“Non-proprietary GIS technology for
schools means that mapping technol- ogy finally can be leveraged across the district,” says Somerville. “No longer is it just for transportation or the planning department. Now the exact same files, software and knowledge can be used to route buses, do boundary planning, facili- ties planning, route a district’s white fleet for maintenance, teach kids geography in the classroom and much more.” Somerville estimates that a school
bus can cost a district $7 per mile when considering fuel, driver pay and benefits, maintenance, etc. “If you have a fleet size of only 20 ve-
hicles and through optimization using accurate mapping data, you can save two miles a day for each bus,” Somerville says. “Tat translates to over $50,000 a year, and for large districts with a thousand or more buses, the savings can be in the millions.” And school districts are getting the
message. Optimization software, which incorpo- rates GIS mapping data, helped Memphis
City Schools (MCS) cut $8.2 million from its transportation budget in 2009 by using routing and scheduling software, and con- sulting services developed by Education Logistics (EDULOG). Its founder pioneered computerized and GIS-based technology for pupil transportation in the 1970s. What became routing and scheduling
software was the result of an algorithm designed as part of a doctoral thesis from his studies at MIT. MCS, which contracts with First Student, eliminated one-third of its routes, reducing its fleet from 496 to 331 buses. In 2011, EDULOG’s optimi- zation software saved the Corona-Norco Unified Schools in California, also serviced by First Student, $2.95 million by eliminat- ing 44 bus routes. “Tese tools provide a knowledge base
for strategic decision-making that has been unavailable in the past, resulting in more efficient operations and increased savings for districts,” says Nick Harris, marketing manager for EDULOG. “We’re trying to help school districts save money so they can put more money back into the
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classroom, especially now when they’ve got to do more with less.” Te potential savings is one of the out-
comes that Madison’s Cuellar and Frank Giordano, his counterpart in Nevada’s Clark County Schools, are anticipating. Both are working out the glitches in their systems so that any savings can be moni- tored accurately. “We have no projected annual savings
yet, but we’ve noticed a reduction in idle time, which reduces our daily cost,” Cuel- lar said. “Te drivers know we’re keeping an eye on things and they’ve become more aware of their driving habits. We’ve only been running the system a little more than a month now with our fleet of 32 buses. We’re still collecting the data.” Giordano, who operates a fleet of 1,500
buses in the Las Vegas area, said the dis- trict wanted to make safe decisions based on accurate information, and the GIS sys- tem gives them more information than they had. Giordano says the accuracy of the maps is key to the efficient use of employee time and making sure the bus routes are run on schedule. “If we get a complaint from citizens in
an area concerning a driver speeding, the technology allows us to set up an elec- tronic fence around that area on the map and monitor the area without having any- one out there. Before we had the system, we would have had to send a transporta- tion investigator out with a radar gun to monitor the speed.” Transfinder’s Civitella says GIS will only
become more popular among school dis- tricts in the future. “Competition has changed the mar-
ket. Te monthly fees have come down tremendously. I think you will see more school districts buying this technology because it is affordable. Five years ago it was very expensive and it was very rare to see a school district with it. Five to 10 years from now it will be very common.” TransTraks’ Marvel agrees, saying the
technology revolution has finally reached school transportation departments. “As costs have dropped and more tech-
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knowledgeable managers have come into the industry, the movement to GIS mapping software has exploded. Tis is absolutely the future of the industry. School districts desperate to keep costs down see this as money well spent.” n
48 School Transportation News Magazine June 2012
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