INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS: BRIEFS
NAVISTAR SHIPS FIRST ORDERS OF IC BUSES POWERED BY CUMMINS ISB ENGINES
Te first IC Bus
CE Series conven- tional school buses with the Cummins ISB 6.7L diesel engine rolled out of the company’s Tulsa assembly plant in late January on their
way to customers, an- nounced parent company
Navistar. Te newly offered diesel engine
by Navistar relies on Selective Catalyst Reduction to limit harmful emissions. Te SCR aftertreatment technology of the ISB meets current EPA diesel emissions standards
to limit oxides of nitrogen. It was added to the IC Bus lineup in September, and a month later went on display at the NAPT Summit in Grand Rapids, Mich.
John McKinney, president of Navistar Global Bus,
told STN in a interview published last month that adding the ISB to the brand’s portfolio presents an op- portunity to diversify the company’s customer base. He reiterated that on Jan. 27, after Navistar reported that 2,000-plus orders had been placed for the CE Series with the ISB. “Adding the Cummins ISB as an offering on our
CE Series buses was intended to provide us with a new opportunity for growth, and we are excited to already see results reflected in the first two months of orders,” said McKinney. In addition to the ISB, customers can continue to specify ordering the IC Bus CE Series powered by Navistar’s MaxxForce 7 or MaxxForce DT. Navistar said other upgrades available to CE custom-
ers include a driver cockpit that incorporates feedback and measurements from more than 1,500 school bus drivers nationwide to ensure optimum ergonomics, easy- to-reach features and maximum comfort while driving.
FMCSA AMENDS RULE REQUIRING CDL HOLDERS TO SELF-REPORT MEDICAL CERTIFICATIONS Te Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced
that commercial drivers must continue to carry paper copies of their medical certifications for another year — until Jan. 30, 2015— but clarified that drivers still had to certify by Jan. 30 of this year, according to the agency’s deputy director, Duane DeBruyne. Commercial drivers are required to certify their status (e.g., in- terstate or intrastate, exempt or non-exempt) with the State Driver License Agency by Jan. 30 and to provide the SDLA a copy of any new medical certificate received after Jan. 30, 2012. Te amended rule applies to holders of a commercial driver’s license (CDL) or commercial learner’s permit (CLP). Drivers who do not adhere to this requirement are subject to losing their CDL privileges.
Te FMCSA was forced to push back the medical self-reporting
deadline to next year because some states failed to adequately notify drivers and/or to upgrade their information systems to allow the in- tegration of medical certification data into the Commercial Driver’s License Information System online database. Meanwhile, research on the “restart” provision of FMCSA’s
final rule on Hours of Service (HOS) indicates commercial driv- ers are experiencing fewer lapses in attention due to sleepiness behind the wheel. Field Study on the Efficacy of the New Restart Provision for Hours of
Service was sponsored by FMCSA and conducted by the Wash- ington State University Sleep and Performance Research Center, and Pulsar Informatics, Inc. Te study tracked the electronic logs of 106 drivers throughout 1,260 days and nearly 415,000 miles from
28 School Transportation News March 2014
last January to July to measure sleep, reaction time, sleepiness and driving performance. Te goal was to investigate the efficacy of the new restart
provision for HOS implemented last July. Tat provision governs interstate motor carriers with vehicles that weigh 10,001 pounds and more, and are designed to transport nine or more passengers for compensation or 16 or more passengers not for compensation, including some interstate, for-hire school charter or activity trips. But school bus drivers engaged in home-to-school transportation are exempt from HOS requirements.
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