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Mesa Public Schools saved $136,000 -- 32.6 cents a mile -- in fuel costs this year with the purchase of 27 propane-fueled school buses at the end of 2011. The district purchased the $87,636 77-passenger vehicles, built by Blue Bird Corp., from a company called Canyon State Bus Sales in Phoenix. Mesa is the largest school district in Arizona, with 64,000 students, and has 504 school buses. Its fuel budget for both buses and other district vehicles is $2.8 million this year, said district transportation director Ron Latko.
Latko told Mesa's governing board on March 27 that it would be smart for the district to convert its entire bus fleet to propane-fueled vehicles -- even though it might take as long as 15 years to do so because of the cost. The district spends $1.31 per gallon for propane but $3.54 per gallon for diesel. The district negotiates a bulk price for the various types of fuel that it uses that is lower than the retail price charged at the average gas station. Latko said that in addition to using less expensive fuel, propane buses have simpler engines that cost half as much as diesel engines to maintain and generate less temptation for diesel thieves. Also, propane does not generate the air-quality issues that diesel engines do, he said. Diesel engines emit particulate matter and nitrogen oxides through their exhaust systems. Propane vapor is not believed to cause air pollution.
Latko said propane-fueled buses have operated successfully in California, Oregon and Texas for several years. But Mesa is one of the first districts in Arizona to try propane. Mesa fuels the propane buses from its Fremont Satellite Transportation Center, where the district recently installed a $280,000 18,000-gallon underground propane tank. |
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