because not a lot of districts are doing it. “Don’t take my word for it,” he said of calculating costs. “I’m a numbers guy, I’m a data guy. I put the data out there and let everybody look at it.” He also works with other organizations on collecting
data, such the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Recently, the EPA asked for information from Beaver to include in its fiscal 2024 report to Congress. He said his 25 EVs have resulted in a net savings of about $125,000 last fiscal year on fuel and repair, when compared to diesel. However, he noted that a year ago in July, Beaverton were only run- ning about five EVs compared to the 25 that running now. When extrapolating that for the total 25 buses, he’s look- ing at saving half a million dollars a year between fuel and repairs. After labor, he said the single greatest cost is the operational costs of his buses, so if he can save anywhere from $1 to $2 million a year running EVs, he can put that money back into the overall budget. A new data point he added was looking at Type C versus Type D vehicle performance. While he personally tracks by manufacturer, he said he won’t share that data. “I don’t have a problem adjusting, adapting, changing and adding or moving things, if that’s going to be of greater use to folks,” he said, adding that another aspect of it is transparency with the community. “We’re spend- ing a tremendous amount of money on electric buses. We want to be as transparent as possible.” He added that being located in the so-called Silicon
Forest that houses Intel and Nike among other corpo- rations, many district families consist of engineers and computer experts demanding hard data. Joel Feldhan, one of the three operations supervisors for the district, elaborated, adding that there’s a high-tech base in Bea- verton, with high technical literacy. “There’s a very high emphasis on technology being
played out in the schools serving those students,” he said. “Electric buses were a very good fit for Beaverton, not just because of the environmental advantages, but also because we [are setting an example of] what the future of the industry is moving toward.” Beaver added that the data is also a great way to show transparency to the industry, to prove the department
did what it said it would do. He explained that his grant proposals note that Beaverton will serve as a resource for the entire nation, not simply for Oregon or the Pacific Northwest. Alison Wiley of the Electric School Bus Newsletter en- couraged Beaver to establish an EPA Region 10 working group for districts located in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington that were awarded EPA grants and rebates. The group meets virtually on the second Wednesday of each month for an hour. The first meeting was in June with 15 attendees. Attendance doubled in August. “It’s based on the same model that EPA Region 5
(Midwest) has used for years,” he explained. “We discuss issues we’re having related to purchasing, servicing, and operating ESBs, infrastructure, and anything related to electrification.” He added that the group includes members from
the Washington Department of Ecology, Oregon Department of Energy, Oregon Department of Environ- mental Equality, as well as organizations like WRI and CALSTART. EPA representatives share information on infrastructure types, funding, IRS heavy-duty vehicle rebate, technician training, utility make-ready programs, and different funding opportunities in each state. “I’m pretty proud of it and it seems to keep growing,” he said.
Operational Efficiencies A Beaver accomplishment that went under the radar
industry wide was increasing driver pay that has to stem the tide of departing staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. Beaver noted he and his entire office staff drove buses
every day for close to a year after the pandemic. “We recognized that this wasn’t a sustainable model,” he said, adding that the district instead came up with a substan- tial pay raise for severely affected positions, and bus drivers were at the top of the list. “And I’m very pleased to say that it seems to have done the trick for us.” JD Russell, operations supervisor, explained that Bea-
ver put together the “most impressive documents” that he’s ever seen. He noted that Beaverton was in a rut. CDL holders were leaving for other jobs, and Beaver scru- tinized the district’s pay structure. Russell said Beaver looked at around 200 CDL jobs in the area and what their
Transportation Knowledge Craig Beaver is going on his 40th year working in transportation, in one form or another. It’s his 25th year
working in student transportation. The trucking industry, he said, taught him how to manage the basics, and industrial engineering helped him with “really thinking through problems and looking at alternative ways that aren’t applying costs. I was able to take a lot of the skills from the trucking business and translate it and see the school bus business,” he said. Today, he continues to grow and educate himself in the transportation space. “First it was diesel, then the it-
erations of diesel. Then propane came along, and I learned all about that and now electric is here,” he said of the changing times.
40 School Transportation News • NOVEMBER 2024
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