Manager: J.L. Fuller
Title: Transportation supervisor
Fleet: Edmond School District, Edmond, OK
Operation: Bus fleet operating 150 school buses plus assorted pickups, vans and other light-duty vehicles
Problem:
Edmond Public Schools comprise the fourth largest public school district in Oklahoma, serving roughly 22,500 students and employing more than 2,500 people. Yet it takes care of its 150 bright yellow school buses and other assorted light vehicles at a single, central seven-bay maintenance facility staffed with five technicians who are called upon to handle everything from engine issues to tire troubles.
J. L. Fuller has been the Edmond School District’s transportation supervisor for almost nine years. After he began working for the district, he found that bus tires were stored on metal racks housed in two 40-ft. storage containers out in the parking area.
The reason? The shop simply didn’t have the storage space for spare tires, yet had to keep a number of spares on hand in case a school bus suffered a flat or damaged tire. “You can’t have a school bus sit stranded or be taken out of service just for the lack of a tire,” Fuller explained.
But the storage containers were not easy to access, were exposed to the elements, didn’t have heating or air conditioning, and were “just a pain in the rear” to use, he says. Thus, an alternative needed to be found.
Solution:
Fuller himself isn’t a veteran of the transportation industry; he actually came into the field after retiring from a financial document printing company. So, he huddled with his technicians to explore some tire storage options, and they eventually settled on a storage system developed by Allentown, PA-based Stanley Vidmar.
The fully motorized vertical tire storage system selected by the Edmond School District occupies just 12 ft. x 15 ft. worth of floor space, so it could easily fit within the shop. Not only can the unit handle various tire sizes up to 44 in. in diameter, only one operator is needed to rotate carrier frames, locate desired tire sets, stop at proper position, and safely remove tires at floor level.
“We can store up to 72 of our big bus tires in it, or a total of 96 tires if we combine a mix of bus tires and light-vehicle tires,” Fuller explains. “The big savings from this system for us is time. To fully change a set of tires on a bus, a technician would have to walk outside and retrieve them one by one from our storage containers—lifting and moving them by hand,” he adds. “Now the tires are available right inside the shop. We save at minimum a half hour when we need to change a tire on one of our buses.”
On top of that, the Stanley Vidmar storage system can also hold what Fuller calls “fully ready tires,” meaning tires already mounted on wheels. “If a bus comes in and needs a quick change, we can get them in and out fast and then go back later to remove the old tires from the wheels. It helps make the shop more productive.”
It also makes it safer, too. The motorized selector and walk up/down ramp means no more physical lifting and carrying of tires is required, making tire retrieval more ergonomic and preventing the potential for workplace injuries.
Fuller credits the experienced technicians in the shop with helping select a tire storage system that best fits their work environment. “My management style is to listen to people with the hands-on experience, then move towards finding a solution to meet their needs and that of our budget,” he explains. “I enjoy challenges and I am fortunate to work with some great technicians who enjoy solving similar challenges as well.”
