“Tey are familiar with the base engine.
Everything they’re used to working on or would touch in a normal cycle is still the same,” Arnett said. “I’m not seeing a lot of differences here.” But where Nelson’s is seeing a difference is in vehicle price. As
a dealership,
the company said the overall trend of school districts to extend bus ser- vice life is growing due to the perfect storm
of more costly engine tech-
nology and the economy. Nelson’s saw less pre-buys than originally forecast as schools are focusing on preventative maintenance programs. Tis has also given rise to more creative leasing and financing through Daimler Financial. “Te questions I’ve heard in the deal- ership market is, ‘What solutions are
available to help offset that price increase?’ Whether it be financing tools or how to determine the life-cycle replacement cost of that vehicle. Tere’s still a lot of ques- tions,” he added. “But people, I think, are to the point now where they are comfortable with the technology, and it’s just coming down to the economic portion of that, the dollars and cents, and making it fit in the budgets, which is the biggest challenge.”
EGR On the Road and in the Showroom Close to 50 percent of Mike Waters’
66-bus fleet is made up of IC Bus’ 2010 CE Series school buses — buses that Waters has seamlessly integrated into his con- tracting services for local school districts such as Columbus Municipal School Dis- trict in northeastern Mississippi. “From an operations standpoint, it’s
been a non-event,” said Waters, presi- dent of IC dealer Waters Transportation Services and Waters Truck & Tractor, Inc. “We have been able to continue business
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as usual while incorporating the latest and cleanest technology.” Both Waters’ service technicians and
drivers have had no complaints about the new models, with reports of the same smooth, powerful behind-the wheel han- dling and service as with pre-2010 models. Te change has also been free of any new training for drivers and “the hassles of changing my operations to accommodate urea liquid,” according to Waters. “I don’t have to train my drivers to un-
derstand any new gauges or indicators. My service technicians are able to main- tain the engines without any additional complexity,” said Waters, adding that he has not had to alter his operations in any way to accommodate the new engines. “I have not seen any drawbacks to operating Advanced EGR engines.” With the buses still in their first year of
service, data on fuel economy has yet to be derived. But IC and parent company Navistar are keeping an eye on the new en- gines with the use of “black box” recorders, although Waters reported seeing an initial slight decrease in fuel economy. But with data gathered by the OEM and engine man- ufacturer, adjustments have been made by tweaking the engine computer settings, which has resulted in fuel economy gains during the regeneration process. “We are seeing positive results. I’m con-
fident that as these buses continue to run, and without the added hassle of liquid urea, we will enjoy the benefits of both fuel econ- omy and lower operating costs,” said Waters. Waters’ contracting side of his business
Donaldson Company, Inc. PO Box 1299 Minneapolis, MN 55440-1299
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acts as its own selling tool when speaking to customers about the 2010 models. And according to the president himself, he is able to maintain his price competitiveness because the Advanced EGR MaxxForce engines allow him to provide “clean trans- portation with outstanding reliability to my customers.” Tis, he said, allows him the freedom to focus on delivering the lowest cost solution to his customers, both school districts that need buses and those that are looking to contract trans- portation services. “It’s a huge selling point to tell a cus-
tomer that I do not have to do anything different and do not have to re-train my drivers or mechanics,” added Waters. n
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