Every bus breaks down sooner or later, and usually with children on board. A driver who knows the steps by heart keeps it a delay instead of an emergency. A dispatcher with a plan has a spare bus on the way before the school starts calling.
Here's a simple school bus breakdown procedure for drivers and for the office, to put in the handbook and practise.
The driver
- Get off the road: as far right as you can, on the shoulder or a safe side street, away from curves and hills.
- Hazard lights on, parking brake set, engine off if it's safe to do so.
- Keep students on board and seated, unless staying is more dangerous than leaving: fire, fuel leaking, a railroad crossing, or a spot where the bus could be hit.
- Set out the warning triangles behind and in front of the bus, as your state's rules say.
- Call dispatch with the bus number, exactly where you are, what happened, how many students are on board and whether anyone is hurt.
- Stay with the students until the spare bus or help arrives, and hand them over student by student.
Tip: Practise the call. A driver who says "Bus 104, Route 7, Oak Street just past Main, lost power, 31 students, no one hurt" in one breath saves the dispatcher three phone calls.
When to evacuate
Evacuation is the last resort, because the road outside is usually more dangerous than the bus. Get students off when there's fire or smoke, fuel leaking, the bus is stopped on or near a railroad track, or it's where traffic could hit it. Drivers should know which exits to use and where to lead the students, the same as in the evacuation drill.
Dispatch
- Send a spare bus and a driver, and tell them the exact location.
- Tell the school that the run will be late, and roughly when.
- Send the mechanic or the tow once the students are safe.
- Tell the driver of the spare about the route, so they don't start from the yard with nothing.
- Write it down: what failed, where, how long the students waited.
After
- Keep the bus out of service until it's repaired and checked.
- Look for a pattern: the same bus, the same part, the same kind of failure.
- Check the spares: if no spare was ready, you may need another one.
Good to know: Your state's driver manual and your district's procedure come first: follow them for warning devices, evacuation and who must be told.
Doing it in FleetCommander
Reporting it. The driver can report a defect or an incident straight from My Day, with photos. An incident's Type can be Mechanical failure, with the vehicle, the driver, where and when, and managers are told as soon as it's saved. A failed safety-critical item on an inspection gives a box to take the bus out of service right there and opens a defect for the shop. See the Incidents guide and the Defects guide.
Sending the spare. On the route's page, change the vehicle to a spare, or put another driver on it, and the drivers are told straight away. Vehicle status under Reports lists every bus with its Status, so you see which spares are free. The repair becomes a work order with the Repair category that fits, so repeat failures show in Repair costs by category.
Ava (Beta), the assistant in the app, answers Which buses are out of service? or Any open defects on Bus 104?. More on her page.
Related reading
Questions people ask
- What should a school bus driver do if the bus breaks down?
- Get off the road, turn on the hazard lights, set the brake, keep students seated on board unless it's safer off, set out warning triangles and call dispatch with the bus, location, problem and number of students.
- Should students get off a broken-down school bus?
- Usually not. Evacuate only when staying is more dangerous: fire, smoke, leaking fuel, a railroad crossing or a spot where traffic could hit the bus.
- What does dispatch do when a bus breaks down?
- Sends a spare bus and driver to the exact location, tells the school the run will be late, sends the mechanic or tow once students are safe, and records what happened.
- How do you stop repeat breakdowns?
- Keep the bus out of service until it's repaired, and look for patterns: the same bus, the same part or the same kind of failure.