four , year five . Make sure you have the flexibility to expand your infrastructure , have the right infrastructure in place to support what your vision is three to five years out . That is really important . The other thing is ensuring that customers are making the right decisions concerning charging stations . Those are the type of considerations that need to be made for a successful implementation and deployment of electric vehicles . It is a lot of work upfront . Walking through the process together with the customer and making sure that they are fully prepared to make this transition .
Looking specifically at technology , what do you think is going to impact this industry most significantly in the future of pupil transportation ?
There are so many things at play . Electric and the significance of everything technology related to electric , stepping away from power train choice and moving to the school bus in general . I think the more integrated , automotive technology coming on the school bus will make it more connected , safer , and easier for our customers in all facets . It will make the job easier for the driver , the fleet manager , the transportation director , the parent , the school administrator , and the student . The bus will probably never be at the level of autonomy to where you do not need a driver , but how do you leverage all that technology to make the driver ' s job easier and make the bus even safer than it already is ?
We are all critically aware of the driver , mechanic , and tech shortage . In terms of training , how can we effectively prepare our technicians for EV mechanics ? to manage that change , but any zero-emission vehicles we can get into the market serves our customer needs while managing climate change and that is the right thing to do .
For those who want to start the process of incorporating EV into their diesel fleets , what advice do you offer when it comes to preliminary steps ?
When it comes to electric you really must take a consultant approach . Ask the right questions to really understand customer needs and wants . Why are they interested ? Why are they leaning towards electric ? Based on that , if electric is the answer , our NEXT eMOBILITY Solutions team comes in . The first thing we have learned is , depending on how many electric buses you want to deploy in your fleet , think about the bandwidth of electricity coming into your facility and evaluating that . Based on the number of chargers you may want or need to support the number of buses you are bringing in , do you have enough electricity in your building to support that ? Then , obviously , the infrastructure of the charging stations . We have an infrastructure partner called In-Charged that comes in and does an onsite evaluation around the charging infrastructure . Customers need to consider their plan , not just year one , but year two , year three , year
What we are seeing early on with EV adoption , is that if you start implementing electric into your fleet today , you still have diesel buses tomorrow . The average life of a school bus is 16 years . You are going to have diesel or other internal combustion engines in your fleet for a long time and they will need to be maintained . When it comes to customers , are dealers doing enough through mobile maintenance to support their electric fleets ? If they are already short of technicians , how do you introduce the high voltage , electric school bus into their fleet so they can manage and digest it accordingly ? We need more mobile maintenance on our side , diagnostics like our On-Command Connection . In order for the dealer to effectively monitor vehicle upkeep and provide customer support , we need to understand what is happening inside the school bus . Within the next year we are hoping to introduce electric into our technician training . You are dealing with a lot of high voltage , so I do not think we can reduce the seriousness and the degree of change that our customers are facing . When it comes to diesel technician schooling , how do you begin changing your curriculum to prepare future technicians ? We think there might be an opportunity for a whole different degree of recruitment there . Does the appeal of a technician ' s job look different because you are working on electric vehicles ? This perception that people have , which is a very old perception of the dirty , greasy engine . Does it change that appeal and make it even easier to recruit students into automotive technology or commercial technician technology ?
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