Derek Roch

Before joining the Propane Education & Research Council (PERC), I spent three and a half years as transportation director of Bethel School District in Washington. Located about 15 miles south of Tacoma and bordering Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Bethel School District is 202 square miles in size and serves a mix of rapidly growing urban, suburban, and rural communities.

When I joined the transportation department, the fleet was using 160 diesel and gasoline school buses, but diesel was becoming less and less viable. With increased regulations and complex emissions systems, there were additional strains on our maintenance budgets.

The U.S. is one of the top producers of the third most popular transportation fuel in the world: propane autogas. There are an estimated 28 million propane vehicles worldwide and more than 60,000 propane school buses, transit shuttles and commercial trucks on U.S. roads.  

One of the reasons propane is so popular is that it has a robust, reliable and flexible infrastructure with decades of research and development behind it. Propane poses no groundwater, surface water or soil, so infrastructure can be installed in areas where other traditional and alternative fuels cannot. Because there are fewer financial and geographical constraints with propane infrastructure, transit agencies can easily integrate propane affordably, reduce costs and eliminate range anxiety. Propane also costs 40-50 percent less per gallon than conventional fuels like diesel or gasoline.

Have you heard that alternative fuel vehicles are difficult and expensive to maintain? That may be true for some energy sources, but not all of them are created equal. For many fleet owners, making the switch from traditional fuels to propane autogas results in lower fuel and maintenance costs.

While outdated myths like this still circulate about the complexity or serviceability of alternative fuel vehicles, the reality is that propane autogas is easy to maintain, simple to learn, and it can save fleet owners money. Here are the top misconceptions and the facts that prove why propane autogas continues to gain traction among fleet owners.

Blue Bird is extending its clean-transportation legacy from the school bus yard to the broader commercial fleet space. 

The company is rolling out two new medium-duty stripped chassis platforms designed for step vans and delivery vehicles — one all-electric and one propane-powered — both built to handle up to 23,000 pounds GVWR.

No matter the locale — rural or urban — transit and paratransit vehicles utilizing alternative fuels have to be ready for anything in Michigan’s diverse terrain. 

Urban applications often deal with limited space for fueling, while rural applications have plenty of space, but some drivers deal with range anxiety when it comes to fuels other than gasoline and diesel.

Over the last few months, I have been asked frequently about how the Trump administration’s energy priorities might affect the propane industry. An embrace of nuclear, natural gas and natural gas liquids — including propane — is a positive sign, but the question remains: What about renewable propane? With increasing attention paid to its conventional twin, will it sustain the momentum it has built over the past five years? I believe the answer is yes.