School authorities’ invest a lot of money to ensure the safety of school buses.

But there are myriad aspects like fuel efficiency, maintenance of vehicles, proper routing and so on that really contribute to successful management of fleet operations.

 

1. Empowering School Fleets With GPS

School buses empowered with GPS tracking system records every movement of each vehicle such as bus location, its speed, movement and more. It provides all this information in real time which helps in predicting the arrival time of these vehicles beforehand to the parents.

2. Establishing Two-Way Communication

The effective use of technology helps in maintaining a two-way communication between the transport staff and the school. As a result, the concerned authorities are always aware of the breakdown, unscheduled stoppage or ignition which is on and off.

Such details offers insight into the behavior of the driver which can determine whether to continue with the existing staff or to recruit a better and more efficient one.

3. Reports About Speed/Route Violation

School Bus GPS Tracking Software lets you check whether the driver is using the defined route for pick up and drop services, is taking unnecessary halts and so on.

The speed of the vehicle denotes whether the driver is really concerned about the safety of the children and reaching them on time or not.

School authorities are zealous of offering 100% security to the children through their school transportation service always audit such metrics to track whether the drivers are acting responsibly enough to drive the students from home to school and back home.

4. Making Drivers Aware Of Students’ Security

For the seamless processing of a school transportation system, you must make the drivers and the staff on-board, the buses are aware of the need to keep the students secured.

It is advisable to recruit drivers who has the previous track record of working with some schools.

But in any case they have been working on transportation of heavy duty loads, make them aware that they should be more careful while driving as there are small children on board.

The drivers should be trained to behave decently with the students as well as drive in a way that the security of the school students is never compromised.

In the view of the growing incidences of the kidnapping of school children and keeping the school buses as hostages, training the drivers to have an open eye to whatever is happening all through the school bus cycle is important.

Make them understand the significance of intimating any incidence that seems to be different from the routine to the concerned authorities.

5. Be Ready For Emergencies

Every transport management department should have a set up ready for handling unwanted, unexpected emergency situations.

It may be for any adventitious situation caused due to natural disasters such as rain and storm, or handling irate parents through polite interactions or even managing the student behavior and intervening when they are fighting.

Quick response to such issues helps to nip these problems in the bud and restrict them from turning into bigger trouble. The drivers and the sub-staff must be made fully aware of these guidelines and if possible train them on how to act and exactly when to react or keep quiet.

Training them with practical presentation goes a long way in ensuring that they actually act as expected during the emergencies and never let you down.

6. Implementing RFID Technology

Apart from installing a GPS tracker on the fleet of vehicles, using Radio frequency identification or RFID technology can also contribute to keeping the track of the students who are boarding or de-boarding the school bus.

Installed at the entrance of the bus, the technology automatically keeps a record of the students on the bus which adds another layer of security and also improves the reliability of the operations of the school transportation system.

7. Weekly Auditing Of Analytical History Of School Fleets

For introducing and enhancing efficiency in school transportation, the authorities should regularly audit the weekly or monthly status. This regular bus activity can be analyzed to get details of all the crucial metrics including the kilometers traveled, unscheduled stoppage, and much more.

8. Stopping Drivers On-Spot

The OBD device attached to the vehicle detects harsh driving, over-speeding or overtaking by the drivers.

Analyzing such details can assist you in determining the rowdy behavior of a driver, if unnoticed can affect the safety of the students on-board.

In any case the authorities spot such misbehavior or any action that can harm children even when the driver is en-route, it is possible to immobilize the engine in the remote location and send the police.

Keep the driver focused on the road and to his task by locking down his mobile phone as the OBD sensors immediately detect if there is any motion.

9. Fewer Hassles, More Saving

Use of the latest fleet management software eliminates errors that are a part of the regular manual routing and scheduling. Automated management also ensures that all the operations are conducted smoothly without inviting any fines from the regulatory bodies.

Advanced software in vehicle tracking helps you evade such inconsistencies and improve school transportation system.

10. Saving Time And Energy

Deployment of the school bus tracking app automates all the related operations that includes routing and scheduling. The authorities can monitor every dimension of the movement of the fleet and control it without having to act all the time.

They can intervene only in the case of some unexpected turn of the event.

It saves time as well as the energy of the staff required to reschedule or reroute the vehicles.

The IoT-based technological innovations ease the tensions of the parents and also helps the children in high-grade classes keep up with their hectic schedule and manage multiple classes on time.

The use of the advanced school bus tracking system lets the authorities understand on how resourcefully the drivers are running the buses.

The highly sensitive app keeps a tab on the overall approach, driving, and behavior of the driver as well as on the working of the school buses to ensure uninterrupted journey all through the cycle.

 

How To Manage School Transport [20 Tips]

There are several school transportation companies that provide school bus fleets to different schools or to a group of schools having multiple branches.

They are responsible for keeping their fleets operational and providing safe and efficient transportation to students. Ensuring the safety of students and school buses is one of the biggest challenges that transportation companies face in their normal routine.

They need to manage and track multiple fleets every moment which is not an easy task. A comprehensive school bus tracking system makes fleet management easy and hassle-free for school transportation providers.

They can easily manage operational aspects of fleets and ensure school bus and student safety with reduced costs and increased efficiency.

20 Key Benefits Offered to Schools with Multiple Branches

The unique features of an end-to-end school bus tracking app offer various advantages to schools with multiple branches. These benefits have been explained below.

1.Single, Centralized Dashboard:

A single dashboard gives complete visibility of the entire fleet of buses of all school branches.

The school administration can easily monitor and track the real-time status of all school buses across multiple branches through a centralized dashboard.

All concerned people get live updates about the school bus location along the route and the expected time of arrival (ETA) at each bus stop.

2.Customization For Every Branch:

The easy-to-use smart tracking apps for school transport managers, parents, and drivers are customized for every individual user in multiple branches.

3.Live Monitoring:

The tracking system provides innovative tools for tracking buses via computer and mobile apps that show the live location of buses on maps.

An advanced RFID system integrated with the school bus tracking software provides an immediate log of each student, giving full visibility of student location.

4.Driver Monitoring:

The centralized system helps to monitor each and every school bus driver’s behavior and performance across all branches to ensure student safety.

5. 24/7 Fleet Management:

With the help of the school bus GPS tracking system, the school transport managers can monitor and track their fleets anytime, anywhere, to know if any maintenance is required, if the buses are running on time or not, etc.

However, in the case of schools using transportation services from fleet operators, they can track buses only during the school transportation time. Parents can track only while their child is using the school transport service.

The access time will be provided by the fleet operator so that school management can track the real-time location of their students.

6. Bus Availability Management:

The system ensures optimal utilization of all available vehicles by planning and creating routes, trips, and stops efficiently.

7. Intelligent Route Management:

The GPS trackers on each bus not only help to know the current location of all buses, but they also display which routes they take and how much fuel they consume. This further helps in cutting down fuel costs by optimizing routes.

8. Auto-generate Trips:

The system helps the transport team to design optimal routes, auto-generate trips, efficiently manage ad hoc trips, and assign them to buses across all branches in the pre-defined timeframe.

9. Message Broadcast:

Messages can be broadcasted to fleets across multiple school branches from the same application instance. This is beneficial for making general announcements or in case of contingencies.

10. Consolidated Reports:

The fleet managers can get consolidated reports of school trips completed, distance traveled, student capacity, vehicle stops, etc., for all the fleets in different branches.

11. Easy Integration:

The school bus tracking mobile app can easily integrate with other third-party applications, enterprise systems, security systems, RFID systems, access control, etc.

12. Zero Tracking Downtime:

The tools and devices used in the tracking system are easily switchable between buses or routes (subject to approval by the transport team) which ensures zero tracking downtime when the assigned bus is replaced due to repairs or breakdowns.

13. Fleet Maintenance:

The system can help transportation teams to automatically schedule inspections and maintenance, and quickly address any identified issues.

14. Standardization:

The school bus student tracking software ensures that the transport system is fully standardized across all branches of the school.  It makes sure that all branches adhere to the standard franchise rules and meet all compliances with regard to fleet operations.

15. Consistency in Services:

The system ensures that the transport services offered at all the branches are of standard quality.
It helps to eliminate any inconsistency in transportation services across branches.

16. Elevated Parent Experiences:

With the best-in-class, modernized, real-time school bus tracking technology, the system helps to elevate overall parent experiences.

17. Single Parent App for Different Schools:

Parents can easily track two or more children using the same parent application even when their children are in different schools or geographical locations.

Parents can also request for location change b selecting the right pick-up and drop-off points from the map in the application.

18. Centralized Record-keeping:

The system helps to keep a record of complete school vehicle data in a centralized location, including vehicle records, repairs, maintenance, and service records, insurance & renewals, breakdown history, loans and expenses, and much more.

By tracking fleets, the fleet managers can maintain a record of useful data, such as driver behavior, speed, and other details, for future reference.

19. Ease of Accounting:

The system helps fleet managers to maintain proper accounting of all transportation expenses of the entire fleet of vehicles across all branches.

The accounting reports, generated by the system, help to analyze various cost parameters, nature of expenses, budget utilization, etc. This further helps to control transportation costs.

20. Tracking Compliances:

The smart school bus tracking application empowers transport managers to keep a track of all important vehicle compliances and regulations, such as vehicle insurance, pollution checks, driver license renewals, and more.

A highly-sophisticated school bus tracker can help transport managers to efficiently manage multiple school transportation across various branches.

So, are you using an all-in-one school bus tracking solution to manage multiple bus transportation?