NORTH MANKATO — In transporting 38,000 students each school day in 28 Minnesota school districts, Palmer Bus Service of North Mankato has learned what it takes to be the best. And it’s been noticed.
Now in its 50th year as a family-owned business, Palmer recently was awarded the Contractor of the Year Award from the National School Transportation Association. The company also was recently named a Top Transportation Teams honorable mention winner at STN EXPO in Reno, Nevada.
“I was shocked, surprised, grateful and humbled to be recognized by our peers in the industry as Contractor of the Year,” said Palmer Bus Service Chief Operations Officer Shane Johnson. “It was a full bag. It was a surprise.
“It’s a recognition of 50 years in the industry, of being a safe transportation provider No. 1,” he said. “Also, our culture — a lot of things we do at Palmer Bus Service, other companies steal, and I say that in a good way. We do share things we do with our peers. How we treat and value our employees is valuable to us, and I believe that’s seen and respected by others as well.”
Palmer has 1,200 employees and operates 700 buses throughout the state. Another way the company stands out is its dedication to running clean buses.
Palmer Bus is pilot testing what it calls the “CowFart Bus,” which converts a diesel school bus to run on a blend of renewable natural gas and diesel. The two test buses resulted in 30 percent less diesel consumption, Johnson said, and the pilot test runs through September.
“It’s a yearlong pilot program,” he said. “We are going to pick it up further and add another 20 buses in the Mankato school district. We’ll phase it in during this 2024-2025 school year.”
Another advancement in technology Palmer has made is with a GPS-tracking system, whereby dispatch knows where buses are at all times, when a bus makes a stop and how fast it’s traveling. Palmer also has an idling policy that mandates how long a bus can idle for, so the greenhouse effect of pollutants is reduced as well as resulting in a reduction of fuel usage.
Safety, however, is the real focus at Palmer, Johnson said.
“Safety is paramount to us,” he said. “We don’t take shortcuts. We don’t do anything halfway. That’s important to us. We have fun with what we do. We want people to enjoy coming to work every day at Palmer Bus Service. We also get kids to their education every single day.”
Palmer was started in 1974 by Floyd and Lois Palmer, who began with eight school buses. Daughters Jenna Fromm and Hollie Johnson took ownership in 2012. Fromm is now CEO.