Motor Coach Industries (MCI), a U.S. subsidiary of NFI Group Inc. (NFI), one of the world’s largest independent global bus manufacturers, has launched several tools to help operators clean and disinfect their buses for a successful restart.
Over the past several weeks, MCI’s engineering and field support teams and colleagues from sister company NFI Parts have been meeting with suppliers, talking with customers, and serving on industry task force committees. As a result, these efforts have allowed MCI to establish best practices in cleaning, disinfecting, distancing, and other protection protocols to share with its customers.
Resources available on MCI’s website include:
NFI Parts Clean & Protect Product Guide
NFI Parts’ Clean and Protect Product Guide offers the most requested product for most MCI models with focus on next-level cleanliness and virus-transmission mitigation solutions. The guide (found online here) consolidates current MCI and NFI Parts options for safe and successful operations organizing them under these four pillars:
- Distancing: Products that enable the driver to isolate from passengers and passengers to isolate from one another, including high driver shields as well as partitions to protect drivers.
- Disinfecting: Products that kill viruses, bacteria, etc. on hard surfaces and in the air such as hard-to-find fogging systems for maximum disinfecting effectiveness.
- Air Quality: Products that reduce unwanted airborne particulates, viruses, and bacteria.
- On MCI coach models, the HVAC system circulates in fresh, outside air every 10 minutes.
- Air recirculated through an anti-microbial MERV 8 rated filter media removes respiratory droplets and kills pathogens.
- PPE: Products that are considered personal protective equipment such as face masks and hand sanitizer, along with dispensers are also available from NFI Parts.
“One of the things MCI has been doing in collaboration with NFI Parts is to help evaluate what is effective against COVID-19, what helps meet CDC guidance, what is available, is it financially and operationally viable, and will it inspire passengers to ride,” said MCI Vice President of Pre-Owned Coach, Product Planning and Marketing Brent Maitland. “The NFI Parts team has been working diligently to develop these solutions, advising operators, and quickly meeting their demands.”
Maitland points to the increased use of UV-C lights mounted in the HVAC compartment to help kill pathogens and driver barriers available through NFI Parts. “These can either be installed by the owner, at MCI Service Center locations, or on models as they come through the MCI production line,” he said. “Still, the most effective measures are found in CDC’s guidance. Handwashing, distancing, wearing a mask, and cleaning common touch barriers remain part of the guidance. Our goal is to have products and tools that support operators’ efforts.”
MCI’s Coach Disinfecting Protocol Checklist
Following coach-cleaning and maintenance procedures practiced at MCI Service Centers as well as guidelines from the CDC and Health Canada, MCI has created a comprehensive checklist (found here) for keeping motorcoaches clean and sanitized in most operating situations including short movements on lots, pre-trip preparations, and end-of-day maintenance.
“We’ve created this list in a template format so operators can edit it for their own use with specific practices required by their own maintenance and driving teams and as a training tool,” said MCI Director of Product Planning and Sales Engineering Brent Danielson. “The checklist also provides Clean-In/Clean-Out touchpoints that are now necessary as COVID-19 precautions continue.”
MCI’s Extreme Clean Commitment Toolkit
To help operators share their enhanced cleaning practices with customers, MCI has created the Extreme Clean Commitment Toolkit (found here) encompassing enhanced cleaning procedures, products, and equipment that will optimize passenger and driver protection. The toolkit is ready to use or can be customized.
MCI Webinar: Clean, Disinfect, Protect
For operators wanting additional guidance, MCI Academy—the company’s training division—has a video replay of its Clean, Disinfect, and Protect June 2 webinar, which reviews optimal cleaning practices and the latest advice for customers restarting their fleets. The video replay is now archived online via the MCI Academy’s Learn Management System (LMS) course code 19.111. If you don’t have an LMS account, email scott.crawford@mcicoach.com to register.
For more information about MCI, visit mcicoach.com.
[06.11.20]