Hearing that some neighbouring school districts have tested and purchased Autogas buses for the last few years, the Yankton School District (YSD) has decided to trial the technology for itself. “We went out and met with those schools and talked to their transportation people and discussed it,” said YSD Business Manager Jason Bietz.

He also said they found that the school districts using LPG-powered buses are saving money, so he decided to see if Yankton could also benefit from the vehicles.

Bietz explained the district obtained two grants through the South Dakota Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) to purchase new buses for the next school year. “This enables us to run a pilot programme where we’ll have two buses on a route and start tracking our own data, comparing the cost of running LPG buses as compared to running the diesel buses,” he commented.

The grants would cover 35% of the cost of each vehicle, which lowers the net cost of the Autogas buses to $6,000 less than a diesel bus would cost through the same grant programme.

Based on a preliminary cost analysis, if YSD replaces two diesel buses with Autogas buses each year for the next six years, the savings would be about $172,000, Bietz said. For more information, please check this link

1 April 2020