School bus sales drop for fourth year in a row

School bus sales in North America this year fell for the fourth consecutive year, according to SBF research.

In the 2010 sales year (Nov. 1, 2009, to Oct. 31, 2010), a total of 31,194 school buses were sold in the U.S. and Canada. That’s down 12.7 percent from the 2009 total, which was 35,740.

Compared to the peak of 47,614 school buses sold in 2006, the 2010 total was down about a third (34.4 percent).

Broken down by type of school bus, sales of Type Ds dropped the most, from 4,680 units in 2009 to 2,864 in 2010. That’s a decrease of 38.8 percent.

More details on the North American school bus sales are in SBF’s new 2011 Fact Book.