The BusGroup Blog

Serving churches and assisted-living communities is an important part of BusGroup’s business. These two sectors of the marketplace have unique needs – churches need to provide transportation for their members to church gatherings and other events while assisted-living communities need to be able to accommodate residents with various levels of functionality and take them to medical appointments and group outings. BusGroup understands these customers’ unique needs and works with them to provide the best products and services to meet those needs.

Finding the right solutions for churches and assisted-living communities is one of the reasons why BusGroup is the largest commercial bus dealer in the South. Marc Shepherd, regional sales manager with BusGroup, says these two groups have very different requirements in mind when they purchase buses. “Churches usually have standard passenger buses – 15-seaters, 20-seaters or 35-seaters,” he explains. “They usually go for high-backed seats and luggage compartments, because they may have to be prepared for longer trips – for retreats, youth camps and other types of trips.”

By contrast, assisted-living communities generally do not need to prepare for long journeys. “Assisted-living communities usually just need the best way to move people from point ‘A to point B’ and then back again,” Shepherd says. “They mainly uses their buses for trips to the store, to the doctor or on sightseeing trips and don’t frequently make overnight trips.”

The thousands of churches and hundreds of assisted-living communities Shepherd serves throughout the Southeast generally share common concerns about their vehicles. “Safety, reliability, comfort, serviceability and ease of operation are usually the top concerns my customers have when they’re purchasing a bus,” he notes.

Shepherd says those concerns are usually put to rest quickly. “We ease their minds about those sorts of topics with the quality of our products. Our buses are constructed of higher-grade metal than those of some of our competitors, and they meet or exceed motor-vehicle safety standards,” he explains. “Plus, our scheduled maintenance programs let us make sure everything is within proper tolerances so we can catch any problems before they start.”

Catching problems before they start is one of the top priorities for Jon Day, director of safety and security for First Baptist Church Woodstock (FBCW) in Woodstock, Georgia. Day oversees the maintenance and upkeep for the 14,000-member church’s vehicle fleet, which includes five 15-passenger buses purchased from BusGroup. FBCW has been a BusGroup customer since 2004.

Day says FBCW makes use of their church buses in a variety of ways, including shuttling members from the church’s parking lot to the church itself, taking youths to camp facility that is approximately 300 or 400 miles away from Woodstock and transporting seniors or Sunday School classes to planned outings. With a high level of usage, safety and serviceability are two of the reasons FBCW chooses BusGroup. “The dual rear wheels are much safer [than single wheels], Day says. “The Ford chassis and engine are reliable and easily serviced and maintained.” Day also notes that being able to use 15-passenger buses eliminates the need for the church to constantly have to have drivers with commercial driver’s licenses, which are required by law for drivers transporting 16 or more passengers at a time.

Maintaining a safe environment is also of critical importance to Jeff Edwards, property and facility manager for Annandale Village. Annandale Village is a non-profit assisted-living facility in Suwanee, Georgia, that cares for adults with developmental disabilities. With many residents having to make use of wheelchairs and walkers, safety and accessibility levels become extremely important when choosing a vehicle for use as an assisted living bus.

Edwards points out a safety feature that is present on the bus Annandale purchased from BusGroup as being a typical need for them. “Our bus has wheelchair accessibility and features a wheelchair lift system – but the lift is designed to not go up without the bus’s parking brake being set,” he explains. “The check systems that are established by the equipment itself provide ease of mind for us, because we have multiple people operating our equipment. That’s important, because I care about my residents, and I want to keep them all safe.”

Annandale’s non-profit status means money can sometimes be hard to come by for purchases as large as a new vehicles. Edwards says BusGroup has made that process easier for him. “They help us out with different financing programs and ways to save money when we buy from them,” he states. “For one of our purchases, they helped us work with the manufacturer to qualify for a fleet-program discount, which helped tremendously.”

Edwards says BusGroup also has provided financial assistance on their end of the transaction. “For that same purchase, we has received a donation from a family member of one of our residents to buy the vehicle,” he explains. “So we really only had a set amount of money to work with – there just wasn’t much wiggle room for us or other money to be found! BusGroup did all they could to help us get the absolute best vehicle for the price we could afford.”

With Annandale transitioning away from passenger vans and toward buses, Edwards says his community’s future is more secure because of their relationship with BusGroup. “They’ve given me everything I could have asked for in terms of help,” he explains. “They’ve been there for us 100 percent, and they’re still there for us whenever we need them. It’s not like it is with car salespeople, where you feel like no one wants to help you out. BusGroup understands our needs and works with us to find the vehicle that meets those needs. We definitely have more business to do with them in the future – that’s for sure.”