A survey revealed that the majority of school minibuses on the road are over five years old – but why does this matter?

When we consider that the majority of school minibuses on the road are over five years old (survey by Benchmark Minibus Leasing), it is no surprise that in a separate survey school managers reported pupil safety (due to the condition of the minibus) as a barrier to offering more LOtC.

Of course, buying a brand new school minibus would solve the issue of pupis safety as the minibus’ safety features (airbags, ABS braking, etc.) are more advanced, but buying a new minibus can be expensive – to the point of being unaffordable.

As a solution to both of these issues (cost and pupil safety), a growing number of schools are opting to lease a brand new school minibus as opposed to buying one (or two) outright.

This is because it is an arrangement which makes it possible for schools to fund the minibus through a small payment each month with the cost of the vehicle’s MOTs, servicing, and repairs included in the lease price.

Furthermore, in some cases where trips are paid for by contributions from parents and the PTA, it is possible to allocate a part of those payments towards the cost of the minibus.

To find out more about leasing a school minibus with us, please do call us on 01753 859944 or click here to see what we can offer.

And if you know that your colleagues are frequently searching for school trip or learning-outside-the-classroom ideas, please direct them to our Facebook and Twitter pages where they will find lots of exciting ideas.

Helping you to overcome the barriers to Learning Outside the Classroom

There are two predominant factors that hold schools back from offering more LOtC to pupils. The first is cost, and the second is pupils’ safety due to the condition of the school’s minibus (a survey revealed that the majority of school minibuses on the road are over five years old).

Of course, buying a brand-new school minibus would solve the issue of pupil’s safety as the minibus’ safety features (airbags, ABS braking, etc.) are more advanced, but buying a brand-new minibus can be expensive – which brings us back to the first issue of cost.

As a solution to both of these issues (cost and pupil’s safety), a growing number of schools are opting to lease a brand-new school minibus as opposed to buying one (or two) outright.

This is because it is an arrangement which makes it possible for schools to fund the minibus through a small payment each month with the cost of the vehicle’s MOTs, servicing and repairs included in the lease price.

Furthermore, in some cases where trips are paid for by contributions from parents and the PTA, it is possible to allocate a part of those payments towards the cost of the minibus – reducing the funds being deducted from the school’s capital account.

To find out more about leasing a school minibus with us, please do call us on 01753 859944 or click here to see what we can offer.

And if you know that your colleagues are frequently searching for school trip or learning-outside-the-classroom ideas, please direct them to our Facebook & Twitter pages where they will find lots of exciting ideas

To see if you meet the requirements to drive a minibus on a regular car driving licence, you can have a look at the ROSPA leaflet: Minibus safety, under the section entitled “Entitlement to Drive a minibus”.

If it turns out that you can drive a minibus on a regular car driving licence, it is now likely that you can increase your pupils’ opportunities and experiences for LotC because you no longer need to rely on the appointed school minibus driver to be available.

But there is a problem. Although you no longer need to worry about the appointed minibus driver’s availability, you’ll need to ensure that the minibus itself is available – especially because (I can imagine) you are going to share this myth-busting email with your colleagues.

Indeed, the only option here is to acquire an additional minibus – but buying a new school minibus is expensive, to the point of being unaffordable.

Fortunately, a growing number of schools are discovering that by sharing an additional minibus with another school in the same cluster, trust, or council, buying a new school minibus becomes an option.

Better still, if you lease a minibus with Benchmark, there is the added benefit of improved cashflow (as you pay a set fee each month) and it often works out to be much cheaper than buying a minibus outright (especially if one considers the re-sale value).

Furthermore, a full maintenance programme is included, so no matter the outcome of the vehicle’s services and MOTs, the cost of repairs won’t affect the lease price.

If you haven’t leased a minibus or thought about sharing one, please do give me a call on 01753 859944 and I can talk you through how it all works.

But if you want to take a look at who we are and what we do before you call, you’ll find more information about leasing at www.minibusleasing.co.uk.

The only problem is, however, that offering lots of learning outside the classroom experiences to your pupils can be expensive to the point of being unaffordable, not least due to the transport that is needed to get pupils from A to B.

Fortunately, there is a solution – a growing number of primary schools are finding that by leasing a school minibus (meaning that there is no initial large payment required – just a monthly lease fee) rather than purchasing a minibus outright, costs are significantly reduced.

Better still, by leasing a school minibus with Benchmark, any repairs, servicing and the like are included in the arrangement with the costs conveniently built into the lease price.

Moreover, a growing number of primary schools are also finding that by sharing their minibus with a nearby school that is in the same cluster, trust or council as they are, the transport costs are halved, and thus, their overall expenditure on school outings is reduced.

If you haven’t leased a minibus or thought about sharing one, please do give me a call on 01753 859944 and I can talk you through how it all works.

But if you want to take a look at who we are and what we do before you call, you’ll find more information about leasing at www.minibusleasing.co.uk.

However, two recent developments have ensured that more and more schools are now able to have minibus transport that they previously felt was out of their reach.

But – and this is the key fact – these two new approaches have to be seen together; on their own they look like interesting notions – but not a solution.

The two approaches are a) to lease the minibus on a set monthly fee which includes all servicing, maintenance and repair costs, and b) to share its use with a nearby school that is in the same cluster, trust or council as they are, so that each school has the bus for an agreed amount of time.

What’s more, many schools do then add a third element of their own to the equation – since they know how much the minibus will cost each month they do sometimes ask the PTA or other support group to make a contribution to that cost each month.

Now that is often very much welcomed since it means that the parents making the contribution to the minibus account know that is it their children who are benefitting, rather than the children in future years (as happens when the fund raising goes on for several years before a bus can be bought).

Sharing a leased minibus also has the benefit of ensuring that everyone is always driving a bus that is well maintained – since it is the leasing company that works on maintaining the bus in tip top condition.

If you haven’t leased a minibus or thought about sharing one, please do give me a call on 01753 859944 and I can talk you through how it all works.

But if you want to take a look at who we are and what we do before you call, you’ll find more information about leasing at www.minibusleasing.co.uk.