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Blog Posts From Northwest Bus Sales

When Do Schools Stop Using Buses?

school bus fleet

There are almost 500,000 school buses out on the road all across the U.S. every year. These buses are used to pick kids up and take them to school before picking them back up and returning them home. They’re also used to transport athletic teams and to take school children on field trips. School buses are made to last for a long time while making it easy for school districts to get students wherever they need to be in the safest manner possible. How Long do Schools Uses Their Buses For? School bus companies don’t keep these buses around forever,… Read more »

Highlighting Our ‘Build Your Own New Bus’ Feature

Parked Tour Bus Outside

At Northwest Bus Sales, we firmly believe that there’s a bus out there for everyone which is why we came up with our ‘Build Your Own New Bus’ feature. A cutting-edge new tool on our website allows you to build the bus of your dreams, using several benchmarks to narrow down your picks. It starts first with model. Really, the question here is the number of passengers. Are you transporting 14 people, or 25? Maybe even up to 33, or 44? If you know the answer to that question, you’ll be able to select the model that can accommodate. Then… Read more »

Meal Planning Tips for Bus Living

It is no secret that a bus has less space than a home or apartment but that doesn’t mean you can’t work with it — especially when it comes to food. For people that have adopted the “bus life,” figuring out meals that work is part of the adventure. The key is to know what you’re getting into and learn how to work with the space you have. There are several ways to successfully meal plan if you are embarking on the bus life adventure of a lifetime. Create One-Stop Shops for Your Meals With less space, your meals must… Read more »

How to Succeed as a Bus Driver

Do you enjoy driving? Are you good when it comes to finding your way around out on the road? Is safety your No. 1 concern when you’re behind the wheel? If you answered “yes” to all these questions, you might make a great bus driver. Northwest Bus Sales has highlighted several qualities that will help you succeed as a bus driver.  You Must Be Personable When people walk onto a bus, it helps them to see a friendly face behind the wheel. Many passengers expect the bus driver to interact a bit and make traveling fun. Whether you’re driving people… Read more »

European Buses Experiment with Uber Characteristics

Europe is combining six, 17-seat low-emission minibuses with the concept of Uber to create a new mode of transportation called PickMeUp, Oxford Bus Company’s new “Uber for buses” service. The PickMeUp app and service officially launched in June 2018 as the new public way to travel in Oxford by bus. Residents simply download the PickMeUp app and order a bus to a virtual stop on demand; they set up the pick-up and drop-off points within the app’s chosen zone and add extra passengers as applicable. Users can see their route and estimated time of arrival on the app. The route… Read more »

The Rare Reason More People are Buying Buses

There are several reasons why people are buying buses at record clips right now. As we mentioned previously on our blog, cities are looking to buses once again to expand their mass transit networks as urban centers rapidly grow. In the era of rideshare, people are more often looking for cost-effective ways to transport large groups of people, even if they don’t know one another. Group travel is 2018’s transit trend, and we’re fully behind it. But there’s another reason why more people are buying buses that has recently arisen and it’s one that is so interesting and unique, it’s… Read more »

Bus Travel Popularity Increases in Seattle

When you think of Seattle, you probably think about coffee or the Space Needle, but these days, two other words might come to mind: public transportation. Seattle is experiencing an influx of new citizens and they are all looking to the Metro systems to get them where they need to go. If you are still unsure of how big bus travel really is in Seattle, then all you need to do is look towards the numbers. The fact of the matter is that Seattle is one of the fastest growing cities in the country with nearly a quarter million new… Read more »

Seattle Leading the Way with Increase in Transit Ridership

When it comes to public transit, the city of Seattle is in a good place. Recent studies have shown that the citizens of the city are utilizing public transport in record numbers. In 2017 alone, the Metro bus system transported a record 122.2 million riders, the Sound Transit Link light rail system carried a record 23.2 million riders, and 9.6 million passengers chose the Metro-operated Sound Transit Express service. When it comes to these popular forms of transport, the people have made their voices heard, and the city has listened. Per King County Executive, Dow Constantine: “People wanted more bus… Read more »

Beat Bus Ride Blues with our Long Distance Travel Tips

Tourist travel by bus allows the entire group to stay together so that you don’t have to worry about waiting around for anyone to catch up or arrive at your final destination. But there can be some challenges that come along with taking long distance trips, and we want to help you conquer them. Beat your bus ride blues with a few of our long distance travel tips below. Designate an Activities Coordinator Sitting on a bus for hours at a time would cause anyone to get stir crazy. That’s why it’s a good idea for groups to elect an… Read more »

Ford Launches New Shuttle Bus Service App

A trial of a Ford-operated, commuter ride-share service app was approved for launch in London this past January. Chariot, the business providing the ride share services through the app, will allow passengers to pay a premium over a regular bus fare price for pre-booked trips running along four routes. As shared mobility services reach all-time popularity levels, vehicle manufacturers such as Ford are turning away from a traditional industry platform and toward a more user-friendly model. The ride-share service is part of an effort to ramp up what Ford calls their microtransit plan. The use of the Chariot app is… Read more »