When I learned some states are calling in the National Guard to help drive kids to school, I felt the driver shortage in my gut. Some routes are being cancelled, some formerly 30 minute rides to school are taking 60 or 90 minutes to complete. It’s harsh for everyone involved.
If electric buses are the last thing on your mind right now, I understand. I appreciate that bus fleets are keeping public education going under heavy duress. 60% of low income children ride the bus to school, many having fallen far behind in their studies last year with remote learning. The life opportunities of millions of children truly ride on the bus ride that lands them in the classroom.
The tips below on electric buses will remain true whenever they become useful to you. We expect that federal funding will make electric school buses a solid, affordable option for many of the nation’s 13,500 school districts in the fairly near future. And, program and policy support from the World Resource Institute’s (WRI’s) 30 million dollar ESB initiative is already accelerating the transition
But we should expect federal funding to be competitive, with well prepared, knowledgeable bus fleets more likely to land the funds than the unschooled (ha!). Find the material below, and much more, at electricschoolbus.org and at The Electric Bus Learning Project, ready for when you can use it.
200 school districts in 33 states have electric school buses on the road, on order or announced (WRI). The move to electric is refreshingly bipartisan, balanced between rural, urban and suburban school districts. Here is advice I’ve gleaned from conversations with fleets, conferences, site visits, etc.
- Give feedback loops to bus drivers on the miles/gallon they’re currently achieving. This prepares them to achieve high miles/kilowatt hour, or miles/kWh, when
- A feather-foot improves ESB range significantly, because it maximizes the regenerative braking that feeds the battery. (Here at my house with our little electric Nissan Leaf, my foot is lighter than my husband’s. One transportation director hinted to me this gender difference in driving habits is familiar to him. Just saying ;.)
- In choosing your first e-bus, try to simulate your drivers’ current experience, i.e. angles of pedals, configuration of cab. This makes the change to electric easier.
- High vehicle miles traveled (VMT’s) are needed to make electric buses worth the investment. Use your e-bus as much as you can to yield the benefits of reduced fuel and maintenance costs and reduced carbon pollution.
- That said, your electric school bus won’t be your activity (long distance) bus – yet. Range of 2021 ESB models is up to 150 miles per charge, less with hills and with using the heater or air conditioner. Battery efficiency and range will continue to increase over time.
- Electric bus noise, vibration and heat are all reduced with electric. You’ll be able to talk with dispatch and manage the students more easily. Concurrently, you may hear things from your passengers you’d rather not, one person told me.
- Engage early and often with your electric utility (usually just termed utility). I know of an ESB that’s been delivered and is sitting idle because its charger isn’t installed yet, and that’s even with ESB’s having slowed-down deliveries and supply-chains due to the pandemic. Read on:
- The charging infrastructure part is harder than the electric bus part. Start active work on it more than a year ahead of when your ESB will arrive, with your first talk with your utility way ahead of the active work.
- The grid is getting greener every day. This means that beyond the fact of no tailpipe emissions from your e-buses, the “long tail” of their carbon footprint keeps getting cleaner in most states due to low-cost solar and wind energy replacing coal in the energy mix.
- Expect fleet transition to be wholly different from your pilot e-bus deployment. It’s not just an expanded pilot, but a completely new and different project, especially in designing and installing your charging infrastructure. Albuquerque School District in New Mexico and Porterville School District in California have hired consultants (Center for Transportation and the Environment) to create their fleet transition plans.
- Electric utilities are in transition, just like bus fleets. They’re shifting from being an assets-based industry to being a service-based industry, i.e. coordinating the assets of others, inc the batteries of electrified fleets and on-site generation of electricity.
- The above shift may be as much of a stretch for utilities as moving to electric buses is a stretch for bus fleets.
- Everybody involved in ESB’s is navigating change, generally at a faster rate than we’ve ever experienced before in our careers.
From notes I took at a presentation by Dr. Mark Quarto at the Green Transportation Summit and Expo last month in Tacoma, Washington. Dr. Quarto is in his 34th year of working in transportation electrification, and leads the Electrified Transportation Pro + Training and Certification Program.
- Train technicians first on core fundamentals, rather than on a particular product. This is counterintuitive, especially when OEM’s may be offering the only training that’s easy to find, and has little or no visible cost. “But product-first learning can trip you up.”
- Training is needed in small bites over time, as opposed to a long, single training with no follow-up. There’s a lot of background and information that takes time to absorb and digest.
- Both alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) come in high voltage, and can be 3, 6 or 9 phase. “That’s a lot for technicians to navigate.”
- Don’t over-rely on legacy knowledge and technology transfer. The legacy technologies, also called incumbent fuels, are diesel, gas and propane. Like all of us, technicians rely heavily on what they already know. But much of their knowledge won’t transfer to electric. Retraining is necessary.
- Be forward-thinking: embrace the change, embrace technical training. “Electrified transportation mean significant career opportunities for those that are technically prepared.” Bus fleets often have work-forces nearing retirement; we need to attract young people into the field and help them succeed as fleets electrify.
Alison Wiley (she/her/hers)
I am on the ancestral lands of the Multnomah, Chinook and Cowlitz peoples.
Whose land are you on?