• Community
• Community Home
• Information & Forms
• Doing Business With Us
  • Doing Business With Us Home
  • Business Partners
  • Vendor Information
  • Jessica Lunsford Act
  • Purchasing Bids
  • Purchasing Public Notices & Product Evaluation
  • Sole/Single Source Purchases
  • Facilities Projects
  • School Concurrency
  • School Nutrition Purchasing Profile
  • Instructional Programs & Materials
• Road Watch
• Volunteers
  • Volunteers Home
  • How You Can Help
  • Mentors
  • Take Stock in Children Mentors
  • AmeriCorps Polk Reads
  • Service Learning
  • Polk County Men Read Program
• PCSBtv
  • PCSBtv Home
  • Weekly Schedule
• Community Centers
  • Community Centers Home
  • 21st Century Community Learning Centers
• Recognition Programs
  • Recognition Programs Home
  • Teacher and School-Related Employee of the Year
  • Hall of Fame Inductees
  • About-Face Awards
  • Outstanding School Volunteer of the Year
  • Superintendent's Scholars
  • Wheels to Engagement
• Green Initiatives
  • Green Initiatives Home
  • Green Team
  • Green Garden
  • Energy Management
  • Waste and Recycling Department
  • Vehicle and Safety Services

Our Mission

To provide safe, reliable, and efficient transportation for our staff and students.

General Information

With a fleet of 639 school buses, our drivers log in a combined 10,207,680 miles in a school year. That equates to 56,709.3 miles driven daily, or the equivalent of driving around the equator of the earth a little more than 2 times every day of the school year.

With the ever changing price of fuel, depletion of our natural resources and amount of miles travelled annually, we are always looking for more economical as well as environmentally friendly options to keep our wheels turning and improve the performance of our vehicle fleet.

Advances in diesel exhaust after-treatment technology have allowed us to reduce our emissions footprint. This, combined with the use of CNG (compressed natural gas), and propane powered buses give us workable alternatives that will further decrease our need for conventional fuels and reduce our impact on the environment. We continue to explore other alternatives such as Hybrid (diesel-propane), and electrical technologies to get the most performance for our vehicle dollar.

In addition to our 639 school buses, our fleet also contains 468 cars and trucks. This includes the use of hybrid vehicles such as the Ford Fusion and Chevrolet Malibu in our energy management department and administrative vehicles.

Synthetic motor oils and long life coolants are now being used in our fleet services to help increase fuel mileage, increase engine life, and reduce our waste oil/coolant output. Fuels such as ethanol blended gasoline, propane, and ultra-low sulfur diesel are also being used. We have also partnered with other government agencies within the county to provide propane fueling stations to help support our alternative fuel vehicles. Continued advances in petroleum products as well as our continued use of alternative fuel technologies will help to ensure that our vehicles make economic as well as environmental sense.

Fuel Saving Tips

All operators of district-owned vehicles should adhere to the following practices when operating a school-district owned vehicle.

1. Observe the Speed Limit. While each vehicle reaches its optimal fuel economy at a different speed (or range of speeds), fuel mileage usually decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 mph. You can assume that each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.30 per gallon for fuel. To this end, please maintain an appropriate speed not to exceed 55mph when operating a school district owned vehicle.
2. Remove Excess Weight. Avoid keeping unnecessary items in your vehicle, especially heavy ones. An extra 100 pounds in your vehicle could reduce your MPG by up to 2%. The reduction is based on the percentage of extra weight relative to the vehicle's weight and affects smaller vehicles more than larger ones.
3. Avoid Excessive Idling. Idling gets 0 miles per gallon. Vehicles with larger engines typically waste more fuel at idle than do vehicles with smaller engines.
4. Use Cruise Control. Using cruise control, if available, on the highway helps you maintain a constant speed and, in most cases, will save fuel.
5. Keep your tires properly inflated. Low air pressure, more than any other factor, decreases fuel economy. I suggest visiting your local vehicle service center on a monthly basis and have the pressure checked. We will be glad to perform this service for you.
6. Keep your assigned vehicle appropriately serviced. A dirty air filter or dirty motor oil can reduce the efficiency of the vehicle’s engine. Please contact your local Vehicle Service Manager for the oil change interval for your assigned vehicle.
7. Drive Sensibly. Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration and braking) wastes fuel. It can lower your fuel mileage by 33 percent at highway speeds and by 5 percent around town. Sensible driving is also safer for you and others, so you may save more than fuel money. Remember you are driving a motorized billboard. What you do and how you drive can negatively reflect on the district.

Finally, remind all operators that district-owned vehicles should be used for district business only. Other than using for transportation to mid-day meals, employees should refrain from conducting personal business while operating a district owned vehicle. We should not be using them for personal use.

Click here to download the Fuel Saving Tips Document

Contact Information

Click here to contact the Department of Vehicle and Safety Services