If your child gets involved in an accident while travelling by the school bus, it is not easy to find out what actually happened if you were not there when the accident happened.
Therefore, it is crucial to take the following steps:
•First of all, ensure that your child is given medical attention immediately.
This is because their well-being is your top most priority.
•Document everything regarding the accident as quickly as you can.
It will be a good idea if you talk to other parents as well and write down all the details.
•Take photos of at least your child’s injuries if not possible to take pictures of the accident scene.
The school transport manager primarily oversees the fleet of buses that transport the students to and from the school.
The manager plays a crucial role in the overall planning and management of the bus routes, scheduling, vehicle maintenance and acquisition and much more.
This position requires the candidate to have the capability to organize, possess leadership skills, and maintain good relationships with others.
Duties and Responsibilities of the Transport Manager
1. The transport manager is responsible for the transportation of school and sees that the day-to-day operations are going on without any problems.
For this, the transport manager has to monitor the operations and assure efficient performance in compliance with the regulations and according to the policies, guideline and procedures that are laid down.
They are supposed to handle different aspects of bus maintenance issues and emergencies if any.
3. In addition to performing road checks during inclement weather, the transport manager holds the complete responsibility of overseeing the timely maintenance checks of all the buses.
The manager is also responsible for maintaining complete records of all the maintenance that have taken place on every bus.
The manager facilitates staff meetings in this connection and also provides direction to the bus maintenance staff.
The transport manager is in charge of inspecting the buses frequently to ensure that all the buses are in tip-top condition and safe enough to transport the students to and from the school.
4. The transport manager is in charge of setting the routes for the buses, dispatch of the buses, working out their schedule, and managing the driver.
They are also incharge of managing other members of the transport department such as staff representatives from the school, manage fuel consumption of the buses, and also development of the bus timetable.
All these are done keeping in mind the child safety that is being transported on the bus.
He is also responsible to prepare and submit all the related reports in a timely manner.
6. The transport manager is responsible for the purchase of any equipment for the school bus fleet in compliance with all the existing policies and procedures.
7. The transport manager is responsible for the conduct and behaviour of the bus drivers and attendants.
In this connection, he is responsible for the recruitment of the said personnel.
He should also keep them informed in case there is a new person that has assumed the role of the driver or bus attendant.
9. The role of a transport manager becomes a prominent one in times of a crisis such as an accident or emergency (such as a breakdown).
In such a case his action should be immediate so that there is no harm (or only a minimal loss) and every child reaches their home safe and sound.
The transport manager is expected to have the contact details of all the vehicles repair services of the area as well as those of doctors, nursing homes and hospitals.
10. The transport manager is in charge of coordinating with all the transport staff and the government authorities to keep the bus feet in a ready state for the annual state inspection of the vehicle fleet.
11. The Transport manager shall plan and execute the purchase of spare buses as additions to the existing fleet.
This help in handling the situation when the necessity of school bus arises.
12. The transport manager shall assist the school authorities in the development of operating procedures.
These include policies, upgrading the existing systems and their implementation and staffing changes at the departmental level.
13. The transport manager is expected to maintain safety standards in compliance with regulations for insurance requirements.
A preventative safety program has to be developed by the manager.
All insurance reports have to be completed and submitted to the authorities by the transport manager.
14. The transport manager is responsible to conduct mock evacuation and emergency drills in a timely manner.
15. It is the responsibility of the transport manager to submit a variety of reports in a timely fashion to the school authorities and government departments in compliance with policies and procedures.
All expenditures must be properly recorded allocated and accounted for.
Complaints and concerns should be recorded and all the related follow-up correspondence should be copied, saved and stored appropriately.
The software also makes carrying paperwork everywhere redundant.
However, the best school excursion management software will have the following interesting features:
1. Student Safety
The excursion management software is very helpful in not only ensuring but also in managing the safety of the students on an excursion trip.
Student safety is dealt with by giving staff members instant access to certain things such as student medical conditions, personalized care instructions, etc.
And also provides access to emergency contacts even when there is no connectivity or the mobile devices are offline.
All that the schools have to do is train their staff on what they are supposed to do in an emergency.
2.Management of Transportation
There is a module incorporated into the excursion management software helping schools to plan routes in an efficient manner.
The software helps in the management of trips with a focus on student safety.
The vehicle and driver details, including the exact location of the school bus, are tracked to improve safety.
Medical records of students contain their personal information.
As in paper forms, there is a chance of getting lost, stolen, read by someone, or photographed.
Access can be restricted, ensuring the utmost security and safety of data, when school excursion software is used.
Only specified staff members get instant access through password, fingerprint, or code to comprehensive student records, including medical records, and their access can be cut off on completion of the event.
This is because data automatically expires after the excursion so as to keep the information secure.
Even when authorized staff access information, they are tracked.
Therefore, it is easier, more secure, and more practical in all respects.
4. Unplanned or Unexpected Trips
Sometimes, the need to take a child or children to a nearby place either for educational purposes or any medical emergency.
In such kind of situations, the staff members need not to have panic at all.
A unique feature of the school excursion management software called “Instant Trip” can be made use of to handle all unplanned or unexpected trips.
5. Student Attendance Management
Keeping track of the students as the excursion progresses is a challenging task, especially when it has to be done manually.
The excursion management software leverages the mobile technology to ensure 100 percent accurate attendance marking.
The mobile linked excursion student attendance module enables staff to mark off their presence at several checkpoints throughout the excursion (for example, on the bus, at the bus stops, etc.).
6. Smart Wristbands
In some situations, there might be a need for additional safety when taking school children on an excursion.
The school excursion management software comes with a provision for that too- smart watch technology.
This is integrated into the student attendance management module ensuring additional safety for the children.
7. Parent App
This is one of the unique features of the school excursion management software.
This enables the school to keep the parents in the loop and provide them with relevant information in real time.
8. Auto Routing
This is another interesting feature of the excursion management software.
It makes navigation easy.
The auto-routing module works on the basis of the start point or the source and the endpoint or the destination.
The auto-routing feature helps to reduce the running time of the vehicle, fuel usage, efforts of the transport manager and driver, and saves fuel, among other things.
The Smart Notifications feature is helpful in many ways and mainly in case of emergencies.
This features school administrators and authorized teachers or staff members to send messages or notify all concerned profiles instantaneously about an emergency situation or changes in plans.
This is normally a helpful feature when school children are taken out on an excursion.
The fact that if the school is using excursion management software, then it provides a great deal of confidence in parents.
Child safety and security is a major cause of anxiety for parents in these times.
Parents start worrying as soon as the child leaves home for school.
Whether the bus was on time, did their ward board the bus, did the child reach the school safely, and when the student was dropped back are matters of daily concern. This can be solved with school bus tracking software.
The parent can also apply for leave if the child is sick through this app.
Both the driver and administration are informed. The route can be changed if necessary for drivers to reduce running time.
The school authorities have access to details regarding the driver, route, time spent on the road, list of students present on the bus thus enabling them to put their fleet to optimal use.
Accidents and traffic congestions along the routes can be viewed and conveyed to both parents and drivers.
With this, transport managers do not have to perform school bus routing, optimization and allocation manually because the system does it automatically as our system is AI in-built.
2: BusWhere
Considered very easy to use and a reliable for parents, the app tells us ‘where’ the bus is located currently.
The bus routes can be viewed on an interactive map.
Parents are notified when the bus is going to reach the stop. They get a minute by minute update on expected arrival time.
It tracks the location of the different buses on the specified routes, the time of arrival and departure from each stop, deviation in route due to traffic delays, expected arrival time at each of the designated stops.
This is of immense help to school administrators.
They have an easy access to information of the buses in their fleet mainly the routes, present location, speed and fuel levels.
With this, if any delay in school bus timing, parents can be notified via messages.
An additional feature of this is that the previous history of the bus can be obtained.
Details thus logged can be downloaded for further analysis too.
3: School Bus Tracker
School bus tracker offers real-time location of buses to both parents and school authorities.
Location of the buses, time of arrival and departure and route changes are monitored.
If any delay, direct messages are sent to parents and the information is also relayed to school authorities.
The driver can also be notified directly by the parent if the child is sick.
This enables him to change the route accordingly.
Though widely used, this does not monitor the child’s attendance on and off the bus as it does not have RFID.
4: Here comes the bus
Being a bus location sharing platform, it provides the parents and school administration with the exact location of the bus.
The parents can view the scheduled and actual time of student arrival at both home and school.
In case where the bus is delayed, email alerts are sent to parents.
This is a device to track whether the student got on and off the bus.
It will indicate the bus-stop too. ID cards are scanned by students while boarding and exiting the bus. This will provide details of student attendance.
In conjunction with the GPS device, the location is pinpointed and the school as well as the parents is notified if students have alighted at the wrong stop.
5: Applane Real-Time Bus Tracking System
This system is a powerful software for parents to track their child’s bus route, location and timings of departure and arrival.
It offers an option wherein the child can be dropped to the next bus stop in case they fail to drop the child off at the usual one.
Parents are notified of route changes due to delays. They are also informed of any emergency situations or breakdowns.
RFID integration helps in monitoring attendance. An additional feature is the CCTV installed which keeps an eye on both students and drivers.
Unlike others, this can be accessed on mobile devices by the school authorities making it possible to manage their entire fleet anywhere anytime.
The number of pre-school age children traveling in cars and school buses is increasing resulting in the requirement for several child care programs.
Just as these little ones need proper security in other vehicles, they need Child Safety Restraint Systems (CSRS) in school buses as well.
The use of Child Safety Restraint Systems including car seats and seat belts has been in debate for quite some time now. If installed properly, these systems keep small children restrained in their seats.
Children must appropriately be tied to their seats so that they are comfortable and safe when traveling to and from school. Certain cars and school buses have factory installed safety restraint systems while others can get them added at a later time.
So, when and why do you think would you need to get safety restraint systems installed on your school bus or car?
Some people oppose the use of safety restraints and there are some valid reasons behind this opposition. The number one reason is injuries from improperly fastened restraints and emergency evacuations.
Furthermore, a concern has been raised with respect to the extra load that is placed on seats with restraints, thereby hampering their performance in situations of a crash.
While these concerns are of value, many districts and states are encouraging the installation of restraint systems on all school buses that transport small children.
Guidelines You Need to Know
The following section helps you to understand how you can correctly secure pre-school children with CSRS and certain other guidelines vital for their proper usage.
There are some basic rules for using CSRS and most of the school authorities make common mistakes that can later lead to accidents and mishaps.
1. The right use of CSRS depends on the child. A child weighing up to 20 lbs and 1 year of age should be rear-facing. When the child weighs over 20 lbs, he/she must be forward-facing.
This makes a lot of difference to the child’s comfort as well as their protection. Remember to go through the weight limits mentioned by the manufacturer to be sure of the correct usage.
2. Check the user manual to ensure that installation of the restraint systems is perfect.
The seat must not move for more than 1 inch when pushed sideways or forward. It should be well fastened and gripped with the vehicle’s seat.
3. The harness straps must be secured in the right slots. If it is a rear-facing restraint system, use the lower or below the shoulder slots.
If it is a forward-facing system, slots are generally at the top or above the shoulders.
The harness strap must not be left loose or twisted. It must not be tied. It must lie flat and adjusted in a manner that only one finger can be inserted between the child’s chest and the straps.
4. An infant must ride rear-facing and semi-reclined. This could be at an angle of approximately 45 degrees from horizontal. The incline is essential to support the head, neck, and back.
Use a tightly rolled towel or a firm foam noodle to give it the right tilt needed for the infant to keep their head comfortably.
Please note that such an inclination also helps the toddler to sleep without losing out on breath or choking.
5. If the belts are too long, adding knots to them to make them shorter is unacceptable. Twisting is also not a good idea since lap belts make all the difference in securing your child to the seat.
The lap belt must be the right length, which means that it should rest off the frame of the child’s seat allowing it to remain tight and fastened.
6. The harness-retainer clip, if at all there on your car seat, must be at the level of the child’s armpit. In case the clip is in the wrong place, chances that the strap can slide off are high.
The clip and harness strap slots must be thoroughly checked after placing your child for maximum security and protection.
7. According to research, the incorrect installation of the child safety restraint system is quite common.
This is because car owners and school bus owners try to finish the task without taking all kinds of precautions and corrective measures.
Installation must be done with precision following the instructions of the user manual.
In fact, it is a good idea to visit a local car-seat inspection site and get the installation checked before placing your infant or child in the seat.
If you face any challenges with respect to the installation, you can reach out to the car seat manufacturer or take assistance from a local workshop.
Installation tutorial videos are also available online to help you with the right procedure.
Apart from the above-mentioned guidelines, it is important to know and check height restrictions for the car seat you use.
A child’s head needs to be at least one inch below the top of the car seat’s shell.
Additionally, remember not to install the car seat or booster in the front seat. Your child must be at least 13 years of age before they can start riding on the front seat.
Child Safety Restraint Systems become extremely vital when transporting special need children and very young children such as preschoolers.
School bus transportation has seen tremendous technological advancement over the last few years. Today, software is available for the school bus fleet management, including scheduling, and also geographic information system to improve efficiency and tracking.
The main purpose of employing technology in school bus fleet management is to ensure student safety. This is because these systems enable route planning to improve efficiency and provide information in real-time on location and security threats.
Here are some of the key benefits that schools can enjoy using school bus scheduling software:
Improve Fleet Optimization
Manual scheduling of routes and times is a static procedure and it is one-dimensional in nature. Inconsistent school bus schedules tend to impact morning routines and results in frustrated parents calling the school for an update on arrival at the waiting point.
Inconsistency in tracking also leads to increased expenses. On the other hand, the use of right software helps schools easily overcome all these challenges.
Tracking software helps to analyze the bell times for students in different grades and tier the bus routes accordingly so that the late arrival of buses, calls from parents, and unnecessary spending can be avoided.
Tiering enables schools to use the same drivers and buses and this effectively reduces the requirement of buses and drivers by 50%. This, in turn, results in a reduction in overall transportation costs as well.
It is not easy to create effective tiered routes for school buses. Many scenarios have to be taken into consideration. However, the scheduling software allows for the creation of unlimited scenarios and study or review a number of hypothetical tiering schedules to ensure the optimal use of the school’s fleet of buses.
Makes Routing Easy
If the conditions remain ideal, schools can set the routes and use them every year. However, the reality is that the student population keeps expanding and costs continue to rise.
This means that school administrators must keep track of the routes and change them as required. Optimization of bus routes is the best way to reduce costs, minimize ride times, and ensure student safety.
This is best achieved by implementing the bus scheduling software. It may sound intimidating initially, but technological advances enable scheduling of school bus routes easy.
The software helps the school administration department to quickly analyze traffic pattern, route times, and student populations to ensure student safety.
The software also incorporates other functionalities. They make it possible for administrators to communicate with drivers and monitor the movement of school vehicles in real time.
When schedules need to be changed, school administrators will have to often put away other jobs and focus only on readjusting schedules.
The use of the bus scheduling software totally eliminates this problem. This is because the suitability of various alternative routes can be checked almost instantaneously, resulting in saving time and cost.
Update Drivers Quickly
Students move to new homes, and therefore, their pick up points change. The parents of a child may have split custody. The child may come to school by one bus but go back home on a different bus.
This child may also use different buses. In such cases, school bus drivers of respective routes should be informed of the same at the very next moment.
When the pickup point of a student changes, web access portals come to the aid of school bus drivers. The scheduling software provides drivers with daily updates before they start their work in the morning.
Reduce Costs
All schools experience problems with respect to balancing their budgets. When they face financial challenges, the first department to get the cut is the transportation department.
Parents become concerned when routes are changed and bus stops are eliminated. Fortunately, the scheduling software helps to optimize routes without compromising the safety of students.
The software helps to save money in the following ways:
Route Planning
School bus tracking software does away with the need to organize lengthy planning sessions. The routing job used to be completed only over a few days.
With this software, the job can now be completed in a matter of minutes. It also has special features which help to set parameters and designate zones when creating routes that are safe and efficient.
Maximizing Efficiency
Efficient routes reduce the fuel requirement and driver downtime. School bus scheduling and tracking software helps to identify the routes that rationalize the stops.
It also enhances student safety as it identifies routes that avoid areas with a high level of traffic. Rationalization of the routes also helps to minimize driver and bus requirement.
Integration
Advanced school bus scheduling software is available now and can be integrated with many other tools such as GPS systems.
These integrations, in turn, enhance the capability of the school bus scheduling software and help develop more efficient routes, identify inconsistencies, and track ridership. Elimination of inconsistencies further leads to a reduction in wasteful expenditure.
Conclusion
Investing in school bus tracking software often tends to save money in many indirect ways as well. For instance, the use of safer and more efficient routes helps schools to cut down insurance costs. When the software is integrated with tracking programs, reporting becomes much easier and this adds to the cost benefits.
School bus drivers are bestowed with the responsibility of transporting kids to and from school in a safe and timely manner. They also take school sports teams and other groups for trips.
This means that apart from their transportation duties, there are certainly other skills that they must possess to be able to successfully perform their roles.
The job of a school bus driver is suitable for those who like driving and working with children. A passion for driving alone may not be enough to do your duties as a school bus driver to the best of your ability.
This is because working with children requires a lot of patience, a lot of responsibility, and a lot of spontaneity.
School bus drivers generally work part-time, for as long as the school is in operation. These drivers are not just vehicle operators since students consider them to be friends, parents trust them with the safety and security of their child, and school authorities expect them to maintain the school’s reputation.
While little formal education is required for this career, a school bus driver must have adequate training and a commercial driver’s license.
SCHOOL BUS DRIVER – SKILLS AND ABILITIES
1. Communication
School bus drivers deal with various audiences – students, parents, teachers, principals, transport authorities, and more. This makes it extremely vital for them to have proper communication skills. School bus drivers must be able to:
Listen to others and ask questions: They must know how to engage in dialogue with students. They must inquire about the child’s overall well-being, inform parents all necessary information and take charge of what is happening on the journey between school and home.
Understand spoken/written information: School bus drivers are given several instructions on a regular basis. They also receive route maps and addresses to ensure every child is dropped off at the right destination in a timely manner. If school bus drivers are unable to follow this information, they will not be able to perform their duties responsibly.
Speak clearly: School bus drivers are sometimes requested to communicate information between parents and teachers. This must be done with utmost care so that messages are well understood at both ends and there is no confusion of any kind.
2. Reason and Problem Solving
School bus drivers must be alert to notice when something is wrong or about to go wrong. For instance, if weather conditions can cause delays, they must be able to use reasoning and draw conclusions as to how time can be managed effectively.
They must focus and not get distracted while performing a particular task. They must follow instructions and arrange objects in a certain order.
If they are transporting school teams for events, they must know how the team’s equipment is to be stored so that there are no damages.
3. Bus Conduct
School bus drivers often need to perform multi-task. They need to watch the road and drive safely. At the same time, they need to monitor the conduct of students on the bus also.
Buses come with large mirrors on the front window making it easier for drivers to keep an eye on the actions of the students. School bus drivers must watch student behavior and stop any hooliganism as soon as it is noticed.
Moreover, drivers must immediately report irresponsible behavior so that necessary action is taken and harmful behavior is not repeated. Drivers must identify these students, their seats, and ensure that they sit in their allotted seats regularly.
4. Vehicle Safety
School bus drivers need to have a clear understanding of the bus’ equipment. In simple words, this refers to the regular evaluation of tires, brakes, tuning signals, and other mechanical equipment.
They must also watch gauges, dials, and other parts of the engine to ensure that the machine continues to run smoothly. School districts generally prepare a checklist that drivers need to fill after conducting basic checks on different safety items.
In case of any issues or operational troubles, the bus must be immediately sent to the workshop for repair while the school bus driver uses an alternate vehicle for transporting students.
This skill of understanding the mechanism of the machine can help school bus drivers go a long way since issues are identified early on and they do not get stuck during the course of transportation.
5. Record Maintenance
School bus drivers must maintain a regular basis log activity in different categories. This includes the number of students riding on the bus, the absentees, the distance traveled, the route stops, and the time slots.
Furthermore, drivers must record when fuel is replenished, the quantity, and the rate per liter/gallon. School authorities mostly provide private fuel stations for the use of school bus drivers. Logging in this data helps to maintain accuracy in routes.
6. Perceive and Visualize
Vision is an important parameter to evaluate the proficiency of a school bus driver. He/she must be able to quickly and accurately compare numbers, patterns, pictures, letters, or objects.
He/she must be able to read road signs, manage right routes, and avoid any kind of mishaps. A school bus driver must know one’s location and accurately judge the position and distance from other objects in a physical setting. He/she must be able to adjust the relation to self.
7. Patience
Working as a school bus driver requires interaction with children from all age groups and all backgrounds. You must have a lot of patience to manage different tantrums and behaviors.
A school bus driver can never get strict or violent with the children. Parents hand over children to a school bus driver with a lot of trust and confidence.
This trust must be respected. Therefore, work on your patience levels and your child-handling skills, if you wish to succeed in your career as a school bus driver.
The job of a school bus driver does not require a specific educational qualification but it does require several interpersonal skills that you need to excel at in order to be able to master at work. If you think that you can master these skills, there’s no reason you wouldn’t succeed and become the most loved bus driver at school.
A majority of schools have large fleets of buses that ferry children to and from schools every day. These buses ensure safety for the children. Safety is a major point of concern not only for the parents but for the school authorities as well.
In addition to the quality of education that a school provides, the transportation facilities provided by the school for the safety of their students is a major factor that parents look for when choosing a school for their ward(s).
Given below are few important points which can be practised by the school authorities to manage the school transportation in an effective manner.
1: Manage Routes
It would do best for the school transport department to assign time-saving bus routes in an optimized manner so that it means cost saving in terms of less fuel expenditure.
This activity has to be carefully planned out in such a manner that multiple vehicles of the fleet do not share the same route, do not overlap, or cause any kind of confusion whatsoever. Such a happening would lead to a waste of resources.
2: Bus Station Allocation
This is yet another challenging aspect of managing the school bus fleet. The school transport department has to create bus stops from where the students can be picked up or dropped off. However, a lot of care has to be taken while deciding the location of these bus stops.
They should be at a convenient spot so that students can reach the bus stop without any difficulty. Secondly, the stops should be in locations that are safe enough for the students to wait till their respective bus comes.
The bus stop location cannot be fixed at spots with heavy traffic as it turns out to be inconvenient and unsafe for both parents and children.
3: Accurate bus timings
Managing the timings of the buses in the fleet is a very important aspect. The bus routes are primarily decided based on the availability of the vehicles in the fleet.
When the routes are allocated, then check the timings of the buses which also includes some buffer time kept aside for any unforeseen delays such as breakdowns, traffic blocks, etc. The buses of the fleet are allocated timing in such a way that only the time required for the travel along the route is allowed for them.
4: Appropriate Fee Structures
Running a fleet of buses is a major cost incurred for the school. The fee structure should be decided on the basis of the running times of the bus and the routes that are traversed.
Other variables to be factored in include the salary of the bus staff, maintenance costs, fuel costs and a facility fee. The fee amounts would be different for different routes that the bus takes and depends on the distance of the bus stops from the school.
5: Allocate Appropriate Routes for Staffs and Students
Firstly, it should be borne in the mind that the student-teacher ratio should be maintained appropriately in each of the buses. The authorities should assign at least two or three teachers per bus.
One of the teachers should necessarily be present in the bus till the end of the route or until the last child in the bus gets off. This ensures the safety of the children travelling in the bus.
6: School Bus Attendance
The attendance roll call for students travelling by each bus should be done every time bus leaves the school and before the bus reaches the school after the trip completes.
This ensures that the authorities are keeping track of the students. It ensures safety and no slipups whatsoever. Any untoward happening on the bus can be spotted immediately by the authorities.
7: Student Safety
It is most important that the authorities take complete responsibility to ensure safety for those travelling in the bus.
• Appointing the right driver and bus attendant whose records are clean
• Maintaining the bus and all its accessories at regular intervals, ensuring that all parts are working
• It is important to track that the driver’s behaviour on the bus
8: Fleet Tracking
Tracking school buses and occupants is one of the important things that a school should perform to manage school transportation effectively.
This helps the school authorities to take sudden action if any mishaps or any emergencies come during the trip. This in turn helps to tackle the issue without much stress.
Integrating the school transport management software with GPS allows you to get various reports including the wear and tear of the vehicle parts, speed reports, etc.
All these reports help to improve the efficiency of the bus fleet by organizing optimized routes that help to cut costs as well as ensure a safe trip for the students.
9: Video Surveillance
Video surveillance of the bus every time is essential. It helps school authorities to ensure that everything goes all right with the staff, driver, attendant and students at all times. Any bad behaviour on the part of the driver/staff/students can be stopped in the beginning itself.
10: Fleet Maintenance Software
Use of fleet maintenance software helps to track the vehicle downtimes, parts required, inventory status, expenditure, maintenance schedules, usage of fuel and replacement criteria. Tracking these helps to increase the efficiency and manage the school bus fleet more effectively.
Conclusion
Technology is revolutionizing every aspect of school bus fleet management and it is important that every school’s authorities gather sufficient information to make the most of this and ensure a safe trip to students along with managing it efficiently at the same time.
Propane is more widely available and is cheaper than both gasoline and diesel which makes it a preferred fuel for running school buses. Generically known as liquefied petroleum gas, propane is available even in rural areas.
The number of school districts that are using propane for their school bus fleets is on the rise. Propane-based school bus sale has increased by around 500% since the year 1912. As of last year, there are about 13000 propane-based school buses that ferry close to 800000 students to and from schools every day.
This naturally leads to the inference that school buses that use propane are seeing more advantages as compared to others. This article attempts to list 10 of the most obvious and important advantages as to why school bus fleets want to power their buses with this gas.
Here follows the 10 important advantages of propane based school buses which you must know.
1: Financial gains
The primary reason why many schools choose propane is for financial gains. The price of propane is low as compared to traditional gasoline or diesel and also reduces the operating costs. The school buses were able to save to the extent of $3000 per bus if it starts running on propane. The range of savings, however, depends on the price of the fuel.
Right away propane is costing just half as much as diesel from the pump station. In a majority of cases, the school sins a contract with the propane retailer for the fuel consumption of the entire fleet of buses and this makes the cost of propane even lower.
2: Lowered maintenance costs
With propane based school buses, it is possible to save maintenance cost This can be possible in several areas, one being less-frequent changes of the engine oil.
An oil change for propane takes up only 7 quarts of oil. However, for a diesel engine, the oil change requires about 17-36 quarts of oil. The next reason is the installation of less complicated emission control systems which do not use the diesel exhaust fluid. The fuel burns in a clean manner and there is no requirement for add-on filters usually used by diesel engine systems.
3: Propane is a proven fuel alternative
Propane has been used in vehicles ever since the 1970s which makes the technology almost five decades old and proven. Many school districts started using propane from as early as the 1980s.
4: Quick returns on the investments are possible with propane
School districts that had purchased propane-based school bus fleets got back their initial investment in just about an 18- to 24-month period. This was because of reduced fuel expenditure and lowered maintenance costs.
Typically, the cost of propane has a value that is midway between the price of natural gas and oil. Schools also do well by negotiating a fixed propane price for the entire year with the local retailer.
5: Propane is a non-toxic fuel and is non-spillable too
Propane has lots of good characteristics:
• It does not contaminate the soil, air or water
• It is not made up of harmful chemicals like diesel and gasoline
• Propane is usually used in a closed-loop system as a result of which it does not spill
• There are no major clean-up concerns for this fuel
6: The refuelling infrastructure is spread out and big enough
Many of the districts have multiple points from where the school bus fleet can refuel. Each fleet can have their own refuelling strategy. The individual buses from a fleet can be part of a refuelling network.
These networks can be used by those bus fleets that do not have a refuelling facility and infrastructure in their premises. Most of the refuelling stations function 24/7 for the convenience of the bus fleets.
7: The propane refuelling infrastructure is easy to create
For bus fleets of big sizes, it is worthwhile to consider installation of a propane refuelling facility if there is sufficient space in their premises. The infrastructure is affordable and is cheaper than installing stations for dispensing petrol or diesel.
If the refuelling station is outside the premises, a centralized location would be the best as it serves to reduce downtime of the buses. It is also a matter of convenience. Such refuelling centres can be up-scaled when the sizes of the fleets increase.
8: Propane engines operate in a cleaner fashion
As propane engines operate in a cleaner manner than diesel engines. This means that school running propane-based buses set do not have to buy an extra set of about 20 ancillary parts that are required to clean the unwanted emissions of diesel engines.
Without these parts, diesel engines would fail to meet environmental protection standards as far as emissions are concerned.
Propane-based buses emit fewer oxides of nitrogen and almost no particulate matter as compared to diesel.
9: Propane buses have no cold-start problems
Propane buses do not have cold-start issues with the result that the school saves a lot of time as well as money.
10: Drivers love propane-based buses
Drivers love propane based buses for the fact that they operate in a much quieter fashion, they accelerate quickly and are easier to handle, unlike diesel buses.
They do not have the exhaust fumes of diesel engines either. They are quick to start even in the dead of winter. Propane buses do not have to ’idle’ before it starts to move. At the end of it all, they are easier to clean and maintain.
Conclusion
A major cost for most schools is the transportation system. The rising fuel costs coupled with the fact that diesel engine mechanics are rare breed these days, most of the schools are settling for buses that use alternative fuels like propane instead of conventional fuels like diesel and gasoline.
