The Wheels on 1,630 School Buses Go Round and Round
Mechanic Ira Zuspan works on a bus at the West Ox Maintenance Facility.
Updated Aug. 28, 2018
It’s not just your imagination.
There are a lot of school buses in Fairfax County (and with more than 190,000 students, here are seven things to know for the start of school).
A fleet of 1,630 school buses is maintained by our Department of Vehicle Services to transport Fairfax County Public Schools students.
We rank No. 2 (behind New York City) in largest number of students transported by school bus. Our school bus fleet is larger than Greyhound’s entire fleet.
Since June, county government staff has been inspecting and preparing buses for the Aug. 28 opening of school. “On average, it takes approximately four man hours for each bus,” says Mark Moffatt, director of Vehicle Services. That equals about 20 buses per mechanic.
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In addition to school buses, our vehicle services department has the noteworthy distinction of maintaining the largest municipal fleet of vehicles in Virginia, including police cars, fire engines, hybrid cars, motorcycles, engineer construction equipment and more. Approximately 178 mechanics service and maintain approximately 5,900 vehicles at four facilities, and approximately 30 material management specialists purchase and stock approximately 5,200 parts. They also manage and supply bulk diesel and unleaded gasoline to 53 fuel sites countywide.
- The county’s hybrid fleet includes 121 vehicles, including five plug-in hybrids, one heavy-duty hybrid-electric truck and one plug-in hybrid-electric school bus.
- We purchase approximately 10.3 million gallons of diesel and unleaded fuel annually. This would fill 15.6 Olympic-size swimming pools each year.
- We recycle more than 31,400 gallons of used motor oil annually and are reimbursed an average of $0.463 per gallon.
- 178 mechanics hold Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) certifications in multiple fields from automotive, medium trucks, heavy trucks, and school buses.
