National Express has donated a school bus to Pennco Tech, a trade school in Blackwood, New Jersey, to use as a training tool for their diesel technology program. The trade school offers diesel, automotive, and collision repair programs, among other trades.

The donation, made as part of National Express's company-wide Partners Beyond the Bus community outreach program, is expected to give Pennco Tech students hands-on learning experience working on school buses.

The bus comes from the company's Parts Reclamation Center (PRC) location in Philadelphia. PRCs play a crucial role in the company's sustainability and recycling efforts by helping reduce waste through reclaiming and recycling parts and other materials from retired vehicles.

The PRCs aim to contribute to sustainability by: 

• Reclaiming necessary, quality parts from inactive vehicles which otherwise would have been scrapped and contributed to additional waste accumulation.

• Recycling non-salvageable tires, batteries, electronics, and metals to reduce our carbon footprint and additional waste in landfills.

• Properly disposing of and recycling fluids such as fuel, oil, coolants, freons, and other fluids to reduce environmental pollution and harm.

Additionally, bus donations such as this help to repurpose retired, non-electric vehicles from National Express fleets, which further contributes to the company's transition to alternative fuel-powered and zero-emission buses. National Express aims to have an all zero-emission fleet by 2040.

“Most of my employees and I are Pennco Tech alumni," said Timothy Jameson, shop manager at the Philadelphia PRC. "While attending, we unfortunately did not have a training school bus to learn from, which meant we had little to no hands-on experience working with school buses. While attending Pennco Tech’s career fair, it became apparent that school buses are an essential learning tool for their students, and I thought we could easily help by donating a school bus. It was the perfect way to give back to the community while helping aspiring technicians build a solid foundation for their careers and find an environmentally friendly solution to repurpose these vehicles as we transition to zero-emission fleets.”