School and Employee Bus Contractor Revenue Benchmark

Average School Bus Contractor Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every school and employee bus contractor with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of contractors gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.

≈$3,024,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

How this is calculated: about $12.2 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 4,048 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $3,024,000 per employer establishment.

Scope: School and Employee Bus Transportation, NAICS 485410. The category covers contractors operating school buses and employee shuttle buses under contract. Public transit systems and charter buses are counted in separate categories. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.

Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026

Employer Establishments at Year Five Endpoint only

School and Employee Bus Transportation, NAICS 4854, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.

Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 32.6 to 74.4 percent. This benchmark covers School and Employee Bus Transportation, NAICS 4854, as a whole, and this category accounts for 4,048 of the 4,048 employer establishments in it. A count by age is not a survival rate, because the figures compare two headcounts rather than follow one set of businesses.

Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data

Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.

Payroll share of receipts, School and Employee Bus Transportation, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 49.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a high share because drivers, aides, dispatchers and mechanics are the service, in a business where buses, fuel and insurance take much of the rest.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and it excludes buses, fuel, insurance, maintenance and the facilities that house a fleet, which together carry the rest of a contractor's spending.

Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data

How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.

Scale and ownership, School and Employee Bus Transportation, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 52.5 people, and the industry averaged 1.6 employer establishments per firm, which confirms that multi-establishment ownership exists in the published population without showing how establishments are distributed across firms. As an illustration, that headcount could be a roster of drivers, aides and mechanics for one yard.

These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.

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Data Source Notice

This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.

Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.

Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis

School and Employee Bus Contractor: what service contracts, drivers and the calendar do to the average.

Before you rely on this benchmark

• How are the contracts structured? Revenue often comes from route or service contracts with school districts, employers or institutions, and contract duration, pricing and seasonality depend on the buyer. In the school-bus submodel, district contracts are commonly bid for several years at rates per bus, per day or per route, so a lost bid can idle a fleet.
• Are there enough drivers? School bus drivers work split shifts for part-year pay, and recruiting and retaining them is a recurring challenge for contractors, so driver availability decides whether routes can be covered. Driver availability caps a contractor's growth.
• Who owns the buses? Some districts supply buses and contract only for operation, while other contractors own or lease their fleets, which changes capital needs and revenue per route. Ownership models sit in one category and are not published.
• What happens in summer? For the school-bus submodel, routes stop when school ends and a contractor carries buses, yards and core staff through months with little revenue unless summer school, camps or charters fill the gap, while employee shuttle contracts run year-round. An annual average hides both calendars.
• Which safety rules apply? School buses and drivers are regulated by federal and state rules on vehicle standards, inspections, driver licensing and background checks. Compliance is a permanent cost and a condition of every contract.
• Is employee shuttle work part of the business? The category counts contractors running employee shuttles for companies, hospitals and campuses alongside pupil transportation, with different schedules, buyers and contract terms. The mix behind a contractor's revenue is not published.