Greening the Yellow Takes Assistance
Maurine Simons of South Kitsap School District in Washington state and mechanics
like her across the U.S. rely heavily on
warranty terms to learn the ins and outs of maintaining alt-fuel school buses.
the district’s propane buses are still under warranty, so the mechanics typically send them back to the local dealer for repair. But even diagnosing problems means understanding software that varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. Simons said if the district eventually opts for electric buses, mechanics would need training to be able to deal with emergency repairs, even while the buses are still under warranty. “It is a safety issue if you don’t know what you’re doing, because it’s a higher voltage,” said Simons, comparing electric systems to those in traditional vehicles. “You need to know where and how to disconnect properly, what protective equipment to use. And it’s going to be a learning curve on just how the systems operate. Tere’s nothing as far as an engine really–you open the hood and there’s nothing there.” As transportation director for the Twin Rivers School District near Sacramento, California, Tim Shannon helps
oversee the largest current electric school bus pilot program in the country. He said the district’s electric buses have been performing well and are widely embraced, but districts still need to get employees up to speed on maintenance. “Tat’s where the gap is still – they’re just learning about it,” he said. “Tere’s no real training courses yet, we’re devel- oping those training courses.” Twin Rivers is offering high school students “green power” classes that cover clean diesel and CNG maintenance with an electric component to be added. Students could eventually be hired to work on the district’s buses, and jobs are expected to grow across all types of clean vehicles. Community colleges are also increasingly offering training in electric and other clean bus maintenance, Shannon noted. And Twin Rivers is working with a certified instructor to develop courses for drivers. Driving both CNG and electric buses “is fairly normal except there’s no sound,” Shannon noted. “You have to be very aware of your surroundings because other people can’t hear the buses.” Eight of Twin Rivers’ buses came from Trans Tech, which also has 15 more electric Type A buses in the shipping or
ordering phase. Trans Tech President John Phraner said the company does not have any special warranty or training programs for its electric buses, but it and partner Motiv Power Systems, which makes the electric bus power trains, are committed to helping districts with any problems. He noted that the company has not seen demand for CNG or propane Type A school buses recently, but the Volk- swagen settlement could spark demand for those as well as electric and clean diesel.
42 School Transportation News • FEBRUARY 2018
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