Thomas Built thinks small.

• Position: Triad

In 1936, during the Great Depression, a High Point company that built and renovated streetcars started a new line of business. That's how Perley A. Thomas Car Works Inc. became Thomas Built Buses Inc., which now makes more than a third of the school buses in the U.S. Don't expect the company's latest venture, launched in May during the nation's latest recession, to cause a similar shift.

Still, the company, now a subsidiary of Portland, Ore. -based Daimler Trucks North America LLC, is excited about its MyBus, a smaller vehicle aimed at day-care centers, churches, nonprofits, small businesses and other groups and clubs. The activity buses can be equipped with coach seating and overhead storage racks and are safer, it says, than vans.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The product launch comes at a time when many school districts are facing budget cuts, which could keep buses in service longer than usual. North Carolina guidelines call for buses to be replaced after 20 years or 200,000 miles, according to Guilford County Schools Transporation Director Jeff Harris. As of early July, 1,184 fit those criteria, but the state plans to buy only 937 for the coming school year--pending the legislature's approval of the budget. The picture is even bleaker for 2010-11--only 522 purchases are planned.

Thomas Built officials won't discuss whether orders are down. But they say work on the MyBus began in early 2008. "Deliveries of the initial orders...