Nate Oliver, center, speaks with STN’s Ryan Gray, left, and Tony Corpin, far right, during the School Transportation Nation Podcast at last month’s STN EXPO Indianapolis. Also pictured is podcast producer Claudia Newton. Listen at stnpodcast.com.


buses … I tracked downtime, warranty, fuel mileage, and total cost of ownership. I looked at which ones ran the most days without any breakdowns, if we had a war- ranty issue, how long was it down for, and any warranty issues. We’ll ask how long did we have to wait on parts to get it back on the road? Did we have any problems through the warranty process and so on?” He noted that fleet operators want as few breakdowns as possible, especially when transporting children. But in a year with historic supply shortages, truck parts are nearly impossible to come by, making a detailed analysis of purchasing a prerequisite. Oliver relayed that his department tracks performance


history through the years and has learned which buses best suit the fleet. His district bought 13 buses from one manufacturer but in their first year, with less than 4,000 miles, six turbochargers failed. Then, replacement parts took almost three months to receive. At one point, he said that of those 13 buses, he had eight brand new buses down and they were not even a year old. He narrowed purchasing down to one manufacturer who had excel- lent parts support and reliability. Many schools are considering alternate power sources


such as propane, and many are transitioning to electric buses in their next purchase for various reasons. Oliver said he conducted comprehensive due diligence on these purchase decisions as well. “We actually have three electric buses,” he said. “We


don’t have any propane. … I spent 18 months researching EV buses, and then I spent 16 [months] researching pro- pane. Propane really is not something I thought was an option for us for two reasons. There’s no one in our area that really does work on a propane bus. It all must go to Indianapolis, which is 55 to 65 miles away from us to the nearest garage if we can’t fix it in house.”


36 School Transportation News • NOVEMBER 2021


But the biggest challenge with propane is mileage. “They don’t get the mileage the clean diesel buses get,” he added. “They’re only going to be able to be used locally, because I have no way to fill them up if I send them to the football game in Evansville, Indiana. It’s anywhere from 130 to 150 miles one way, depending on which school we go to down there. With the propane bus, because of their mileage, I don’t have a way to fuel them up at a truck stop or something like that unless we had an account set up with a special vendor in that area, which we don’t. So, we’ve steered away from propane for that main reason.”


Comprehensive Procurement Decisions Brian Gibson, the director of transportation for New


Braunfels Independent School District in Texas Hill Country, said he also includes numerous factors in his purchase decision, including the terrain of his district and the geography of his routes. “There are several factors involved when we look at new buses,” said Gibson. “The square mileage of our district, the terrain we encounter, which in turn makes us consider the cost of maintenance in the long term as well as the fuel cost and performance for the engines be- ing offered. All of that being said, we are moving toward gasoline buses for our general busing needs.” Bus purchases at New Braunfels ISD include many key


decision makers, such as the superintendent, assis- tant superintendent of finance and operations, and the school board. “All are key stakeholders in the vision of what NBISD’s busing solutions will be moving forward,” he said. “My job is to give them the most accurate infor- mation on what we as transportation see, need, and deal with. I then provide my recommendation and rationale behind it, and the decision is theirs.”


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