SPECIAL REPORT
or for compensation to be made so we can purchase others, also not likely, and have communicated with Maine’s Department of Education and the Governor’s Office, who have reached out to the EPA to see if there might be some relief provid- ed through their grant programs,” Dolloff said.
Customers do have other options. “We are able to assist districts with
maintenance on Lion EV buses. Maintenance on electric school buses is part of our offering to all districts, regardless, if you con- tract with First Student for home to school services or not,” noted Danielle Becker, senior marketing
manager for First Student, of the fee-based service. “We can provide maintenance for all vehicles includ- ing diesel/ gasoline yellow and white fleet. We are able to provide compre- hensive preventative and corrective maintenance. Districts can contract directly with First Services or use the buying cooperative Sourcewell to contract with First Services for main- tenance services.” Much of the customer service
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Lion provided was via a proprietary remote diagnostics tool. Frank Na- elitz, the director of electric vehicle maintenance for First Student, said any school bus customer should be wary about losing turnkey service when the provider ceases operation. Because the school bus contractor owns and operates 350 Lions—all of which operate in Quebec—Naelitz helped to create a technical assis- tance center and First Student’s own remote diagnostics tool, available at all 600 of its locations. “That same infrastructure is able
to provide some of that techni- cal support to groups outside of First Student, if there is that need,” he explained. “That program does anything from finding service information to remoting into a diagnostics computer at the point of repair and helping them trouble shoot while connected to the vehicle, reviewing log files from various com- ponents. We could probably source parts at some point.” Todd Hawkins, First Student’s senior
vice president of maintenance, ex- plained that all company technicians use tablets for work orders. “A tech can log in to the help desk
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and Frank can take over their iPad, take pictures of what they’re working on, draw on it, write in specs. He can walk them through a repair. We may end up dispensing these programs where we could talk to [techs] directly,” he added, noting the company won’t work on high-voltage issues without the customer first taking basic arc flash and other relevant training. ●
22 School Transportation News • MARCH 2025
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