Submitted by Barry Miller, Calhoun County Schools Bus Driver
Beast stands for “battery electric automotive school transportation.” I will not address battery safety, charging cost or if battery power is feasible. Those issues are for others to decide. I am a school bus driver with eighteen years of full-time driving experience and three years of substitute experience for two counties prior. I have driven Blue Bird, Thomas, IC and Wayne buses all diesel powered until now. Green Power Motor Company is constructing a factory in South Charleston, West Virginia. They have partnered with the State to supply a number of buses for Counties to operate on a trial basis. My directive was to operate the bus on my route for a week and give it a review from the driver’s perspective. It was my privilege to operate this bus.
As far as driving the bus, it drives and handles like a dream. There is smooth consistent power delivery. The Beast is forty feet long, eight and half feet wide and eleven and half feet tall with a GVWR of forty-three thousand pounds. It has air suspension front and rear and air disc brakes all around. The agility and turning radios are surprisingly good. Upon first seeing the bus the consensus is “it won’t work here.” It has worked here. I was told it will never turn down Annamoriah Rd, it does as good as the Conventional that I drive. I was told I could never get it in my driveway, I did with no problem. The power on hills is comparable to diesel powered buses. It has take off torque to get out of the way if needed. It is a direct drive system with no transmission. It is very quiet and the majority of students spoke very well of the bus.
There are some drawbacks. Obvious is the battery charging time and run time. I can’t tell you how long it takes to charge to one hundred percent. I know that after the morning run, I would plug it in and when I made it back for the afternoon run it would be to one hundred percent. That is except once when there was an issue with the charger. This charger is temporary while we have the bus, I must assume that a permanent charger will provide a consistent charge time. The length of battery operation is hard to nail down. If the heat must be run it uses a lot of battery charge. The first day I ran my route I had to run heat the whole route, I plugged up with thirty five percent charge remaining. The day I ran the air conditioning I returned to the charger with sixty percent. My run is right at fifty miles. Longevity is a big question, will it last? That will have to be discovered by running the bus day in and day out. Until charging is more readily available and faster, trips and extracurricular activities are not feasible with electric power.
Will this bus do the job in Calhoun County? Simply yes. I had my doubts when I first saw it but after driving and maneuvering through my route, I am convinced it will work here. With my caveat from the first paragraph in mind, this driver enjoyed the drive and handling of this bus. This is just one bus drivers’ opinion.
Barry A. Miller
