Bus & coach
Three vehicles, one evening, and a full board at 5am: the depot maths
It is rarely one vehicle. Winter arrives, a school contract picks something up, and three buses come back the same evening with incidents logged. All three are diagrammed for the morning peak, and the honest answer about a wipe-down is that it treats what somebody could reach in the dark with a cloth.
In short
Keep a fogger in the wash bay and let night shift treat vehicles during the park-up they already have. Whole-interior treatment reaches seat frames, luggage racks and cab controls, leaves no corrosive residue on ticket machines, and puts the vehicle back on the morning board.
6 min read ·
Why the morning board is the real cost
A vehicle held back is not just a cleaning problem, it is a duty that has to be covered. Once you have paid for cover, or run short, the cost of the incident has already passed the cost of treating it properly — several times over.
External cleaning visits are booked around the provider's diary, not your diagram. Between reporting, travel and set-up, an emergency call-out realistically means 6 to 24 hours.
Treating the whole interior, not the touchable bits
A bus interior is mostly surfaces you cannot wipe: seat frames, under-seat voids, luggage racks, the grab pole joints, the cab. Whole-volume fogging works on the space rather than the panel, which is exactly why it suits vehicles.
The chemistry matters here too. A hydrogen peroxide based disinfectant leaves no corrosive residue on ticket machines, screens or upholstery, which is not something every product on the market can claim.
- Vehicles treated during the existing park-up, not held for a visit
- A rolling preventative rota through winter rather than reactive deep cleans only
- Around five vehicles or rooms per hour with one 8kg machine
- Dated certificates for the contract file and for school or council clients
What it costs per vehicle
Leases start from £450 per month + VAT with chemical from £15 per litre + VAT. Across a depot treating vehicles nightly through the season, cost per treated vehicle lands in single figures — against £495–£1,095 + VAT for a single attended call-out.
That is the point at which a depot stops rationing treatment to incidents and starts running the whole fleet on a cycle.
Frequently asked
- How long before a vehicle can be used again?
- Re-entry times are calculated per vehicle volume at survey and shown on the door card. In practice vehicles are treated during the park-up and are ready well before the morning peak.
- Will the fog damage ticket machines or screens?
- No. The hydrogen peroxide based disinfectant leaves no corrosive residue and breaks down to water and oxygen.
- Can one machine cover more than one depot?
- Yes — the unit is hand-portable at 8kg, so operators routinely move it between depots. Larger operators often lease a second machine rather than move one nightly.
Sources: material published by Sanondaf UK at sanondaf.co.uk (news, research and case studies) and the technical and commercial documentation held by the Shropshire & West Midlands office. Figures are indicative and confirmed at survey. Efficacy is stated as up to 99.9999% reduction.