According to our latest School Minibus Survey, minibuses are clearly now a mainstream part of a school’s facilities with 83% of schools using a minibus on a regular basis. But it appears that the minibus fleet is aging which is clearly not a good thing.

Findings from our most recent 2017 (Decision Makers) School Minibus Survey suggest that 57% of schools with one or more minibus have one vehicle on the road that is over five years old – up from around 50% two years ago.

This is understandable but worrying, given the propensity for older vehicles to break down while being used for carrying pupils and students. Thus, we continue our campaign of trying to find the most cost-effective option for your school to acquire a brand new school minibus.

Indeed, as buying a new minibus outright isn’t a cost-effective option for many schools, we have since explored the option of leasing. This appears to have grown in popularity with 50% of schools reporting that their most recent minibus was acquired on a lease.

A further option which we have also touched on is the idea of sharing a leased minibus with a neighbouring school in the same cluster, trust or council, which is ideal if leasing a minibus on its own is still too costly an option.

However, despite the fact that sharing a leased minibus can be a highly cost-effective option, only 4% of schools currently do this, perhaps because 13% of respondents said they had not heard of, and therefore considered, this option until now.

Thus, if you would like to talk to someone who might be able to point you in the right direction for sharing a leased minibus with another school in the same cluster, trust or council, please call 01753 859944 or send an email to minibus@benchmarkleasing.co.uk.

Before you get in touch about sharing a leased minibus, please take the time to have a look at the leasing options that we offer on our website to see if we have a minibus leasing contract that is affordable for your school – www.minibusleasing.co.uk/school-minibus.php.

To see the full 2017 School Minibus Survey, please click here.