CINCINNATI — In a Tuesday post on its blog, First Student reports that its school bus drivers have saved 3.2 million gallons of fuel through implementation of the company-wide DriveSmart initiative.

First Student rolled out its DriveSmart initiative as part of the company’s larger efforts to cut down carbon emissions while simultaneously improving safety. “Smart” stands for: Safe driving, Managing speeds, Avoiding rapid acceleration and hard braking, Reducing idling, and Talking to maintenance.

“The main focus of the DriveSmart initiative has always been two-fold — to continually reduce the company’s environmental footprint while increasing safety,” said Dean Suhre, First Student senior vice president. “It truly promotes our First Student vision of providing solutions for an increasingly congested world, keeping people moving and communities prospering.”

In addition to saving 3.2 million gallons of fuel, First Students reports these other results:  

• 163 of First Student’s locations participating in the initiative improved fuel efficiency by more than 10%.

• The top five states for fuel efficiency enhancement were Vermont (19% improvement), Montana (16% improvement), Rhode Island (16% improvement), Washington (15% improvement) and Nebraska (14% improvement).

To read First Student’s blog post in full, click here.