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Where I went to school, they could save a TON (literally) of money by teaching the drivers about this thing called part throttle! Save fuel and transmission rebuilds.
All of the bus drivers had the foot to the floor 100% of the time. And the same with the brakes. I didn't complain, I love the sound of a DT466 running hard. We even had a few old chevy gassers (guessing 366 or 427) that were driven hard.
I went to a vocational school my last 2 years. It was a 10 mile trip each way. I remember the bus driver hitting the highway and not taking his foot off the floor. The bus was mechanically limited to 70 - 2600rpm in top gear - and that's where it stayed until he hit a redlight.
When dropping kids they would stop at each house and accellerate wide open to the next house 50 feet up. They could even save money by doing group pickups and dropoffs.
Where I live now there is no in-town busses for kids ... only 500 people in the town. But I believe we have the longest bus route in the state. 30 miles up the road is still this school district.
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