AMPLY Power says Pioneer Transportation Corp., a school bus company that transports over 40,000 students daily in New York City, has signed on as a charging-as-a-service (CaaS) customer and will convert five of its existing diesel school buses to battery-operated electric power.
Under a five-year contract, AMPLY Power is installing and managing the charging infrastructure as well as overseeing end-to-end support operations for a fixed fee per kilowatt-hour. The fleet is expected to be fully operational in the first quarter of 2022.
“School bus operators like Pioneer Transportation play a crucial role in New York City’s transportation infrastructure,” says Vic Shao, AMPLY Power’s founder and CEO. “Decarbonizing these fleets is an important step toward meeting New York’s ambitious carbon emissions reduction targets. Our service model and price-per-mile-driven billing structure enable simple and affordable electrification of even the largest and most active fleets, like those supporting the daily operations of the New York City school district, the largest school system in the U.S.”
AMPLY is collaborating with Con Edison, the electricity provider for the New York City metropolitan area, to establish a new, dedicated line-of-service for the converted battery electric buses (BEBs) stationed at Pioneer’s location in the Bronx, which will also host five Level 2 chargers.
Con Edison is granting incentives to offset the rates of the new charging infrastructure, which will be designed to avoid disruptive construction at Pioneer Transportation’s lot. AMPLY will provide comprehensive support services, including infrastructure maintenance and management, utility rate negotiation, charging strategy, and financing support. In addition, Pioneer Transportation is working with existing AMPLY Power partner UES (Unique Electric Solutions) to convert the buses from diesel to electric.
“Pioneer Transportation has always been committed to safe and environmentally sustainable school busing,” says Neil Strahl, Pioneer Transportation’s president and CEO. “Our partnership with AMPLY Power is helping to make our transition to electric vehicles more accessible and affordable. We look forward to partnering with Mayor-Elect Eric Adams administration in our drive to 2035 to make New York City the cleanest, safest mode of transportation for our school children and the city.”
Pioneer Transportation joins a growing list of bus operators and transportation contractors that recognize the efficiency and cost advantages of AMPLY’s CaaS approach to fleet electrification. These include New York City’s Logan Bus Company, which has partnered with AMPLY since 2020 to operate five electric school buses from its Brooklyn depot.