Autogas School Buses Save $5,000 per Day

I hope everyone is having a great summer. It’s hard to believe that schools across the country have already begun welcoming students for the 2014-15 year. Although it’s a new school year, we think about school — buses, that is — year-round.

Did you know that the 480,000 school buses on the road today use approximately 9M gallons of diesel and gasoline per year. School districts spend billions of dollars on fuel, which, not surprisingly, is purchased through overseas sources.

Yet, in the U.S., we are seeing a shift toward cleaner, domestic sources to fuel our school buses, which cost districts less money. These savings mean more potential funding to hire teachers, add student programs, etc

We are seeing leaders in the industry, like Student Transportation Inc., and the City of Omaha, drive this change. We’ve recently published a new case study with Blue Bird about STI’s 435 school buses fueled by propane autogas.

By operating these buses, which service Nebraska’s Millard and Omaha public school district, STI is reporting:

• Fuel cost savings of $5,000 per day.
• Cheaper and simpler oil changes.
• Emissions reduced by millions of pounds.

Congratulations to STI and the school districts it services for leading the way in being alternative fuel champions!

What does the future hold? In 10 years, if 50 percent of our nation’s school buses have been replaced with clean-burning propane autogas buses, the results would be:

• 720 million fewer gallons of diesel / gasoline burned.
• Almost $1.3 billion kept within our districts, assuming a rate of $1.75 per gallon in savings.
• Millions of pounds of harmful emissions reduced.

School districts across North America are experiencing positive economic and environmental results by switching to autogas buses. Want to learn more about how your fleet can reduce costs and emissions with this vehicle fuel? Call us today at 800.59.ROUSH.