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California Mandate Affecting Transit Bus Fleets Will Require Electric Vehicle Training

Let the Training Begin!
California Mandate Affecting Transit Bus Fleets Will Require Electric Vehicle Training.
The SCRTTC is on it!

As a proven technical training expert, Immersed Technologies thrives on helping companies train their workforce. Immersed Technologies’ created and produced the EV Transit Bus Safety Awareness and Familiarization Course for its longtime, collaborative client, the Southern California Regional Transit Transportation Consortium.

The SCRTTC is providing the Instructor-Led and Distance Learning Course (eLearning) to all its members with Bus Electric Vehicle Pilot Programs. The course is designed to assist agencies who are introducing Electric Vehicles to their workforces and to further assist agencies in building the infrastructure needed to operate and maintain all-electric bus fleets. It is a first step in familiarizing transit workforces with high voltage electrical systems and their safe operation.

Those taking the course will learn to:

  • Identify the vehicles high-voltage components
  • Explain the required Personal Protective Equipment
  • Describe the preparations before working on or near any high-voltage systems
  • Explain the vehicle safety systems
  • Identify High Voltage Components and cables in an electric transit bus
  • Understand the definitionsterminology, and units of measure, of electrical energy storage and consumption

The SCRTTC closely adheres to its mission to prepare the transit workforce for the future, and as a result, they tend to be ahead of the curve. The timing of this course could not be more perfect. The EV Transit Bus Safety Awareness and Familiarization Course are right in line with California’s recent mandate → starting in the year 2029―all new public transit agency bus purchases must be all-electric buses. Ramping up to that mandate, over the next 10 years, the California Clean Air Resources Board requires Transit Agencies to meet incremental all-electric bus purchase milestones when replenishing their fleets.

SCRTTC Members are already beginning to introduce and test the use of all-electric buses in their fleets. Los Angeles Metro, an SCRTTC member, recently announced their move toward an all-electric fleet with their decision to only purchase all-electric buses. And leading the nation with the most all-electric buses is another SCRTTC member―Antelope Valley Transit Authority currently has 39 all-electric buses in its fleet.

Logistically and economically the California mandate has set in motion sweeping change on an enormous scale. Training has to begin now. In California, 100 percent all-electric bus fleets are coming sooner than later.

In July 2019, the Federal Transit Administrationawarded a total of $85 million in Low or No-Emission (Low-No) Bus Program Grants to 38 transit agencies across the country. Since 2016, the FTA’s Low-No program has funded over $300 million to transit agencies to invest in new buses, infrastructure, and training.

The EV Transit Bus Safety Awareness and Familiarization Course is the start to providing bus transit agencies with the electric vehicle training tools they need to ensure that they maintain confident, knowledgeable, skilled, professional workforces. The Immersed Technologies’ goal is always to ensure that our customer’s workforce is and continues to be their strongest asset.