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INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS


Zonar Systems, emphasized that greater accuracy to the time-tracking process is as beneficial to drivers as it is for districts. “Driver time/attendance tracking is about logging in at the point where the work begins — the bus,” Corbally said. Zonar, which provides electronic fleet inspection, GPS tracking and operations solutions, has installed equipment in 120,000 buses nationwide. Tat equipment provides the platform for systems like those used by EDULOG. Te integration of employee time-tracking with GPS and planned route data create a complete picture that verifies precisely when drivers are on the job and where they’re supposed to be. Tat’s good news — and important protection — for the driver and school districts, Kahoun contended. An improvement over paper time sheets,


RIGHT TIME


ADVANCED HOUR-TRACKING SOFTWARE BENEFITS DISTRICTS, DRIVERS OVER ANTIQUATED SYSTEMS WRITTEN BY ERIC WOOLSON


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chool transportation departments that track employee schedules, work hours and pay with software-based systems are coming out ahead on the


efficiency and savings curve while ensuring drivers also get a fair shake. “I don’t know of any transportation de-


partments where people are sitting around twiddling their thumbs because they don’t have anything to do. Most districts make the change because they want to save money and time,” said Greg Marvel, president and co-founder of TransTraks. “If you can get work done in less time, you can do more with the same people.” EasyBus President Michael Hinckley


agreed that innovative software doesn’t replace transportation staff. “It does allow the people who work in


accounting and dispatch to do much more with their time,” he said. “We’ve had many people, particularly in accounting, tell us that what used to take them an entire week at the end of each month now takes a matter of minutes.” Hinckley said software that calculates


driver pay, including overtime and various rates for different situations, makes life easier for transportation directors and accounting departments while ensuring drivers receive


18 School Transportation News April 2013


an accurate paycheck. Te advantage in his product saves more than just time. “It can also save money as operators with


more visibility into the status of payroll elect to offer less overtime for trips,” he added. Marvel said Cloud-based services make


it much easier to troubleshoot problems that arise, such as a late call about a missing child, from virtually anywhere. It also lifts a burden from overworked IT departments. He cited a 60,000-student California district that has its own servers. “Teir network was very slow,” said


Marvel. “Te head of vehicle maintenance said he could only get 40 work orders in a day. When they moved to our hosted version of maintenance software, he said he did 300 work orders in a day.” When it comes to employee tracking soft-


ware, Marvel said two options are biometrics (fingerprint recognition) and PIN-code systems that allow drivers to check in and out. Te system, which is programmed to know when the driver is scheduled to clock in or out, can more accurately track employees’ time. Additional savings result from sharp reductions in payroll processing time. Jason Corbally, president of Education


Logistics (EDULOG), and Craig Kahoun, senior director of public sector solutions at


and clock-in machines, Corbally said software “evens the playing field” because departments are forced to recognize the actual work performed by drivers. “Te problem is, districts have buses leaving from different places,” he explained. “Having drivers clock in at the bus for the time they’re working is ideal, but it still didn’t help drivers running remotely. Tis is a great tool for drivers.” In fact, Corbally said the systems can even


improve driver’s hourly pay. He recently met with one of the nation’s largest districts, where administrators want to increase driver pay despite tight budgets. “Driver shortages are one of the biggest issues in the country. Districts are always competing with neighboring districts for drivers. What this district wants to do is better track hours so they can pay more per hour,” he explained. Marvel observed that even districts with


as few as 10 drivers have found cost savings. He said one district in Northern California expects to save at least $300,000 in the coming year by using advanced time-keep- ing software. “I have a very corporate, bottom-line perspective, and I ask three questions: How much will it cost to save money? How much am I going to save? And, how will it enhance the bottom line?” he said. “In California, districts have been hit with massive budget cuts, yet they are still spending money on software. Tey wouldn’t be doing that if it wasn’t saving money. For the vast majority of districts around the country, this technology’s time has come.” 


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