The Fox C-6 School District will add two electric buses to its fleet thanks to a grant program, and it is replacing three buses used to transport students in the special education program.
The district also recently purchased new bus routing software to replace its aging routing software program.
Fox C-6 has received a $1.25 million grant from the Eastern Missouri Alliance for Clean Transportation to buy two 2027 IC CE TRUE buses, which each seat 77 passengers, and to purchase and install two charging stations.
Fox C-6 will pay $536,562 for three 20-passenger special-education buses from Midwest Transit, and it will pay Tyler Technologies $40,305 to have the new routing software set up, training for staff and using the software for one year. If the district continues to use the routing software, it will pay an annual fee of $25,407, according to Board of Education documents.
Board members voted unanimously on Jan. 13 to approve the deals with Midwest Transit and Tyler Technologies. The board voted 6-0 to use the grant to buy the electric buses and charging stations with board treasurer Curtiss Frazier abstaining from the vote.
Electric buses
Gary Cross, Fox C-6 transportation director, said on Jan. 16 that it may take up to eight months for the electric buses to be delivered. He said the district anticipates the two charging stations to be installed before this summer at the Fox bus lot, 849 Jeffco Blvd., in Arnold.
Cross said the electric buses seat six more people than the district’s current 70 buses, which seat 71 passengers. He also told board members a fully charged electric bus typically can travel 135 miles, and Fox C-6 bus routes are between 40 to 65 miles.
As of Jan. 16, Cross said, the district does not know what routes the electric buses will serve.
Cross said the district is expected to save money on fuel by using the two electric buses. He said Fox C-6 pays about $28 per day to fuel a diesel bus, and it will cost about $4.73 per day to keep an electric bus charged.
Fox C-6 COO Tracy Schmidt said the district is expected to pay less to maintain and repair electric buses than its current buses, based on information from an American Public Power Association transit study.
Schmidt said maintenance and repair costs for an electric bus are approximately 55 cents per metric mile and a diesel bus costs about $1.53 per metric mile.
“This lower cost is due to electric buses having significantly fewer moving parts,” he said. “They lack internal combustion engines, transmissions, mufflers and radiators, and they utilize regenerative braking, which reduces wear on brake pads.
“This higher cost reflects the complexity of diesel engines, which require frequent oil changes, fuel filter replacements and maintenance of expensive exhaust-aftertreatment systems, like diesel particulate filters, that are prone to failure.”
As part of the grant agreement, Fox C-6 will stop using two diesel buses.
“We are not sure what two buses we will be getting rid of at this point, but they will not be decommissioned,” Cross said. “They will instead be auctioned off on Purple Wave. This should not cost us anything and would actually bring in revenue.”
Purple Wave is an auction site used to buy and sell used equipment. Cross told board members that Fox C-6 has typically received two to three times the trade-in value when selling buses since the district started using the website, purplewave.com.
Cross said he does not believe the district will switch to an all-electric bus fleet, and Fox C-6 is only buying the two electric buses because the grant covers the cost for the buses and charging stations.
“At the current cost of electric buses, I do not believe we would ever switch to an all-electric fleet,” he said.
Bus purchases
Three companies submitted bids to sell Fox C-6 three 20-passenger buses with Midwest Transit submitting the second lowest bid.
However, district officials recommended buying the buses from Midwest Transit for $536,562 instead of from Thomas for $532,332. The reason officials recommended paying more is because the buses from Thomas would not be delivered until December if Fox C-6 went with the lower price.
Board documents also said Fox C-6’s current smaller buses are from Midwest Transit, so there will be a seamless transition with drivers.
Cross said the district has 30 buses for its special-education program, and those buses seat between 18 to 28 passengers. He said the new buses will replace a 2013 GMC model that has a bad motor, a 2007 Chevrolet model that needs air conditioning repairs and a 2010 GMC model that needs numerous repairs.
Schmidt told the board the smaller buses are needed for the special-education program because the shorter body length allows for curb-to-curb service required for those students.
Routing system
The Tyler Technologies software integrates with transportation routing software Fox C-6 purchased from Traversa in December. The Traversa software will cost the district $48,658 for the first year and $31,025 for the second year.
Cross told the board the Tyler Technologies system will replace an aging system that is being phased out.
“It’s really hard to get updates and anything new,” he said. “Their (Tyler Technologies) new product is replacing that. It is a web-based product. You can access that from any phone or tablet, instead of having to remote into our servers.
“It also comes with the parent app, so you can see where your bus is at, and it comes with a fleet management tool.”