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For most districts, fuel is the most expensive aspect of their overall school transportation costs - often making up 2/3 of the entire transportation budget, or even more. Which means that if your district is looking to cut costs, reducing your fuel use should be the first target.
If upgrading to electric buses isn't an option, there are still a number of things you can do to reduce fuel use across your district.
1 - Optimize your routes
Modern bus routing software can work wonders for optimizing routes to reduce fuel use or combine workloads. In some cases, we've seen districts who were able to cut entire buses from their fleet, without sacrificing service, just through smarter optimization of riders and routing. The potential cost savings are enormous.
2 - Monitor your drivers' habits
Do your buses have GPS tracking? Beyond giving you a live view of your buses in motion, GPS tracking also brings valuable insights into your drivers' behavior. For example, hard acceleration and braking are well-known to waste fuel. Tracking allows you to spot inefficient driver behavior and coach them to drive in more fuel-conscious ways.
3 - Do more preventative maintenance
A wide variety of maintenance problems can result in lowered fuel efficiency, from misfiring spark plugs to worn tires. Keeping your vehicles in top shape ensures maximum gas mileage, while also lowering long-term repair costs.
Likewise, keep a close eye on each bus's fuel usage. If you ever see a sudden drop in fuel efficiency on a particular bus, that's a red flag for maintenance issues.
4 - Don't turn left
This is a trick the parcel delivery companies figured out years ago, and it works for school buses too: build your routes so that the bus always turns right while in the city, rather than turning left against traffic. Even if this slightly extends the route length, you more than make up the difference by reducing long fuel-wasting stops at stoplights.
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5 - Turn off the engine while waiting
Coach your drivers that if they expect to wait idling for more than a minute or two, go ahead and turn off the engine. Long-term, this will help reduce fuel waste, since it's more efficient than idling. Even small fuel savings add up over time!
BusBoss can help you cut your school transportation costs without sacrificing efficiency or student safety! Contact us to discuss your needs and what budget-friendly options are available.
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PRESIDENT
Sonia has been involved with BusBoss since the late 1990’s, and has personally overseen many projects for various customers ranging from large urban and suburban districts to smaller rural school districts from all over the country.
(484) 941-0820