EV buses were ‘overrated:’ union
Province has budgeted $57.3 million to replace diesel buses with EVS
“I can’t go from Charlottetown to Summerside and back. It’s only 50 kilometres, but the highway takes up a lot of that. That 150-kilometre range that’s on the dash of the bus is a fairy tale, as far as I’m concerned.”
Robert Geiss
The president of the union representing P.E.I. school bus drivers says he is constantly hearing complaints from drivers about the province’s new electric buses.
Speaking before the standing committee on education and economic growth on Jan. 23, Robert Geiss, president of CUPE Local 1145, said the buses often have a much shorter range than their diesel-powered counterparts.
Geiss said the first round of electric school buses purchased by the P.E.I. government, produced by the Lion Electric Company, was supposed to have a 150-kilometre range.
“I can’t go from Charlottetown to Summerside and back. It’s only 50 kilometres, but the highway takes up a lot of that. That 150-kilometre range that’s on the dash of the bus is a fairy tale, as far as I’m concerned,” Geiss told MLAS.
Geiss said a later model of the Lion EV buses claimed to have a 200-kilometre range. He said he has been able to drive to Summerside and back with a full charge, but says his bus only had enough power in its battery to drive another 16 kilometres.
P.E.I. Premier Dennis King has pledged to replace the province’s entire fleet of school buses with electric vehicles in order to help the province reach its climate change goals.
Three tenders have been issued to Lion Electric since 2021 for the purchase of the buses, at a total cost of more than $35 million. The province’s fall capital budget said the province plans to spend $57.3 million in total to purchase 132 buses. No other supplier other than Lion has been identified.
Geiss said he hears about other issues as well. He said about 20 per cent of the new electric buses are in the garage “at any given time” with issues related to heating or frozen compressors.
“The heaters that were put in them were all supplied from the Ukraine – no parts available because of the war,” Geiss said.
“The buses were overrated for what we were told and what we actually get, as far as performance-wise, out of them.”
Geiss said school trips are being limited to the range that the new buses can drive.
OVERCROWDING
Geiss also said overcrowding on buses has been an increasing concern.
He said a Department of Education capacity limit of 70-72 students should be adjusted. He said this works out to three students per seat – fine for elementary students but less so for junior high or high school students.
“It’s not going to be a very comfortable ride. We’re told as long as we have one cheek on a seat, it’s good,” Geiss said.
Geiss said he believes junior high or high school students should be counted at 1.5 spaces in the department’s capacity count.
Geiss said overcrowding could be dangerous for children in the event of an accident. He also said there are increasingly more students with special needs on buses, while others may have behavioural issues.
Green interim Leader Karla Bernard noted there are more needs for educational assistants in classrooms.
“It’s not like that changes when a child gets on a school bus,” Bernard said.
Bernard asked if it would be possible to have assistants staffed on school buses.
Geiss said this would be “great.” “It’s me that’s already the definition of a distracted driver – babysitting, driving, watching for traffic, watching for people passing the bus, writing down the license plates,” Geiss said.
CONTRACT TALKS
Geiss said his union is currently in the middle of contract talks with the province. The union’s last contract expired in 2022.
He said he feels that the province needs to improve the wages of drivers. Most drivers work five hours per day but are “held hostage” to the needs of the school board in the event of an early school closure.
He said while most bus drivers are over the age of 60 – Geiss said he is retired – he said younger drivers are often not being retained because of the low take-home pay.
“A liveable wage would be great,” Geiss said when asked what the province could do to retain drivers.
“Like, the poverty wage in P.E.I. is roughly $27,000 and the school bus driver makes $24,600. The school board tells us it has to be our number one job. But yet we don’t make enough to live off of,” he said.