STN EXPO Reno attendees gather information at the Collins Bus exhibit on the trade show floor last month. Photo by Taylor Hannon.
ed has also helped some companies. Lonsdale noted that the fact Amply is “agnostic to hardware” has helped, as has a diversity of offerings and suppliers. “We have two ideal manufacturers of overnight
chargers and two manufacturers of DC fast-charging [stations,]” Motiv’s Castelaz said. “Every time a customer comes and wants to expand the number of charges they have, we’re able to negotiate for the best timeline and best pricing we can.” Meanwhile, Mike Menyhart, the chief strategy officer
for battery electric power systems provider SEA Elec- tric and president of the company’s Americas division, pointed to similar benefits for SEA’s business model in providing battery electric power systems. “Our software allows us to [change] in and out parts very
easily, whereas a lot of our competitors have an integrated solution, if they can’t get a part, they struggle to react,” he said. “Our software allows us to work with secondary sup- pliers, which has been fantastic during this time.” The company’s product offerings also help districts
achieve the flexibility and cost savings that may be more important now than ever. “Since we run a medium-voltage solution, we have
the ability to offer both Level-2 AC charging all the way to supporting DC fast charging and V2G (vehi- cle-to-grid),” he said. “A lot of our competitors can only support DC fast charging or may not support V2G. People are looking for solutions, especially in low- and moderate-income areas, places where the principal is the coach, the bus driver and the history teacher and might not be able to depot the bus at the school every night, maybe he needs to bring it home. With a Level-2 charger, you can charge the bus in less than six hours at home overnight, that’s another type of flexibility people think about when going electric.”
Attracting Bus Drivers The supply chain shortages and bottlenecks have
of course been paired with a labor shortage across all industries. Motiv’s Castelaz said electric buses, and espe- cially smaller electric buses, may help districts weather this challenge, making the job more accessible and more
26 School Transportation News • JANUARY 2022
attractive to potential drivers. “Once a driver gets behind the wheel of an electric bus
they don’t want to go back—it’s the noise, the shaking, the heat, the smell—electric is just such a better experience driving,” Castelaz said. “And there’s a certain pride to it we’ve seen. The drivers understand they’re doing some- thing good for their community and they’re proud of it.” Meanwhile Gary Schmidt, Motiv’s vice president
of sales, added that younger drivers want to drive an electric vehicle. “When they advertise that drivers will be able to drive and operate an electric vehicle, the age of driver [applicants] goes down. They have a larger pool of drivers to choose from.” Schmidt noted that Type A buses don’t require the same commercial drivers licenses that larger buses do, making it less challenging to recruit andn train drivers. And driving an electric bus is a gentler learning curve for new drivers, and gentler on the body. “It is easier for nontraditional drivers who hadn’t con-
sidered driving a large vehicle as a career option,” said Castelaz. “When it’s electric, it lowers the bar for some of the skill sets. [A Type A electric bus] feels like a go-cart, it’s just a lot easier to drive.” While drivers of conventional buses often suffer knee
pain from the strain of braking over the years, for exam- ple, Schmidt and Castelaz said regenerative braking on electric buses relieves the tension. “We’re seeing drivers getting so good at using the
regenerative braking that they never touch the brakes,” said Schmidt. “They can one-pedal the vehicle through the whole route.” Nick Bettis, director of marketing and sales opera-
tions for Lightning eMotors, agreed that the allure of an electric bus for drivers is especially important these days, and another reason electric bus purchases will continue to rise. Among other things, eMotors recently partnered with Collins on Type A buses. “Labor in general is hard to find, and drivers in par-
ticular,” Bettis said. “Customers we talk to want to do everything they can to retain those drivers. We’re finding more and more drivers [are] excited to drive electric vehicles.” ●
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