The CMMS Built for Bus Fleet Maintenance Planners

Stop fighting fires. Start planning smarter. Bus CMMS automates your PM scheduling, streamlines work orders, and gives you real-time visibility into every maintenance task—so you can keep buses on the road and reduce costly downtime.

No credit card required
Setup in 15 minutes
Free data migration
Planner Dashboard Live

24

Open WO

6

PM Due

18

Done

8

Techs
Today's Schedule
Bus #1042 - PM-A Service
Mike J. • Bay 2
In Progress
Bus #0987 - Brake Inspection
Sarah C. • Bay 4
Scheduled
Bus #0756 - Oil Change
James R. • Bay 1
Queued
Understanding the Role

What Does a Bus Fleet Maintenance Planner Do?

A maintenance planner is the backbone of efficient fleet operations—coordinating all preventive and corrective maintenance to keep buses safe, compliant, and on the road.

In bus fleet operations, maintenance planners are responsible for creating maintenance schedules, generating work orders, coordinating parts and labor, and ensuring DOT compliance. They act as the critical bridge between maintenance technicians and operations management.

The best practice ratio is 1 planner for every 15-20 technicians. With Bus CMMS automation, planners can effectively manage teams of 25-30 technicians while improving schedule compliance and reducing emergency repairs.

Key Responsibilities
  • PM Scheduling
    Schedule preventive maintenance based on mileage, hours, or time
  • Work Order Management
    Create, prioritize, and assign work orders to technicians
  • Resource Coordination
    Allocate technicians, bays, and equipment efficiently
  • Parts & Inventory
    Ensure parts availability and coordinate procurement
  • Compliance Tracking
    Maintain DOT/FMCSA compliance and audit-ready records
Planner Features

How Bus CMMS Empowers Maintenance Planners

Everything you need to transition from reactive firefighting to proactive maintenance management.

Upcoming PM Services
Bus #1042 - PM-A Service
45,000 mi due • 44,920 mi current
Due Now
Bus #0987 - Oil Change
250 hrs due • 243 hrs current
3 Days
Bus #0756 - Brake Inspection
Jan 28 due • 10 days remaining
On Track
Automated PM

Set It and Forget It PM Scheduling

Configure your preventive maintenance schedules once—Bus CMMS automatically tracks mileage, engine hours, and calendar dates through telematics integration. When service is due, work orders are auto-generated with pre-built job plans, parts lists, and labor estimates.

  • Mileage-based triggers — Service at 5K, 15K, 30K miles
  • Engine hour triggers — Oil changes every 250 hours
  • Calendar-based schedules — Annual DOT inspections
  • OEM templates — Pre-built schedules for all bus makes
Work Order Pipeline
New Requests
Awaiting review
7
Scheduled
Assigned & waiting
12
In Progress
Currently being worked
5
Completed Today
Ready for review
18
Work Orders

Complete Work Order Lifecycle Management

From request to completion—manage every work order with full visibility. Create detailed job plans, assign to technicians based on skills and availability, track labor time, and maintain complete service records for compliance.

  • Pre-built job plans — Standardized procedures with parts lists
  • Priority-based assignment — Critical, high, medium, low
  • Labor time tracking — Actual vs. estimated hours
  • Digital signatures — Approval workflows and sign-offs
Technician Workload
This Week
MJ Mike Johnson
85%
SC Sarah Chen
100%
JR James Rodriguez
45%
LM Lisa Martinez
70%
Resource Planning

Drag-and-Drop Technician Scheduling

See your entire team's workload at a glance. Assign work orders based on technician skills, certifications, and current capacity. Drag-and-drop to reassign, and the system automatically detects conflicts and overloads.

  • Skill-based matching — Assign brake jobs to brake specialists
  • Workload balancing — Visual capacity indicators
  • Conflict detection — Alerts for double-booking
  • Bay management — Track bay availability
Parts Status
Oil Filters (OEM)
Stock: 45 units
In Stock
Brake Pads - Front
Stock: 28 sets
In Stock
Air Filters
Stock: 5 (Min: 10)
Low Stock
Alternator Belt
On Order • ETA: 2 days
Ordered
Parts Management

Parts Ready When You Are

No more techs waiting for parts mid-job. When work orders are scheduled, Bus CMMS automatically checks parts availability, reserves inventory, and alerts you if anything is out of stock. Parts can be kitted and staged before work begins.

  • Auto-reserve parts — Reserve when WO is scheduled
  • Low stock alerts — Reorder point notifications
  • Parts kitting — Pre-stage for scheduled jobs
  • Vendor integration — Auto-generate POs
Complete Toolkit

More Tools for Maintenance Planners

Mobile Work Orders

Technicians receive, update, and complete work orders from iOS/Android apps. Works offline and syncs when connected.

DVIR Integration

Driver inspection defects automatically create work orders with priority flags for immediate planner review.

Telematics Sync

Auto-import mileage, engine hours, and fault codes from Samsara, Geotab, Verizon Connect, and 50+ providers.

Service History

Complete maintenance history for every bus. Past repairs, costs, recurring issues, and warranty tracking.

Planner Analytics

Track PM compliance rates, work order completion times, technician productivity, and backlog trends.

Compliance Calendar

Visual calendar with all DOT deadlines, annual inspections, certifications, and regulatory requirements.

FAQ

Questions from Maintenance Planners

Everything you need to know before getting started with Bus CMMS.

Still have questions?
contact@buscmms.com

A maintenance planner schedules preventive and corrective maintenance, creates and assigns work orders to technicians, coordinates parts and resources, and ensures fleet availability while maintaining DOT compliance. They act as the bridge between maintenance teams and operations management, optimizing schedules to minimize downtime and maximize technician productivity.

You configure PM schedules once with triggers based on mileage, engine hours, or calendar intervals. Bus CMMS integrates with your telematics system to track real-time data and automatically generates work orders when service is due—complete with pre-built job plans, parts lists, and suggested technician assignments.

Maintenance planners typically save 60% of their planning time—that's 15-20 hours per week. The biggest savings come from automated PM generation, eliminating spreadsheet management, pre-built job plans, and real-time status updates that eliminate the need to walk the shop checking progress.

Yes. Bus CMMS offers native iOS and Android apps. Technicians receive work order notifications, view job details and parts lists, log labor time, add photos and notes, and mark work complete—all from their phones. The app works offline and syncs automatically when connected.

Yes. Bus CMMS integrates with 50+ telematics providers including Samsara, Geotab, Verizon Connect, GPS Trackit, and OEM systems like Blue Bird and Thomas Built. The integration automatically imports mileage, engine hours, fault codes, and GPS data for automatic PM triggers.

Setup in 15 Minutes

Ready to Stop Firefighting and Start Planning?

Join 500+ maintenance planners who've cut their planning time by 60% and reduced fleet downtime by 42%.

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