How Much Per Mile to Maintain a Bus

[luvrbus]

A friend stopped over last night from Arrow Stage Lines to make a long story short he asked how much you guys put aside for maintenance on the old buses.

They set a side .68 cents per mile on buses less than 10 years old they start from day one even on the new Setra's. 
The .68 cents covers fuel ,tires, insurance and general maintenance but not the driver pays seems a little high to me but when you add the items up he is not far off I don't think.
We were reading Jim's web looks like he needed more than .68 cents per mile the money he has spent for 50,000 miles a little feed back ok guys


good luck

[bevans6]

My gut is telling me about $1.25 per mile all in including fuel, which is maybe $0.75 for other.  But I don't put anything aside, I just spend what it takes and if I don't have it I don't spend it.  I think with our vehicles the averages are skewed by, example, needing to do the 350,000 mile service on the engine after 20,000 miles of ownership,  needing to buy tires every 30,000 miles because they are too old, fixing OP's screwups that only come to light after you've owned the bus for three years...  We often don't have OTR AC to maintain, that is a savings right there.  We also might do the maintenance our selves, saving an hourly wage.  Parts might be cheaper, used or NOS/obsolete can be cheaper than new for a Setra.


Brian

[busshawg]

I agree if a person is running around the 80,000 mile / yr make it would be close to a 1.25. If a person is running 10,000 mile/ year it may go up. Ihave found it works, runs better with more use.

[PP]

I couldn't agree more with Brian. I only wish it cost me 68 cents/mile to operate 

[bevans6]

I think Clifford is saying his friend budgets $0.68/mile for maintenance, not operation.  With fuel at a notional $0.50/mile, I am feeling that another $0.75 for maintenance is what I am expecting to pay.

Brian

[PP]

I think Clifford is saying his friend budgets $0.68/mile for maintenance, not operation.  With fuel at a notional $0.50/mile, I am feeling that another $0.75 for maintenance is what I am expecting to pay.

Brian

That's the way I understood it also, I just wish it only cost .68/mile to operate LOL Will

[Eagle]

The following is what Clifford said.

They set a side .68 cents per mile on buses less than 10 years old they start from day one even on the new Setra's. 
The .68 cents covers fuel ,tires, insurance and general maintenance but not the drivers pay.

[Just Dallas]

Removed

[PP]

OK, OK, I can't help myself.

I wish I could run any vehicle on the road for less than 3/4¢ per mile.

It's called a bicycle LOL (I couldn't resist either)

[Just Dallas]

Removed

[luvrbus]

Guys the way I understand the .68 cents is after all the tax deductions they take including deprecation on the bus still a lot of money 68,000 for every 100,000 miles just seems high to me and now you guys are saying 12,500 for 10,000 miles I never kept track there was nothing I could do anyway if I wanted to use my bus.
Like he told me on a 3 year old J4500 that left the shop in Phoenix they installed a new engine, transmission, ring gear, bearing and brakes plus tires and a few more things like seats was over a 100 grand and they had done a lot of work before this.
They can operate at .68 cents these guys count every penny they buy fuel by the train load.
He was just curios on how people handled the failure of major components with out a reserve my answer was you pray a lot.
Part of their program on different engines they install new Cat engines in the MCI's at 350,000 miles,the Cummins in the Vanhools at 300,000 miles,the 60 series in Prevost and Setra at 450,000 miles and I don't have any idea what size the Cat and Cummins are but these are the average sometimes they don't make it the mileage a new 60 series 47,000 bucks a B500 new 26,000 no wonder BK is pulling his hair out lol

[Sean]

We had this discussion back in January, as well:
http://www.busconversions.com/bbs/index.php?topic=14655.0

Back then, I posted that I had built a spreadsheet that we use to figure our per-mile operating costs, and Mike posted my spreadsheet on BCM, here:
http://www.busconversions.com/files/Per-Mile-Operating-Cost.xls

Generally, all we ever have to put in to it is the current price of diesel, and then it spits out not only our operating cost per mile of driving, but also the per-hour cost to run the generator.

You can adjust various factors to fit your own situation, such as cost of tires, oil changes, and the like, as well as how many miles you generally run between those services.

Right now we are running about 62 cents a mile, give or take.

HTH,

-Sean
http://OurOdyssey.BlogSpot.com

[bevans6]

I'm just thinking about myself and the past year.  50 cents a mile for fuel, that's $5K for 10,000 miles.  brake job, $3K (won't need another one for a while, but next year maybe an in-frame, year after starting to replace the tires), just did front air bags at $600, not to mention bucks to upgrade the generator, I just ordered an inverter, replaced the throne in the head, water pump died, thats $2K if you add it up.  If I'd been paying labour the steering work I just did would have been $1K.  I just ordered Peninsula windows for my bedroom, $750.

$12K isn't out of line.  Cheaper than the vintage car racing I've been  doing for the last 20 years.  That cost me $1500 a race in entry fees, car maintenance and tires, gas, not to mention travel expense, which could be as  little as $400 for a near race to $2K if I went to Savannah (which I did once a year).  

here is just a guess, at your friends expenses, based on 100K miles.  $40K in fuel, $5K in tires, $12K in engine, insurance maybe $5k, a brake job and other routine maintenance, monthly inspections $3k, AC maintenance $2K, that's $68K near enough.

I have a reserve, it's just a general reserve not a bus reserve.  I wrote a cheque last week for $20K for a new septic system for my house.  What's the difference between that and I don't know, a new transmission for my bus?  Maybe not $20K (if it is I need a new hobby) but I just write the cheque...and cry a little (give me a break, 20 grand to get rid of poop, that is wrong in so many ways...) No tax incentive to accrue for future expense if you can't write the expense off anyway...

Brian

Brian

[usbusin]

On January 19, 2010 luvrbus said; Proably no use to you but Arrow leases their coaches for 500.00 a day for a 44 passenger coach with a 1.38 per mile for insurance and fuel plus if Arrow furnshes the driver it is 300.00 a day for him or her plus expenses. 

Does this mean that Arrow is making 70 cents per mile?   $1.38 - $0.68 = $0.70 per mile

[luvrbus]

That 1.38 is for cost only then you take the maintenance from the .70 cents probably were he is coming up with .68 cents these are 500,000 dollar buses they use he tell me 5% is a good profit for them after taxes but 5% is not all that bad on 25mil if you add the 500 bucks a day it is more than 1.38 per mile but one tire the 500 bucks is shot to hell.They make a lot more on their school bus operation than the coach service so he says


good luck