Palmer Bus: How to Transform Your Garage with Servicefinder
Palmer Bus Service, based in North Mankato, Minnesota, operates at a scale that could make visibility and consistency of their operations difficult without the right system.
The bus contractor’s use of Transfinder’s award-winning fleet management solution Servicefinder makes it easy.
In fact, for Palmer Bus, Servicefinder did more than organize data—it aligned people, processes, and performance across 28 locations, turning fleet maintenance into a system that could be seen, measured, and managed from every level of the organization.
As Trace Johnson explains, “With having the 28 locations spread all across the state, based out of our eadquarters, we're able to see 'what assets do we have at each one of those specific locations.’”
Armed with that data, Johnson says, “the managers and mechanics at those locations are able to see their own specific assets, put in their work orders, stay up to date on their services and inventory lists and everything like that.”
That structure matters because Palmer Bus serves school districts of very different sizes and needs.
“We service school districts of all different sizes and we are all over the state,” Johnson says. “We have operations that maybe run eight school buses up to operations that run 20, 30 school buses and a two- or three- tiered busing system. Having a software where we are able to specifically set up a user to manage that specific fleet is something that we definitely really needed.”
Johnson said Servicefinder makes it easy for each location to easily manage their assets and operations.
A leadership view: Visibility and Control
From a leadership standpoint, the value is visibility and control without micromanagement.
Johnson said from an administrative standpoint, it’s critical to “be able to see what is each one of those specific locations is doing when it comes to their services, their work orders or any reports that they may be running.”
Security and structure were also key drivers in their decision.
“We were able to go in set up specific locations which was a huge selling point for us, to be able to use Servicefinder and then set up users specific to those locations and even restricting some of those users to what can they do in Servicefinder and what are things maybe we don't want them to either access or edit or be able to view.”
Operationally, Servicefinder became the system that connected maintenance to business outcomes.
“I think it'll be very streamlined for us as a company now especially for our accounting department as well as our operations department to be able to make sure that services are being built correctly and the mechanics are being paid and making sure that any vehicles that might need to be replaced or fixed within our fleet, that that’s all kept track of right there in Servicefinder for us.”
Shop-level view: Ease of use means makes the tool a help, not a hindrance
At the shop level, the software quickly became part of daily work.
“Our staff and our managers and our mechanics just love how easy it is to be able to do anything,” Johnson said. “I kind of like to say that you can almost do anything just in the vehicle data grids of Servicefinder. You can start your work orders, you can look up the detailed information be able to look up any parts that were used to do any work on the vehicle, how much it cost us so far to work on that vehicle.”
Over time, those features added up to something larger than just convenience.
“So, there's just been a lot of great features that we've been loving to use so far within Servicefinder,” Johnson says, adding, “And how quickly our staff has been able to adapt to it is another great thing that we've just absolutely enjoyed about Servicefinder.”
For Palmer Bus, Servicefinder did more than organize data—it aligned people, processes, and performance across 28 locations, turning fleet maintenance into a system that could be seen, measured, and managed from every level of the organization.
Call 800-373-3609 or email getservicefinder@transfinder.com or visit www.transfinder.com/solutions/school_bus_fleet_maintenance_servicefinder to learn more!
