INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS: SPECIAL REPORT COMPLEMENTARY
TRAINING THIRD-PARTY SOURCES OFFER ALTERNATIVE-FUEL SCHOOL BUS REFRESHER TRAINING THAT HELPS TECHNICIANS DIG DEEPER INTO THE HEART OF THESE SYSTEMS
WRITTEN BY SYLVIA ARROYO
training to service these vehicles. While school bus OEMs offer valuable alt-fuel training maintenance practices, safety measures and other fundamentals of the system they offer, other sources offer training that delve further into the heart of each alt-fuel system and address common, every day maintenance scenarios.
A
PROPANE AUTOGAS TRAINING When it comes to propane autogas
school buses, technicians are first educated on safety, properties and the characteristics of the unconventional fuel through the bus OEM and the partner entity that developed the pro- pane technology. But since authorized dealers will service most of these new buses under warranty, many tech- nicians will opt for refresher-course training once the warranty expires. “If you don’t understand the fuel
system and how it works, you won’t be able to diagnose and repair the problems,” said Calvin Torn, director of customer service and warranty for CleanFUEL USA. Te group works with Collins Bus Corporation, which provided the first Type A school bus with its propane technology, and is working with Tomas Built on a pro- pane-fueled Saf-T-Liner C2. “We are currently building pre-
42 School Transportation News March 2014
s alternative-fuel yellow buses enter the main- tenance yard, school bus technicians require
series units of the new C2s, and plan to be in full production in the second quarter of this year,” explained Ken Hedgecock, Tomas Built Buses’ vice president of sales, marketing and service.
CleanFUEL USA offers a two-
day training class on propane 101 with the priority being safety. Tat information is about two-thirds of the course, while the other third involves hands-on training with modules, such as a cutaway of the fuel system. Here, participants learn how the entire sys- tem works, such as how the fuel flows, and troubleshooting techniques. Torn said if a vehicle is available,
this training also includes demon- strating how to drain a tank properly, replace a fuel pump, add fuel back into the bus and check the fuel pres- sure, among other practices. He noted another course on propane
safety and understanding its fuel system that’s popular among school bus technicians, which comprise about 90 percent of attendees in these courses. Technicians who work on Blue
Bird’s Vision Type C conventional propane bus or the Micro Bird G5 Type A propane school bus receive initial, general, hands-on training from both Blue Bird and propane system provider ROUSH CleanTech. Beyond that, ROUSH offers Web- based training for technicians or ser- vice managers with some knowledge of and experience with its liquid pro-
pane injection system that completely replaces the OEM fuel system. Brian Carney, group account
director for ROUSH’s school bus and government sales, said online courses vary depending on the topic, but all go into great detail with such things as proper diagnostic procedures and testing voltage of a particular wiring harness. “[ROUSH’s] rise of attendants
directly correlates with the number of buses Blue Bird has sold,” Carney said, and noted that ROUSH officials have seen upwards of 120 new school districts converting to propane for the first time. “We’ve had that many technicians
and locations that require some level of service training and authorization from us to do the warranty work,” he said.
CNG AND ELECTRIC Tomas Builts’ propane-fueled
Saf-T-Liner C2 will complement its green vehicle lineup, which also in- cludes the propane-fueled Minotour bus, but also its compressed natural gas-fueled Minotour bus and HDX CNG models. For yellow fleets with CNG school buses, the Natural Gas Vehicle Institute offers training cours- es that cover the entire fuel system of a CNG vehicle — from the time the fuel enters the receptacle, all the way to the tailpipe. Annalloyd Tomason, NGV’s vice present and general manager, noted
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