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APGA & PERC Team Up for the 2024 ALTRANS Conference

he Alabama Transit Authority held its Annual
Spring Conference on April 30th -May 2nd at
the Gulf State Park Lodge in Gulf Shores, Ala-
Tbama. The Alabama Propane Gas Association
and Propane Education and Research Council were
proud sponsors of this year's event. APGA Executive
Director, Laural Bunn, and PERC Transit Fleet Consul-
tant, Jill Drury were present throughout the event
to ensure attendees had the resources necessary to
learn more about propane autogas, its benefits, the
transition process, and available funding opportunities.
Several APGA members were also on-hand to answer
questions and share their experiences with conference
attendees. Rob Johansen, Gabe Krebs, and Chad Chav-
ers from Blossman Gas took turns filling in. Over the
three-day event, APGA spoke with several transit au-
thorities that were interested in learning more about
how propane autogas could fit their transit needs.

On Tuesday afternoon, Casey Foster from
Alabama Clean Fuels Coalition spoke to conference
attendees about the importance of changing to clean
fuels and provided a brief overview of the different
options that are currently available for transit fleets in
Alabama. On Thursday, Mark Denton, Alliance Auto- From left: Rob Johansen, Gabe Krebs, and Jill Drury
gas, and Jill Drury were the featured speakers. Denton
explained how autogas provides the lowest cost of APGA was proud to partner with PERC to help
ownership of any fuel, conventional or alternatives, sponsor this successful event. Transit authorities work
and how making the switch to this cleaner burning fuel hard to ensure that Alabama citizens are able to get
will lower emissions while saving fleets money. Next, from point A to point B no matter where they are.
Drury shared her story, Tales from the Tank: Transit This event was another great opportunity to share
Success Stories Fueled by Propane. Her presentation the positive story about propane autogas and the real
highlighted the ease of transitioning from diesel to pro- cost savings that community organizations, like these,
pane while sharing her experiences and the real cost can achieve by transitioning their fleets to this cleaner
savings she encountered after transitioning her fleet to burning fuel. APGA would like to thank Blossman Gas
propane autogas. In closing, she briefly discussed fund- for donating a propane grill and a propane boiler for
ing opportunities that can ease the financial burden of two separate drawings. These giveaways generated
transitioning to autogas. Finally, Kevin Coggin, Execu- excitement amongst conference attendees and helped
tive Director at Coast Transit Authority, a large-scale support the goal of sharing propane's many benefits
transit operation in Mississippi that uses several types while planting a seed with the information needed to
of transit vehicles and fuels, shared his experiences help them make the decision to transition their fleets to
with transit fleets and alternative fuels. Coggins iden- auotgas in the future.
tified the pros and cons that he has encountered with APGA plans to maintain contact with the transit
each type of fuel and discussed the unique situations authorities and serve as a resource to them. Whether
in which some are more desirable than others. Coggins they seek information about autogas or funding oppor-
concluded that propane autogas provided the best tunities - APGA will be a resource for information that
cost savings for fuel and maintenance while lowering will help them with their transition to autogas.■
emissions overall.

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