ABQ RIDE began equipping its overnight vehicle detailers with special foggers in August that can quickly sanitize the inside of fixed-route buses and Sun Vans.
The electrostatic foggers are made by Victory Innovations, a company specializing in the sanitary maintenance of buildings or vehicles. Every night, after fixed route buses and Sun Vans have undergone the usual wiping and sterilizing of high-traffic, high-touch surfaces and before they are re-fueled, they get a thorough fogging inside.
“These electrostatic sprayers completely paint the inside of a bus or Sun Van with a disinfecting fog, which covers every surface inside the vehicle,” said Danny Holcomb, transit director. “Using handheld sprayers for both buses and Sun Vans or larger backpack sprayers for the bigger buses, we can have the fleet disinfected and ready to go every morning.”
ABQ RIDE uses three backpack sprayers on the larger buses at both its Yale and Daytona facilities. Each of those sprayers can sanitize up to 23,000-square feet of space with one tank. They’re the same backpack foggers often used by some companies to fog and sanitize entire buildings. Smaller, handheld sprayers also are used for both Sun Vans and some fixed route buses. They can sanitize up to 2,800 feet of space on one charge.
Most of Transit’s overnight detailing staff finished training on use of the backpacks in July. The process has reduced the amount of time it takes to sanitize and ready the buses for next day’s service. In addition to all fixed-route buses and Sun Vans being wiped down and disinfected nightly, ABQ RIDE’s drivers also continue to wipe down the cars nightly that are used to shuttle drivers to and from transit facilities.
