Hold on to Your Gas Caps

School bus operators offer tried-and-true fuel management techniques

By Julie Metea

Energy forecasters say the next two years will continue to bring big spikes in fuel prices. According to the Energy Information Administration, the official energy statistician of the U.S. Government, national diesel fuel prices will average $3.30 per gallon by 2009. World oil demand will continue to grow faster than oil supply, adding upward pressure on prices.

Those costs should be somewhat lower for school districts and school bus companies, as they are encouraged to purchase fuel at bulk rates through a fuel consortium or individual fuel suppliers. But it’s all relative. Fuel costs are skyrocketing across the country, and school bus operators require smart management skills to keep up with fuel increases during market volatility.

School districts and contractors have voiced fears that increased prices could ultimately harm the safest form of mass ground transportation. School Transportation News surveyed 117 industry professionals last spring, and 68 percent responded that the high cost of transportation fuel has resulted in adverse impacts to the school district or bus contracting company. Examples include fewer buses in the fleet, fewer field trips, reduced distances for interscholastic competitions, greater walking distances to school and requests that parents transport their own children.

“If you cut services, it means transporting fewer children. You increase the odds of the children being injured or killed while walking, biking, or riding in a private vehicle. Proven fact: school buses are the safest form of transportation,” wrote Barbara Meese, transportation director for Willard R-2 Schools outside of Springfield, Mo.

The fuel budget crunch also puts a squeeze on pay raises for drivers, new bus purchases and shopping for on-board technology. Contractors, especially smaller ones, are forced to take a look at their business plans.

“It has caused us to second guess if we want to stay in business,” said Maureene Salas, a transportation coordinator for a New York-based private bus contractor.
While there’s reason to fret, many transportation professionals have creative ways to trim or stabilize the fuel budget.

Tips from Tempe
Aside from sections on computerized routing and scheduling, anti-idling and developing policies for efficient maintenance of equipment, the National School Transportation Specifications and Procedures offer few specific recommendations on how school bus operators can better manage fuel costs, leaving those best-practice policies up to the districts themselves.

Some bus driving trainers teach gradual rather than immediate braking as traffic conditions allow, allowing the bus to coast safely until getting closer to the stop. That way, should a stop light turn green, the driver can gradually start accelerating. The goal is to use less gas by coasting before instead of accelerating after coming to a complete stop. And required pre- and post-trip inspections should help keep tire pressure at the correct levels, which also affects fuel mileage as well as overall operational safety.

Tempe School District #3 outside of Phoenix serves as an example of what can be done. The district already knows it will exceed this 2007-2008 school year fuel budget of $436,000. That isn’t stopping the district from trying a few best practices.

The district operates 90 buses (55 regular and 35 special education). The fleet is 100 percent air conditioned. In a 36-square-mile area, approximately 7,300 students are transported to 25 school sites.

“We did a few things that really helped us cope with the current fuel situation,” said Paul Novak, director of transportation and school safety. Here’s the list:

• Nitrogen-filled tires. The district is hoping to maintain proper inflation and therefore better fuel economy. Currently, these are field tests to determine the return on investment. This could save on tire wear, as well.
• Partially-filled tanks. Diesel weighs approximately 7 pounds per gallon. The lighter the bus, the lower the fuel consumption.
• No spare tires or unnecessary equipment on the buses. Extra weight results in poor fuel economy. The exception is for long trips out of town.
• A 5-minute idle time. Excessive idling two to three shifts a day can waste as much as a gallon of fuel per bus per day. For the Tempe’s 90 bus fleet, that could be over 16,000 gallons (or two tanker trucks) costing nearly $50,000 per year. And it has an environmental advantage. (Other states, such as Utah, enforce as low as 30-second idling times.)
• Smarter routes. All of Tempe’s bus routes are developed for efficient operations. School districts in and around the Phoenix-Tempe area have an added challenge in rising fuel costs — a rising population. So officials are taking these factors into account when planning for the future.

Letting Others Manage Fuel
Many school districts and contractors own and operate their own fueling stations with an incentive of purchasing diesel fuel in bulk at fixed costs. However, companies offer school districts and contractors an option to reduce diesel management, plus capture bulk-purchase savings.

Fuelman of Dallas/Fort Worth works with 18 school districts and offers two fueling programs. The nearby Arlington Independent School District uses both Fuelman’s purchase cards and station management programs for its fleet.

“They do save us money just by keeping track of what we use. We don’t have the EPA worry that we use to have for managing it ourselves,” said Arlington’s School Transportation Director James Saxon.

Fuel purchase cards give customers, like Arlington, the ability to fill up within a network of 600 stations. Fuelman negotiates prices within the network, which gives the districts a lower cost and tax exemptions at the point of sale.

“We eliminate the bulk fuel business for them. They don’t worry about capital expenditure, regulation or compliance. They purchase fuel as they go along at a fixed margin,” said Fuelman Director Tom Barry.

The second offering is management of fueling stations, where Fuelman owns and operates the facilities as a sub contractor. The company manages the network and buys the fuel in bulk for the school districts, and the district won’t have to pay until they use the fuel.

“We can tell which vehicles are the most fuel efficient. If it goes below 6 miles to the gallon, our ears start perking up,” said Saxon. He indicated that his fleet averages 6.3 miles per gallon.

A Difference in Technology and Driving
School districts are investing in technologies that can realize fuel savings through efficiency. The Jordan Elbridge School District near Syracuse, N,Y., uses Transfinder software to adjust routing daily, based on a nightly data imported from the student information system. Its bus tanks use up 65 gallons of fuel a day, so efficiencies need to be found elsewhere.

“It’s no longer possible to ignore the costs of doing business as usual. Attendance boundary rezoning can result in thousands of fewer miles traveled by buses. Evaluate your bus tiering, redistricting, or scrutinize stops and pairing trips,” said Transfinder CEO Antonio Civitella.

Dolphin Fleet Management monitors bus performance, maintenance, part inventories and driver information. Dolphin President Jeff Yeager claims that, by analyzing driving patterns and engine performance, transportation officials can find the best sequences for fuel efficiency.

“Software can actually show which engines are most fuel efficient and that can guide purchase decisions,” said Yeager.

Representatives at VersaTrans claim the same benefits with its software that monitors routing and redistricting.

“A school district may run the same route year after year. The software will help translate if it’s the best way to go. It will propose routes that run more efficiently,” said Terri Fallon, marketing and client relations director for VersaTrans. She added that routes selected by software should be verified and checked.

The VersaTrans system can suggest ways to improve bus capacity through multi-tier routing. By changing bell times and adjusting routes, a district may find it needs fewer buses on the roads. The software can conduct a “census” of riders to identify the feasibility of a route. It also works with GPS systems to verify idling times.

“Idling uses (fuel). Through this, they can find out if the bus is idling longer or shorter than it’s suppose to run. This can result in a huge fuel savings,” added Fallon.

Switching to Alternative Fuels?
Other school districts have transitioned into using alternative fuel vehicles for the purposes of abandoning petroleum products, lowering fuel costs and improving air quality. However, the fleet turnovers will be relatively slow and unlikely to replace the bulk of diesel-run buses on the road today.

“Hybrid technology is particularly valuable for vehicles used in stop-and-go operations, such as school buses. The fuel savings eventually will make up for the higher up-front costs, but this could take several years,” said Larry Rinek, a senior consultant at Frost & Sullivan, a growth consulting company that particularly looks at school transportation.

Transportation officials can offset the high up-front cost — currently upwards of $220,000 per bus — with their fuel choice (biodiesel, natural gas and propane) that may qualify for tax rebates, grants and partnerships.

Biodiesel is a top alternative fuel choice for school buses, partly due to few, if any, modifications to an existing fleet.

According to the National Biodiesel Board, more than 200 school districts in the U.S. use a blend of biodiesel: B2 (containing 2 percent biodiesel) to B20 (20 percent biodiesel). The prices for biodiesel parallel diesel prices at the moment.

Biodiesel requires monitoring and maintenance, due to its “detergent” quality. If not taken, there could be added maintenance costs.

The U.S. Department of Energy offers tips for driving more efficiently at www.fueleconomy.gov. The information is based on common-sense approaches for every driver and includes obvious techniques, such as observing speed limits and maintaining consistent speeds.