With a lunch sponsorship from Roush Clean Tech and Rush Bus Centers and along with our hosts, Leander ISD, we continued our series of Fleet Manager Round Tables on June 18th when multiple fleets came together to discuss common issues and successes with alt fuel school buses.
School bus fleet mechanics and administrators from Austin, Eanes, Georgetown and Lockhart ISDs joined representatives from Lone Star Clean Fuels, state agencies and vendors at the Leander ISD Support Services Facility. Most of the attending fleets were fans of propane school buses and are increasing their usage of them. The only drawbacks mentioned were the size of the fuel tanks which are currently maxed out at 100 gallons due to space limitations for the tank and distance challenges for schools with really long bus routes that can’t be completed on one tank of fuel. On the plus side, the buses burn cleaner, and there are multiple sources of grant funds for alt fuel buses. Contact Tom Hopkins with Roush Cleantech at tom.hopkins@roush.com or (734)679-5704 or Craig Horinka, Rush Bus Centers at horinkac@rushenterprises.com for more information about alt fuel school buses.
The group toured the Leander ISD bus facility and received a
demonstration of driver fueling protocol.
Our hosts in Leander currently operate 78 propane buses, have plans to acquire even more and were happy to show off their operation. Their refueling infrastructure of 16,000 gallons will soon be expanded to 34,000 total gallons. They estimate their 2017 fuel savings with propane at $250,000 and expect that to increase with planned expansions in the fleet.