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WayneCustom
Active Member
30 Posts |
 Posted - 09/10/2014 : 3:38:30 PM
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My district (where I work) got for the first time IC CE's. We got eight of them and they are working out well so far. We replaced aging TC2000's with them. Supposed to be getting another eight next year.
A nearby district is trying out Thomas Saf-T-Liner transits for the first time after 15 years of exclusively buying transits from Amtran/International/IC. |
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ICBUS07-30
Senior Member
USA
59 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2014 : 4:34:52 PM
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Our district was a loyal Thomas buyer until! Thomas stopped getting international chassis. so we are now big IC guys! Then... we outsourced so now were STUCK with C2s!  
And another school district close to us used to by C2s they were not happy to say the least so now you guested it IC people! I'm  .
formally (IC0730) |
Formally ICBUS0730
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Edited by - ICBUS07-30 on 09/10/2014 4:36:10 PM |
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Jake
Top Member
USA
3527 Posts |
Posted - 09/13/2014 : 09:32:55 AM
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| The local school district here has bought C2's for the fourth year in a row. They used to be very heavy on IC before they started having problems. |
Yellow & Black
A new forum community dedicated to school bus driving, operations, maintenance and enthusiasts!
Come join the discussion! |
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Cal Mc
Advanced Member
303 Posts |
Posted - 10/04/2014 : 11:11:42 PM
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At one time we were all GM/Bluebird/Cat, and life was good. Then in 2003 everything changed and it has been a downhill slide since then. Visions with failure prone electronics. Four C2 buses that cost us more in windshields per year than all the other 60 buses combined (yes we do windshield repairs) 15 IC buses that we dread coming off warranty. Five 2008 Visions with Cat engines, that at less than 100,000 miles required replacement of $4000 DPF units.
Our last five International/Cummins buses came without emergency door release for the entrance door (D250 standard), mirror heaters (D250 standard), manual entrance doors that had to be rebuilt to be able to use them, bottom stair tread that had to be removed and trimmed to allow the door to close properly. All 5 of the buses when sitting at an idle have such a drone when you are inside at the rear axle that it makes you feel like holding your head. Due to multiple failures two of the buses we have not been able to put on to a route er owning four months.
We have one 2010 IC/MaxforceDT with 70,000 km that for the past year has been on a route of 500 km a day. Before going onto the route it had 60,000 km (do the math) The rest of the time has been spent at the International dealer for warranty work. It has been so bad that the warranty has been extended for one year. We tried running it on the route this year and so far it has not made on full day total in the last month. At present we are running the route with a 15 year old GM/Bluebird/CAT with 300,000 km and have not had so much as a light burn out.
We are about to go to tender for 5 new buses. I would welcome any suggestions!
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busfan97
New Member
USA
5 Posts |
Posted - 10/06/2014 : 3:15:56 PM
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| Our district went from a 100% Blue Bird (International) fleet to a mixture of ICs & Thomas C2s. They will not purchase any REs or FEs, instead all conventional. I miss our Blue Birds. Still remember when we took delivery of our first Thomas (Freightliner chassis). Other drivers were excited but give me a Blue Bird over any of the others any time. Now I am stuck with a Thomas C2 and hate it. Even though, we went from no air conditioned buses (except the wheel chair buses) to every bus having air conditioning. That is one good thing that came with the newer buses. |
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08 Thomas EF
Top Member
533 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2014 : 10:25:13 AM
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We've had a variety over the years. We had a bunch of mid-80's Thomas/Ford conventionals, a 1990 Wayne International, a handful of TCs from 1990-2002, a 1995 Minotour/GMC 6.5, a 2006 MidBus/Ford 365, a few Micro Birds, a handful of '01 AmTran FEs (when several buses failed inspection simultaneously; these buses are starting to be phased out now), a handful of '04, '05, and '10 CEs, a handful of '08 and '09 EFs.
We've gone back to Blue Bird -- presumably due to issues with the EFs and CE200s. We have a pair of 2012 D3s, a 2013 A3, a 2015 T3, and a pair of T3s that arrived this year. Probably 2015s. Oh, and a 35-pass. Vision for the tech school route that carries about 32 passengers if I remember correctly. If that route ever fills up, that bus will be useless elsewhere because it's either too small or too big. Plus I can imagine the lack of compartmentalization for whoever is lucky enough to have the aisle seat.... Anyway. We've also been buying MidBus/Collins type As on GM/Durmax chassis. Oldest Type A is a 2002 MicroBird with around 200k. |
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seyster7
New Member
7 Posts |
Posted - 06/20/2016 : 08:56:21 AM
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| The district I drive for is almost 100% IC CE. We have 8 05 Blue Bird Internationals, but everything else is CE. We used to be all Blue Bird TC/2000, but phased those out starting in 2002 probably? I never got a chance to drive those, but I rode on them as a kid. Not sure what our future holds if we will continue ordering CE's or looking to Thomas or Blue Bird. A couple area districts have Blue Bird... Haven't seen any Thomas' outside of First Student. |
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bedfordone
Active Member
USA
47 Posts |
Posted - 06/20/2016 : 09:20:50 AM
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| We have started buying Lion buses with Cummins engines. They are more expensive but they have worked out great so far, knock on wood. |
Brian Prochazka
Bedford City Schools
Transportation Specialist |
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bknebel
Active Member
USA
43 Posts |
Posted - 07/16/2016 : 12:58:05 PM
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| Our district will be 100% IC CE's starting this year. We have only one of them that has given us trouble, but it was one of the first CE's to come off the assembly line 2004/2005. It also was on the toughest route for 10 years. It still is a GOOD bus and has an amazing engine. I would say we are very happy with our IC CE's here. |
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How have your fleets changed?
