Scaling Propane Operations Randolph Township in northern New Jersey started adopting propane school buses
in 2011. Today, almost all the district’s large school buses are powered by propane, with only a couple of gasoline buses remaining for longer trips out of state. John Aymil, the director of transportation for Randolph Township, said the district started with two Blue Bird propane school buses in 2011, one special education school bus and one 54-passenger bus, both with GM propane engines. Now the district runs 38 full size buses, 36 of which are propane, the other two run on gasoline. All the buses purchased since are Blue Bird with Ford engines.
While Aymil wasn’t at the district when the adoption began, he said it was the new regulations that inspired the district’s move toward cleaner energy. Plus, at the time, propane was the only alternative option. He said district officials figured they
would start with two buses and see how they worked. They’ve continued to work well, as the district just recently received three more propane buses. Randolph Town- ship also recently retired the last couple of diesel buses in its fleet and has plans to continue adopting propane, especially since the cost per gallon is $1.72. The district part- nered with AmeriGas to supply the fuel. One 1,000-gallon tank and one 2.5 hp
pump were installed at project inception. However, in 2016 the district added another 1,000-gallon tank and another pump, while also upgrading both pumps to 5 hp. These changes allow the drivers to fuel multiple buses at once with faster pump times. Plus, he said, AmeriGas fills their tanks twice a week, but with a phone call those visits can increase to address a large number of athletic trips or decrease during summer. When the first propane tank was
installed, Aymil relayed that advanced planning eased the future upgrades. He also shared it helped that AmeriGas took care of the infrastructure, fueling pumps and designing and installing of the tanks. He added that AmeriGas also maintains the pumps. Each tank is above ground and encompasses about 20 by 40 feet. “Electric has to be run to the pump, but
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there was already existing electric in that area of our bus yard,” he said of the work that was needed. “It was just a matter of running the lines another 20 feet over to get electric to the pumps.” He added that running the buses has
been straight forward, and at first district officials were surprised by how quiet they operate. “They don’t need to warm up in the winter, like a diesel bus needs to,” Aymil said. “And they were just cheaper or less expensive to maintain. Because it’s just basically a Ford engine with a differ- ent type of fueling system on it with the propane offered by ROUSH CleanTech. You don’t have all the filters a diesel engine has and all the gallons of oil that a diesel engine needs.” ●
32 School Transportation News • JUNE 2023
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