Thomas Built Buses has expanded the area of responsibility for Warner Bus Industries to include Manitoba. The company previously was responsible only of the province of Saskatchewan. As a result, Warner Bus Industries now has a sales territory of more than a half-million square miles.
Warner, which is based in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, was Thomas Built’s Western Regional Dealer of the Year in 2002 and 2008, and is a medium- and heavy-duty Freightliner Trucks dealer, as well.Graham Warner, owner of Warner Bus Industries, has developed a novel approach to the challenge of servicing school buses across the more-than-half- million-mile territory, which includes relatively few cities, a lot of graveled rural roads and winter temperatures that average minus 20 to minus 40 degrees Celsius. Warner customers’ fleet sizes vary from 20 to 80 buses, most of which are Thomas Built Saf-T-Liner® C2s.
“Instead of offering a brick and mortar service center,” said Graham, “we serve our customers in Manitoba with WOW (Warranty on Wheels) trucks. The fully-equipped service trucks are staffed by experienced senior parts and service technicians. Specially-equipped, four-wheel-drive pickup trucks make on-site visits to individual school districts, bringing all of the tools and parts needed for each repair job, including computers, printers and scanners. Repair work is done on-site at individual school district maintenance facilities.”
Graham reported that the innovative approach has been very well received by customers, particularly since the company charges only a nominal mileage fee for what may be up to 10 hours of travel time. “When a customer calls us to schedule non-warranty repairs, the clock doesn’t start ticking until the technician picks up a wrench,” said Graham.
Warner Bus Industries is open seven days a week.