ABC Companies is helping operators meet the challenges of passenger transport and driver safety in the post-pandemic era. The company’s CLEANS™ (Contact Limitation & Eradication of Airborne Noxious Systems) product suite offers business owners a “layered” approach to enhance safety measures for passengers onboard, and more importantly for their drivers.
“Making drivers and riders feel more comfortable in this new environment is the goal of the CLEANS program,” said Thom Peebles, vice president of marketing for ABC Companies. “It offers layers of driver and passenger protection so fleet owners can create a customized package based on their need in conjunction with their own policies and procedures.”
He added that ABC’s CLEANS offers owners an expertly curated program that relies on proven deep cleaning technologies and solutions.
The CLEANS program is spearheaded by ABC’s Brian Nelson, engineering manager, who brings a wealth of expertise from his previous background in the healthcare industry. Nelson worked as an architectural engineer for more than eight years, designing healthcare facilities throughout the Midwest and Southeastern U.S.
“The CLEANS program is a distillation of best practices and processes specifically for motorcoach operators,” Nelson said. “It incorporates proven technologies that follow set procedures for proper sanitization and engineered solutions to work in motorcoach applications.”
He cites the MERV 13 Air Filtration option as a prime example of technology adapted within the constraints of a motorcoach system.
“You can’t just add any filter to a motorcoach without considering how it impacts other systems,” Nelson said. “The MERV 13 was selected because is strikes the correct balance between filtration efficacy and system efficiency, eliminating the risk of malfunction or failure in other systems. Likewise, a wide range of sanitization methods and formulations are available to help take the guesswork out of this process for operators.”
The ABC CLEANS program includes industry-leading sanitization and disinfection options, as well as physical controls to augment CDC guidelines as motorcoach operations resume. These layers of protection are designed to enhance air quality, sanitize surfaces, and create barriers to securely separate drivers from passengers and include:
Interior sanitization/disinfection
- Electrostatic fogging with solutions also used in commercial airlines providing up to a 99.994% reduction in Virus Control including the Human Coronavirus
- Fogging service conducted by ABC on-site or at a customer location
- Disinfectant electrostatic fogger units will also be available later through ABC
Passenger and driver contact partitions & personal hygiene stations
- Driver partitions ranging from full enclosures to temporary clear protective barriers
- Passenger protection shields including permanently mounted clear partitions and removable temporary shields
- Mountable hand sanitizer stations
HVAC purification systems
- MERV 13 rated cabin filters capable of capturing particles between 1 and 5 micrometers and smaller
- UV light HVAC disinfection system which eliminates 90% of microbial contaminants after 10 minutes of exposure and 99% after 1 hour
- Factory-installed HEPA filtration system which can capture 99.9% of particles (bacteria, fungi and larger viruses or virus clumps)
“With CLEANS, we can supply a powerful toolkit to help operators make the best possible decisions and choices for their business,” said Roman Cornell, ABC president and chief commercial officer.
As operations come back online, owners must be prepared to create a plan that can be easily understood and implemented by staff, Cornell added. He stressed that educating staff about APTA and CDC guidelines, creating cleaning schedules and processes, and establishing new procedures and training will be key to assuring employees and customers that their safety is priority one.