Leading School Bus Tracking App Leads Embrace of
Technology in School Transportation, Highlights Inefficiencies That
Still Exist and Need Attention
With the new school year upon us, it’s not only a great time for
students, parents, and school districts to keep up their
back-to-school preparation, but also to reflect on the technology
and educational trends and learnings of this past 2017-2018 school
year.
As the industry’s leading school bus tracking
app, this past year SafeStop™ enjoyed successes including over
doubling in size for the fourth straight year. SafeStop has become
the go-to school bus tracking app for nearly 200 school districts
across the U.S. and Canada, 75 of which have been added in since
January.
“SafeStop continued to push for rigorous and
responsible growth in the 2017-2018 school year,” stated Patrick
Gallagher, SafeStop’s Division Director. “We will continue to
create a product that is scalable, provides reliable information,
and suits the needs of school districts, contractors, and parents.
The goal from the start has been to be the most complete and
universal school bus tracking app on the market with parents and
school officials across North America.”
Looking back on the past year, here are some
observations from the SafeStop Team.
The implementation of GPS technology
into school buses has endless benefits, but there’s still a lot of
work to be done.
Across the country, it seems as though
Transportation Directors and School Administrators are scratching
the surface in terms of the full benefit of the purchases they’re
making, specifically their GPS purchases. GPS systems are extremely
versatile and can be found in almost any industry sector, and are
as important as ever for commercial school bus fleets. GPS systems
in the school transportation industry are most often used to track
buses, map out the most efficient routes, and track specific
incidents such as bus arrival times and delays.
As beneficial as these actions are, many school
districts are failing to utilize their GPS systems to the fullest
with even greater cost-saving operations, such as excessive engine
idling, preventative maintenance, driver attendance, and more. This
means that important funds are potentially being lost in excess
fuel purchasing and poor fleet planning.
Across the country, many school bus
routes are still not being optimized in the most efficient way
possible – and this is a problem.
In many operations across the country, school
bus routes are built at the beginning of the year and slightly
modified should the student population change mid-year or driver
count fluctuate. Throughout the year, SafeStop believes there are
opportunities to make more sizeable updates to bus routes during
the school year so they can be analyzed and optimized on a
quarterly or bi-annual basis, so school districts can get the most
out of what they’re spending. SafeStop has partnered with a variety
of GPS vendors, routing system vendors, and industry consultants to
see the value in route optimization for its clients. The impacts of
school bus route optimization are far reaching, from protecting the
safety of passengers and monitoring ridership time, to eliminating
dangerous greenhouse gasses, controlling driver shortages, and
ultimately saving money.
We love that parents, students, and
school districts alike are embracing and understanding the amount
of work that needs to go into being prepared for a new school year
in terms of transportation.
Being prepared when it comes to transportation
means taking into account things like routes, data and information,
technology, driver performance, driver training, and a host of
other details. This past year, as more and more school districts
have begun utilizing SafeStop, they’re beginning to reap the
benefits and physically see the fruits of their labor, meaning a
more consistent dedication to making student transportation as safe
and as efficient as possible. Setting expectations with parents and
riders, as well as building effective communication channels that
significantly reduce phone calls to the transportation office
allows the transportation staff to respond quicker to issues and
focus on the core fundamentals of providing quality service.
Information is now easily accessible and communication is clear.
It’s a win for everyone.
A culture-shift is occurring to embrace
technology to the fullest in school transportation.
The relationship between technology and safety
has not always been clear in the school transportation industry.
Much of the conversation surrounding technology focuses on cost
savings or eliminating inefficiencies, while the priority in school
transportation has always been (and should always be) safety.
SafeStop and other telematics, cameras, and child check systems
have helped bridge the gap in showing that properly-implemented
technology provides knowledge, accountability, and in turn, safety.
When distractions are eliminated and the data helps paint a
complete picture, the focus can remain on the most critical tasks
that make a transportation operation safe.
SafeStop is available throughout the U.S. and
Canada and is compatible with any transportation provider, any GPS
hardware, and any routing software. To learn more about the
SafeStop app, receive pricing, or schedule a brief online demo,
please visit www.SafeStopApp.com.
About SafeStopSafeStop, a
product offered by SafeStop, Inc., is a powerful and secure
application that connects parents and school administrators with
the vehicles transporting their students. Created in 2013 by a
transportation solutions provider with vast experience in the
industry, SafeStop app provides a secure registration process,
real-time map feature, estimated times of arrival, student
scanning, SafeStop Analytics and an alerts and messaging center for
its users. The app brings timely, accurate and valuable information
to parents and school officials across North America. For more
information, visit www.SafeStopApp.com.
For more information:Patrick
GallagherDivision Director
800.843.8936pgallagher@safestopapp.com
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