Improving school Commuting with Bus Tracking

Summary: The ability to geo-track school buses at anytime from anywhere is giving schools a cost-effective mechanism to plan their routes and make commuting safer for students. GPS and RFID-based tracking system also help parents to monitor the progress of their children between home and school. It gives parents more peace of mind and certainty on the arrival and departure of vehicles

Digital equipment and techniques are rapidly transforming the education sector. Schools today use a variety of tools to make learning experiences more interactive and long-lasting. The same technology has also enabled better monitoring practices to drive increased efficiency and security in school operations. And this is not just limited to the usage of CCTV cameras deployed within the campus. There is a rising interest in global positioning system (GPS)-based vehicle tracking solutions. These help school administrators and parents monitor the buses that students board to reach and return from their institution.

Are there any measurable benefits of these tools? Why are schools increasingly investing in these bus tracking systems?

Here’s why:

Security with Real-Time Tracking

Live updates via bus tracking apps give peace of mind to the school and parents who can check the commute of their children to and from the school campus. They can understand the right reasons behind delayed transportation that may be on account of traffic jams, unfavourable weather or sudden breakdown.

With Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) add-ons, parents too get alerts on a child’s bus boarding/deboarding or wrong bus boarding. The integrated system addresses their safety concerns and allows them to take appropriate actions in emergencies. It also helps the school administrators monitor the daily attendance of the students through the school bus tracking web application.

The ability to monitor driver behaviour ­­– in terms of the vehicle’s speed, distance travelled, and route deviations – also makes a bus tracking system an effective tool for schools to optimise on-route safety for their students.

Sleek Attendance Marking

Manual recording of attendance is time-consuming and prone to errors. A student may have stepped out of the class to fill her water bottle or may be on an errand assigned by the teacher. She may miss the verbal roll call and be mistakenly marked absent for the day. Such problems are effectively addressed by the RFID technology that is integrated with the bus tracking systems.

A child can swipe her ID card and mark attendance as soon as she enters the school bus. Moreover, leading school bus tracking systems are based on OpEx models and do not involve upfront device costs. Schools can utilise the integrated attendance recording features of the bus tracking solution on a pay-as-you-go basis and avoid the expenses of installing an individual card swiping system outside each classroom. Schools can also have other safety measures like camera solutions integrated into the school bus tracking web application.

Better Route Planning

For schools, GPS vehicle tracking tool is an excellent way to schedule and map out their bus routes. An analysis of the roads taken, travelling time and route deviations by the bus driver enables school authorities to make better decisions on the next route change.

Custom-designed school bus trackers come with route creation and assignment features to facilitate punctual and safe commuting for students residing in different parts of a city.

Any deviation from the designated route also sends instant alerts to the authorities.

Optimal Fuel Efficiency and More Savings

By monitoring their buses closely, schools also avoid the inefficiencies of manual routing that often leads to increased time on the road, underutilised resources and higher fuel consumption. As an example, sheer miscalculation may lead a school to use an extra vehicle for a locality that already falls on the route of another bus. Such discrepancies and additional costs can be avoided with tracking tools that have geo-fencing and RFID capabilities.

Employing such a system also helps schools to check the average distance covered and fuel consumed by each bus. It assists in streamlining driver salaries and fuel budget. Besides, the administrators get to know how efficiently the buses are driven – they can check if there is unnecessary idling, and if the speed limits are being observed. It also gives important alerts in the form of “drop reports” that school authorities can use to check if there has been a sudden drop in fuel levels. This may indicate a potential fuel theft problem, and authorities can take measures to rectify the same.

Improved Bus Maintenance Schedules

Regular vehicle maintenance is essential to prevent them from unexpected breakdowns. A school cannot afford to disrupt its students’ commute to and from the campus, especially during exams and important events. By tracking the mileage or the fuel gulped by each bus per month and its average performance on the road, the institution can decide upon the right time for periodic automobile services.

No More ‘Missed Bus’ Incidents and Uncertain Waiting Times

If they track and get alerts from a bus that is about to reach a designated stop, parents can get their child ready for school in time and avoid missing the vehicle. When they turn up at the location, they are assured that the bus will also arrive soon and has not already left. Similarly, the tracking system allows them to know when exactly the child will step down from the bus on returning from the school.

Promotes Green Practices

With efficient route planning, minimised idling time and supervision of drivers’ road behaviour through tracking tools, schools can reduce their total fuel consumption and contribute to eco-friendly practices. While this may sound insignificant in a big town, the practice matters because top private academies employ a fleet of buses to pick and drop their students and teachers across the city. The collective fuel consumption and performance of these vehicles are critical for the environment.

The best thing about school bus tracking systems is that they are anytime-anywhere tools that seamlessly send reports to concerned authorities on their mobiles and laptops.

Tata Tele Business Services has devised its School Bus Tracking solution along with RFID Integrated solution to make school commuting experiences better in an increasingly digitised world. It can also incorporate additional features such as live image capture to enhance the safety for young children.

To know more about the tool and all its features, download the brochure at https://www.tatateleservices.com/downloads/products/resources/brochure/School-Bus-Tracking.pdf.