Remaining under family control into the early 1990s, Blue Bird changed hands several times in the 2000s; in February 2015, it became a publicly owned company (with previous owner Cerberus Capital Management holding a 58% share).

[6] Along with the dealership in Perry, Luce owned the Ford franchise in Fort Valley, Georgia, a rural farming community south of Macon.

[6][7] Driven to produce an improved design to sell to his customers, Luce sought input to develop a stronger bus body capable of surviving unimproved roads.

While buses would initially remain a side project for Luce (with only nine bus bodies produced between 1929 and 1931[6]), the onset of the Great Depression would change his company forever.

[6][8] The early use of farm wagons on a part-time basis soon evolved into purpose-built school bus products, each with economy and function as major priorities.

[6] The Fort Valley factory was rebuilt by the spring of 1946, following several challenges; while building materials themselves were no longer rationed, the ability to secure large quantities of beams, trusses, and sheetmetal remained a formidable task.

[6] After reverse-engineering the chassis design (to modify American-produced vehicles), Blue Bird completed its first forward-control prototype in 1949, naming it the All American.

While assembling the bodies of the Conventional and All American, Blue Bird Central America lowered production and maintenance costs by using locally sourced chassis (from Mercedes-Benz, Hino, Nissan Diesel, and Toyota) in place of sharing components from the United States.

Named the Blue Bird Transit Home (re-branded as Wanderlodge in 1968), it was a $12,000 luxury recreational vehicle based on the All American type.

Using the heavy-duty frame and all-steel body to its advantage, the vehicle was marketed as higher-quality than other RVs of the time; the interior was largely built to order.

While designs based on cutaway vans were not invented by the company, the 1975 Micro Bird introduced several key features retained by van-based buses today.

By 1980, Blue Bird would become the highest-volume school bus manufacturer in the United States, with over 20 times the yearly sales of only two decades prior.

[8] To better compete with more modern designs, Blue Bird began to differentiate the Wanderlodge from the All American school bus with several exterior restylings in the late 1980s.

In 1984, the board of directors was expanded outside of the family for the first time; in 1986, the company hired Paul Glaske, president of Marathon LeTourneau (a Texas-based heavy equipment manufacturer).

Developed as a competitor to the Wayne Lifestar, the model was marketed to secure purchases from operators of large bus fleets, priced closely to conventional-style buses.

To reduce manufacturing costs, the model line was offered with a single diesel engine and automatic transmission configuration and a simplified drivers' compartment.

[citation needed] At the beginning of the 1990s, Blue Bird had secured its position as the highest-volume school bus manufacturer; following the launch of the TC/2000, the company held nearly a 50% market share.

Following the 1988 introduction of the 102" wide body, the Wanderlodge line was redesigned entirely for 1991 (effectively sharing only Blue Bird emblems with the All American).

To expand its availability, the Wanderlodge BMC was produced using a chassis from Spartan Motors; a Blue Bird QMC commercial variant was introduced, designed as a mobile workstation.

In order to increase forward visibility, the All American was given an all-new chassis (positioning the engine lower), adopting the larger windshield of the TC/2000, and redesigned dashboard and control panels (later used in the TC/2000).

In 1991, Blue Bird developed the first school bus powered by compressed natural gas (CNG), an All American Rear Engine.

At the beginning of the 2000s, Blue Bird sought to modernize its aging transit bus line; the Q-Bus was nearly a decade old and the CS and APC coaches were essentially commercial versions of the All American and TC/2000 school buses.

As part of its acquisition by Cerberus, Blue Bird gradually saw itself positioned exclusively into yellow school bus production, its largest market.

[20] In 2010, Blue Bird North Georgia was closed, consolidating all bus production back to company headquarters in Fort Valley.

Following the consolidation of Blue Bird production to the Vision and All American school buses (and vehicles derived from them), during the 2010s, a number of changes were phased in.

In following with the popularity with the LPG/propane autogas version of the Blue Bird Vision bus, a version powered by a Ford V10 and equipped with a ROUSH CleanTech propane autogas fuel system was introduced in 2011 (as the original General Motors V8 engines were no longer in production); in addition, the Vision received a dashboard and steering column shared with the All American.

[24] Largely due to the Ford-derived chassis design, Blue Bird predicts a 20% fuel economy increase over its E-Series MB/G5 counterpart.

[32] In January 2017, Blue Bird announced it would begin development of a Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) school bus with the Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology.

[35] In May 2023, workers at Blue Bird's main Fort Valley factory voted in favor of a unionization drive by the United Steelworkers by a 697–435 margin.

Forward Engine Traditionally, school buses such as those produced by Blue Bird consist of components purchased from various outside suppliers and parts which are manufactured in-house to the company's specifications.