The History of Palmetto Bus Sales
Palmetto Bus Sales has been associated with the Bus Business since 1957. Ask anyone in South and North Carolina where to buy a school, church, shuttle, activity, or commercial bus and Palmetto Bus Sales will surely be the first name you hear.
Cliff Whatley, the company's founder, began his career with Blue Bird Body Company back in August 1957. Blue Bird was starting to manufacture its own bus heaters and this was Mr. Whatley's first assignment. It didn't take long for him to realize that the transportation business would be his career. In 1965 Mr. Whatley had the opportunity to purchase a small automobile dealership in South Carolina. He bought this dealership, sold his home, moved his family to Allendale, and formed Whatley Incorporated.
Blue Bird Body Company contacted Mr. Whatley in 1969 to see if he would be interested in representing Blue Bird Buses in South Carolina as their distributor. Mr. Whatley accepted this challenge and began selling buses as well as managing the automobile dealership.
With sales on the rise in South Carolina, Blue Bird approached Mr. Whatley about adding North Carolina to his territory. Again, he accepted, and in 1985 Cliff Whatley became the Blue Bird representative for South and North Carolina. In 1988 seeing the commercial and church bus market as an opportunity to increase bus sales, Mr. Whatley starting selling specialized buses to fill those needs.
In 1990, Cliff’s son, Paul became President of the company. Over the years the company would go through a few changes. The Chevrolet dealership in Allendale would be sold only to make way for a new automotive dealership in Orangeburg, South Carolina as well as a new and used bus sales facility in Columbia, SC. Early in the year, 2000 Barnie Smith (Vice President of the company at the time) purchased 25% of the bus sales division and a new company was formed to fit under the Whatley Inc. “Umbrella”. This company – Palmetto Bus Sales was formed to handle all aspects of sales, service, and parts for new & pre-owned buses. The bus sales offices moved to Columbia, SC in late 2000 and in 2003 Mr. Smith purchased the remaining assets of Palmetto Bus Sales. Palmetto Bus Sales is conveniently located on the outskirts of Columbia, South Carolina in Gaston. This location is at 90 Access Road off Interstate 26E at Exit 119. Palmetto Bus Sales are the Starcraft Bus dealer for SC and NC and have recently added new product markets and contracts for MobilityTRANS.