STN Publisher Tony Corpin, left, and Grant Treesh of Small Public Fleet winner DeKalb Central Schools in Indiana.
Mikelski, who accepted the award on July 16, spoke highly of the Amer-
iGas, relaying that company representatives answered every question or concern regarding propane. “[AmeriGas personnel] then assisted us setting up our
fuel station. His assistance again provided us guidance for a successful beginning.” Mikelski continued, adding that a crucial part of the district’s successful imple- mentation of propane buses depended on getting all the facts. She noted that that both Blue Bird and Roush CleanTech as well as AmeriGas did an excellent job an- swering her questions and addressing any concerns. In the case of the winner of the Local/Regional Private Fleet Category, Suffolk Transportation Services Inc., located in Bay Shore, New York on Long Island, said it was an innovative partnership between the contractor and Blue Bird. Suffolk was the first to introduce electric school buses in New York, a process that began with building its own hybrid and plug-in battery buses in 2008. Currently, it operates about 1,000 vans and 700 school buses, 11 of which are electric buses. The company plans to apply for the next round of U.S.
Enviromental Protection Agency Clean School Bus Pro- gram funding to purchase an additional 25 electric buses. Thomas Smith, vice president of school operations and business development, spoke about how he felt that the company provided a good push for their bus pro- vider because of their electric goals. “We wanted Blue Bird to understand that it was important to get to a [fully] electric vehicle. In 2019, the first-generation vehicles were a tough go, but being first with anything is a chal- lenge,” he recalled. Teno Gustavson, Suffolk’s director of vehicle mainte- nance, commended Blue Bird’s collaboration. “They listened to all concerns, all our data that showed the deficiencies with the
vehicles and things that we were seeing with the first generations,” he commented. “They took all that information, their engi- neers met with us, took that back and put that into the next generation buses that we currently have which have a lot more improvements based on what we brought to them.”
Installation Supply chain constraints continue to
Diana Mikelski accepts the
disrupt transportation operations, but the Green Fleet Award winners spoke highly of their vendor partner’s flexibility in getting their operations up and running. Montgomery Public Schools in Rock- ville, Maryland, won the Large Public Fleet Category. Currently, 86 of its 1,450 buses are electric. Gregory Salois, former director of transportation, who resigned from the district last month, said that the district is working with Highland Electric to deploy 326 electric buses by the end of 2024 and to be fully electric by 2032. He added that the level of customer service from all the district’s vendor partners, including Highland Electric, Thomas Built Buses, Proterra, and American Bus, has been unwavering. “Due to the novelty of the systems, we experienced mechanical and/or technical issues with the chargers and even the electric school buses,” Salois commented. “How- ever, the immediate response to these concerns mitigated any operational interruptions.” Kevin Matthews, head of electrification at First Student,
Medium Public Fleet Award for Township High
School District 211 in Palatine, Illinois.
expressed the complexity of installing various types and sizes of infrastructure based on location, site conditions and the permits required by each district. The company
Suffolk Transportation in Long Island, New York was recognized in the Local/ Regional Fleet category for deploying the state’s first electric school buses.
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