Logistics - What To Expect

After thirty years we have become very proficient in providing you with a smooth and seamless appraisal experience. The more you are involved in your appraisal the smoother the process will go and more accurate your appraisal will be. Our goal is to learn as much as possible about your operation, the buses you operate, how you care and preserve the value of your assets and then communicate our findings in the appraisal report, all without being disruptive to your operation.

The first step is for you to go to the request a quote tab on the site and provide us with some preliminary data. Then one of our staff will call you to go over some preliminary information and potential available schedule openings. At the conclusion of that call our staff will email you a data collection spreadsheet for you to provide us with detailed information about each vehicle in your fleet. At the same time, we will be working on a solid quote and provide you with an agreement for your approval. Once you sign and return the agreement, we will solidify the schedule and lock in the dates that our team will be arriving at your location.

Once on the ground, our team will meet with the designated representative from the company. During this meeting will go over the scheduling of our site visit, review dispatch schedules, and ask a number of questions designed for us to gain a good understanding of your operation, how the assets are deployed and how they are maintained.

We will also schedule time to meet with the maintenance manager to go over the company’s preventive maintenance program and safety procedures as well as conduct a spot check of the vehicle records.

If a team is on the ground at your location, while these meetings are happening, other personnel will be inspecting the vehicles. This usually includes starting the vehicles, and doing a thorough inspection of interior, exterior and mechanical review of each vehicle in the agreed upon fleet sample. We will take photos of the facility and each bus so that we can incorporate those into the appraisal report along with the other data that we have collected to ensure that we have a thorough and comprehensive description of your operation, your assets and how you are preserving the value of those assets.

Confidentiality -

As described above, there are many reasons that operators hire us to do appraisals. Regardless of the reason that we are doing work for your company, rest assured that we take confidentiality very seriously. First of all, you own your appraisal. If we receive a call asking for information about your appraisal, our protocol is to not even acknowledge that we have done work for you until we have spoken directly to you and you have approved us to talk with someone about the work that we have done for you.

Often times our inspectors in the field are asked by company employees “what we are doing here and if the company is for sale.” Our field inspectors are trained to have a ready and believable story arranged with the ownership or management well in advance. One common story is that we are on-site preforming an insurance inspection for the company to make sure that the equipment is adequately insured. Over insuring could be wasteful and costly to the company, while underinsuring could be equally as costly. Generally employees understand that explanation and accept it as the reason for our work.

Non-Intrusive -

While we are on site, our inspection team makes every effort to work with the maintenance personnel and dispatch to get the proper number of units inspected without delaying start times or unnecessarily tying up valuable shop space and time. There are times where these things cannot be avoided, but your team from Bus Appraisal Solutions, LLC will make every effort not to disrupt your operation.

FAQs?

I have a large fleet, can you handle my appraisal in a timely fashion?

Yes, we commonly value fleets from 1 to 12,000 units and everything in between. Sometimes weather, location and complexity of the assignment can shorten or lengthen the process. Keep in mind that bus appraisals are our only discipline and that means that we are not distracted by other types of assignments.

Who owns my appraisal?

That is a great question. The owner of the appraisal is the entity that hires us. That means if your bank engages us to appraise your fleet, they technically own the appraisal. Often times, lenders will allow release language to be placed in the appraisal allowing the operator to use the appraisal for purposes of ongoing fleet management and negotiations. We will never release your appraisal without express written consent.