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Bus Maintenance


Phil Medved, Vehicle Maintenance Supervisor
Bill Roeckl, Vehicle Maintenance Coordinator
Donna King, Administrative Assistant

  Phone: 858-748-0010 x2047

To inquire about a late bus, please call 679-2636
 The Transportation Department Maintenance Section has been recognized as one of the premier school bus maintenance terminals in the State of California by the California Highway Patrol. Each of our buses are inspected annually by the CHP on a quarterly basis with one fourth of the fleet inspected during each inspection. Our Maintenance Section has received a perfect "zero discrepancy" award on 27 of these inspections over the past twelve years, which over the past 18 months includes 6 inspections in a row which is a year and a half without a single discrepancy being noticed. This is a record of maintenance excellence unequalled by any other transportation department in the State of California.
 

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School Bus Fleet Home

SBF's Top 10 Maintenance Programs for 2006
( Page 5 of 5 )

April 2006 - Features

’Poway-ful’ inspection results

Poway Unified School District — Poway, Calif.

With a fleet that’s growing — and a shop staff that’s not — the maintenance program at Poway Unified School District has managed to keep its customer satisfaction levels high, combining high operational efficiency with a top-notch training system.

Transportation Director Tim Purvis says the department receives plenty of recognition from external customers and inquiries from other school districts “because of our success with the vehicle inspections.”

What Purvis is referring to is the department’s impressive results in the quarterly bus inspections conducted by the California Highway Patrol. During these inspections, about a quarter of the district’s buses, from 35 to 37, are scrutinized for defects, both minor and major. Over the past 14 years, inspectors have found zero defects 27 times. The other “non-perfect” inspections generally turn up only one or two minor defects. Inspectors have found no out-of-service defects.

Phil Medved, the district’s vehicle maintenance supervisor, credits the shop’s determination to “do things right” for the impressive inspection results, which are well above the average in California.

Medved says his staff of 12, which includes a coordinator, four technicians, three mechanics, two service workers and two attendants, ensures that jobs are done properly. “At no time do they try to bandage anything,” he says. “Either it’s fixed right or it goes out of service.”

Building rapport with the district’s bus drivers is also important. To ensure that they know that a bus with a service request has actually been checked and, if necessary, repaired, the maintenance staff leaves what’s called a “steering wheel hanger” to alert the driver. “It’s a good communication tool,” Medved says. “When they see the hanger tag, they know that we’ve looked at the problem. If they see the problem again, they can bring the hanger tag back to us.”

Fleet Facts

  • Fleet composition: 152 buses, 110 other vehicles
  • Total shop staff: 12
  • Number of bus bays: 5
  • Annual mileage: 2 million
  • Students transported: 7,028
  • Schools served: 36

This article taken from School Bus Fleet - April 2006 Features