Abstract
The assertion that steady-state management systems are for ever gone applies to all entrepreneurial activities, and among them to the maintenance systems of any bus company as well.
This papers author would like first to show the changes that are coming up in this particular field, which are in quite a large number and require a constant adaptation. Afterwards, to describe the issues, the trade-offs and the risks that are involved when a decision is taken to go outsourcing maintenance activities. Yet, though market conditions are nowadays changing, public transport is a rather steady kind of utility that needs to be covered relentless, whenever the will of the community lies in establishing good social and convivial conditions for all.
This paper deals neither with operating costs such as fuel consumption, nor with daily maintenance costs such as fuelling and cleaning, that are in most cases already subcontracted because of their simplicity. Maintenance will be considered as a set of activities that, on a regular time or distance basis, or because of breakdowns, must be carried out to ensure the availability of buses during all their depreciation period.