More than 50% of the school minibuses in the UK are more than 5 years old. But, they are from a time when a school raised money and bought for cash a new minibus. But now that 
they are out of warranty and falling in value, the gap between their value and a replacement vehicle is widening every month and will get un-affordable, this is clearly no way to provide a minibus for a school.
Nowadays though, the normal way to fund your new school minibus is to lease it. It gets you away from the expense of running an old unit, repairing it and hoping that it doesn’t break down. Your monthly payment is a known fixed amount and when you get to the end of your lease, you simply take another contract out and do the same again. 
But, unbelievably, the average minibus that is older than five years, costs more to service and repair than it would to lease a new one. So how has this come about?
It may be too simple to assume that a school has a minibus that they are happy with and is sign written to their specification, but more likely that they don’t even know leasing is a possibility. If the costs are the same but your minibus is brand new, your tyres are new and it will have all the latest safety facilities, why would you ever have one that is five years old?
Modern education includes for outside studies and it is widely agreed that learning is more than just what goes on in class. So, once you have your new school minibus, get out and use it. If you need to understand licensing requirements, then check our previous blogs, where we have also covered security and keeping your minibus safe
