses are exported to the United States, and Canada imports many U.S.-produced buses. The Corbeil designs manufactured in Canada before the firm's 2008 closure are now manufactured and sold in the United States by current parent company Collins Industries. In Canada, Girardin Minibus manufactures Type A buses for the U.S. market branded as Blue Birds as part of a joint venture. In 2011, production of full-size school buses resumed in Canada as Lion Bus commenced production of Type C buses for both Canadian and U.S. operators.
In Mexico, in addition to yellow school buses seen from the United States, various other types of buses are used in the role of student transport. As in the United States, many schools own their own fleets of school buses; school bus yellow is not a government regulation, so most buses are painted in individual school colors. Depending on capacity needs, vans, minibuses, and midibuses are also used. Among retired American school buses, some newer ones are imported into Mexico and put back into school service.
Most of the changes made to the American school bus over the past 70 years have been safety-related, in response to progressively more stringent regulations. Along with federal mandates, advances in engineering have made school buses safer for drivers and passengers alike. Because of their size, school buses have many blind spots which can endanger passengers getting on or off the bus and people standing or walking nearby. This safety challenge is addressed through the design and configuration of a bus' windows, body panels, and mirrors. Controversy exists over the installation of seat belts as a restraint system for school bus passengers.
Yellow was adopted as a standard color for North American school buses beginning in 1939. In April of that year, Dr. Frank W. Cyr, a professor at Teachers College at Columbia University in New York organized a meeting to establish national school bus construction standards, including yellow body paint. It became known officially as "National School Bus Chrome", later renamed "National School Bus Glossy Yellow." The color, which has come to be frequently called simply "school bus yellow", was selected because black lettering on that specific hue was easiest to see in the semi-darkness of early morning and late afternoon.
The conference met for seven days and the attendees created a total of 45 standards, including specifications regarding body length, ceiling height, and aisle width. Dr. Cyr's conference, funded by a $5,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, was also a landmark event inasmuch as it included transportation officials from all 48 states (at the time), as well as specialists from school bus manufacturing and paint companies. The conference approach to school bus safety, as well as the yellow color, has endured into the 21st century.
By the mid 1940s, most states had traffic laws requiring motorists to stop for school buses while children were loading or unloading. The justifications for this protocol are:
Since at least the mid 1970s, all U.S. states and Canadian provinces and territories have some sort of school bus traffic stop law; although each jurisdiction requires traffic to stop for a school bus loading and unloading passengers, different jurisdictions have different requirements of when to stop. Outside of North America, the school bus stopping traffic to unload and load children is not provided for. Instead of being given traffic priority, fellow drivers are encouraged to drive with extra caution around school buses.
Around 1946, the first system of traffic warning signal lights on school buses was used in Virginia. This system comprised a pair of sealed beam lights similar to those employed in American headlamps of the time. Instead of colorless glass lenses, the warning lights utilized red lenses. A motorized rotary switch applied power alternately to the red lights mounted at the left and right of the front and rear of the bus, creating a wig-wag effect. Activation was typically through a mechanical switch attached to the door control. However, on some buses (such as Gillig's Transit Coach models and the Kenworth-Pacific School Coach) activation of the roof warning lamp system was through the use of a pressure sensitive switch on a manually controlled stop paddle lever located to the left of the driver's seat below the window. Whenever the pressure was relieved by extending the stop paddle, the electrical current was activated to the relay.
In later years, electromechanical wig-wag flasher controls were replaced by electronic ones, and the warning lights were increased from four — two front and two rear, all red — to eight — two amber to warn of an impending stop, and two red to indicate a stop in progress, front and rear. Some jurisdictions, such as Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada still do not permit the amber-and-red system; all-red warning systems are still used in such locales. Newer buses with provisions for the amber-and-red eight-lamp system generally use eight red lenses where amber is not permitted. Plastic lenses were developed in the 1950s, though sealed beams — now with colorless glass lenses — were still most commonly used behind them until the mid 2000s, when light-emitting diodes (LEDs) began supplanting the sealed beams.
During the early 1950s, states began to specify a mechanical stop signal arm which the driver would swing out from the left side of the bus to warn traffic of a stop in progress. The portion of the stop arm protruding in front of traffic was initially a rectangle with painted on it. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 131 regulates the specifications of the stop arm as a double-faced regulation octagonal red stop sign at least across, with white border and uppercase legend. It must be retroreflective and/or equipped with alternately flashing red lights. As an alternative, the legend itself may also flash; this is commonly achieved with red LEDs. FMVSS 131 stipulates that the stop signal arm be installed on the left side of the bus, and placed such that when it is extended, the arm is perpendicular to the side of the bus, with the top edge of the sign parallel to and within of a horizontal plane tangent to the bottom edge of the first passenger window frame behind the driver's window, and that the vertical center of the stop signal arm must be no more than from the side of the bus. One stop signal arm is required; a second may also be installed. The second stop arm, when it is present, is usually mounted near the rear of the bus, and is not permitted to bear a or any other legend on the side facing forward when deployed.
In addition to the entry door, all school buses have at least one emergency exit door (in rear-engine buses, a window exit) in the rear of the bus. The rear door was a feature retained from when school buses were horse-drawn wagons and the entrance door was rear-mounted to avoid frightening the horses. Additional exits may be located in the roof (roof hatches), window exits, and/or side emergency exit doors. All are opened by the use of quick-release latches which activate an alarm. The number of emergency exits in a school bus depends on the size of the bus (its seating capacity) along with individual state regulations.
Building on the longstanding requirement for school bus yellow, many North American states and provinces — Colorado, for example — call for school bus yellow retroreflective conspicuity tape on the sides and rear of buses to mark their length, width, and height. This makes it easier
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