Putnam County Schools upgrading its transportation fleet with the purchase of four new buses designed to improve student safety and operational efficiency.
Transportation Supervisor Ron Chaffin said the new additions allow the department to maintain a consistent replacement cycle as older buses reach the end of their 15-year service life.
“That’s just giving you an example on the technology that has gotten better over the course of the years in order to make our students as safe as we possibly can,” Chaffin said. “I was, we were buying anywhere from six to seven per year until about six or seven years ago.”
Chaffin said the typical bus in the fleet accumulates between 150,000 and 175,000 miles before being auctioned off. The district currently maintains a fleet of approximately 75 buses to cover 60 daily routes, including 22 specialized buses for students with special needs.
“We’ve got systems on there to where if something runs out in front of us, it automatically breaks and slows the bus down,” Chaffin said. “We’ve got that, we’ve got extra lighting and they’re just several things and also the regulations that used to be one handrail as you went up, now we have two as you get up into the bus to make sure that nobody falls.”
Chaffin said the National Transportation Safety Board recently inspected one of the new Putnam County buses as it rolled off the assembly line in Oklahoma. The vehicle passed the bumper-to-bumper safety inspection with a 100 percent score.
“I would like everybody to know that what we do on a daily basis is our top priority is making kids safe,” Chaffin said. “And that’s our number one thing, we’ve got to have proper equipment and we’ve got to have the best we possibly can have on the road.”
Chaffin said the district has moved toward a uniform fleet of International buses to streamline maintenance and reduce costs. This standardization allows mechanics to work more efficiently and ensures sub drivers are familiar with the controls of every vehicle in the rotation.
“I think the bulk of it’s going to be diesel but we may be incorporating another couple electric buses in as well,” Chaffin said. “The electric vehicle is probably the perfect application for electric vehicles is a school bus because we’re able to charge during the day and charge at night and have 100% every time a driver steps into that bus.”
Chaffin said the district currently operates two electric buses that have performed well over the last five years.
