On average, districts spend about $4,000 per bus on annual maintenance costs. And the older the bus, the more maintenance is required. But through Thomas Built’s vast service network as part of Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA), Thomas Built Buses is able to decrease your total cost of ownership through enhanced service locations and by leveraging the benefits of the DTNA service network to expedite parts availability and expertise.

Thomas Built Buses helps customers decrease their total cost of ownership through its dealer certification program known as Platinum Support. This program is a comprehensive service program that focuses on getting buses out of the shop and back out on the road as quickly as possible.

Through Platinum Support, Thomas Built-certified service locations are setting a high bar for maintaining uptime in the industry. The Thomas Built Platinum Support program provides quality assurance, rapid diagnostics, exceptional turnaround times and consistent communication, all performed by a highly trained, certified staff. Each Platinum Support dealer undergoes rigorous training on how to make their day-to-day business practices even more efficient and, in turn, provide faster assessment and repair. The result: reduced downtime and a lower overall life-cycle cost on a bus.

In addition, each Platinum Support-certified dealer keeps a robust parts inventory, so need-it-now parts are on hand. This ensures fast turnaround on service and repairs, so districts save time and reduce their overall service costs.

For parts that are not in stock, supply chain enhancements like DTNA’s new parts distribution centers (PDC) deliver parts into the hands of technicians faster. To date, DTNA has eight parts PDCs across the country, each of which distributes approximately $1 million in aftermarket parts per day. In total, one PDC will house more than $15million in inventory, which includes stock and mission-critical parts for all of DTNA’s brands including Thomas Built Buses, Freightliner, Western Star, Detroit™ engines, Freightliner Custom Chassis and the all-makes brand Alliance Truck Parts.

But PDCs are only part of the story. Through myriad behind-the-scenes support tools such as DTNA’s inventory management systems, dedicated delivery processes and e-commerce tools, dealers can improve uptime by simplifying and expediting the parts ordering process. If a part is in stock, in most instances it will arrive within 24 hours. Often the necessary parts will be waiting at a repair shop before business hours the following day.

Thomas Built Buses and DTNA are heavily invested in decreasing a fleet’s total cost of ownership through bringing the best service and maintenance to the school bus industry. And with these continual improvements, Thomas Built customers can expect a service experience unmatched by the competition.