Pros & Cons for Van Delivery Service to Schools

Delivering students to school is one of the responsibilities of many public schools. However, since not all schools use buses, some have changed to using vans instead. There are numerous pros and cons to this decision, and all of them need to be considered before you assign a transportation method to your school.

Space
# One of the cons of using a van delivery service over a bus service is that buses cannot hold as many students as a bus can. This can be a major issue if you have a heavily attended school that has to cater to a lot of students who live far away from the school. On the other hand, if you are a small school, such as a preschool or relatively small elementary school then a van delivery service might be what your school needs to deliver kids for a lower cost.
Safety
# Many school buses lack safety features like air bags and seat belts for individual passengers. This safety concern is such that the federal government has created a system to rank the safety of regular buses. Vans also have less crowding, which can lead to less horseplay on a van than on a bus. However, the trade-offs for the safety that children get is that vans are very expensive when they come with all the bells and whistles. If you don't have enough students that you need more than a van or two though, you may have a much safer vehicle to transport your children.
Cost
# Cost is one of the issues surrounding transportation, and it's unique to each school system. For instance, a single preschool could likely make due with one van, and even a medium sized school within walking distance of most students may not need many vans to transport children. Vans also get much better gas mileage than vans due, and they pollute the environment less. However, larger school systems that can't afford van delivery due to student volume may need the use of buses in order to create a workable, endurable transportation system.

By Neal Litherland, eHow Contributing Writer