Putnam Interested In More Electric Buses

Putnam Schools discussing the possibility of adding more electric buses to their fleet.

Transportation Supervisor Ron Chaffin said the system’s two electric buses have performed impressively well since they were introduced at the start of the last school year. Chaffin said some of the most important things they consider when looking for new vehicles are the costs for purchasing and maintaining them.

“I just want to be able to see where we are as versus, you know, the expense we’ve had on the electric buses versus what we’ve had on our diesel,” Chaffin said. “And it’s been considerably lower on electric than it has been on our diesels.”

Chaffin said they are looking into different grants they could apply for that would pay for more electric buses. Chaffin said the electric buses also require less maintenance over the summer to prepare for the next school year.

“We took them out and exercised the batteries and made sure that they are good so everything seems to be going really well with that,” Chaffin said.

Chaffin said their electric buses missed barely any school days due to mechanical issues last year.

“With the electric vehicles I think that transportation is a really good application for that particular fuel source,” Chaffin said. “Because of just by the way we operate those buses. They run an hour and a half in the morning, an hour and a half, two hours in the afternoon.”

Chaffin said they are able to charge the electric buses during the day if needed, but they usually charge them overnight and are able to completely refuel them for the next morning.

“It’s all about planning,” Chaffin said. “And that’s what we’ve been really working really hard with, is making sure that we’re planning each day where those buses are going to be so that we make sure we’ve got the proper amount of charge. And this past year we’ve not had a bit of problems.”