INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS Winning Combo WRITTEN BY SYLVIA ARROYO
GPS COMPLEMENTS VIRGINIA SCHOOL DISTRICT’S ROUTING SOFTWARE FOR TRACKING OVERALL TRANSPORTATION OPERATIONS
GPS on Prince George County school buses serving the metro Washington, D.C., area have postively affected everything from fuel efficiency and driver behavior to engine diagnostics and vehicle maintenance for the school district.
I
t’s been two years since the yellow bus fleet at Prince George County Public Schools in Virginia was equipped with GPS, which is tied to the transportation
department’s routing software. Tis tag team has produced positive results
not only with routing and helping retain bus drivers, but also with monitoring bus driver habits, engine diagnostics and overall safety and security for students while in transit, among other things, said Transportation Director Ron Rhodes. Before the department had GPS, he said his
main challenge was providing assistance to his drivers while they were on route. Te district’s 80 operating school buses cover a landmass of 282 square miles in a rural area where some roads aren’t even labeled with signs. “Tere was no way of assisting them, and
you need to know where they are. At the time, we didn’t have a great means of helping them,” Rhodes explained. “We’re always trying to do things better, and we wanted to make sure we could retain drivers.” Now, thanks to GPS, Rhodes can easily
track whether or not drivers are sticking to their designated routes. Currently he has 82 full-time drivers, and all but two of them have double runs. And out of 6,300 students
20 School Transportation News July 2013
district wide, roughly 5,700 are bused to and from school. Tat is 90 percent ridership. Being able to help substitute drivers was
especially important to Rhodes, as these novices tend to be unfamiliar with their assigned routes.
“On the substitute end, we don’t have
frantic sub drivers, and it’s also safer for the kids,” he said. After researching his options, Rhodes decided on GPS from Tyler Technologies. All of his yellow buses, his white fleet and any other vehicle that transports students, are equipped with GPS. Tyler also provides the routing software, which the department has had for five years. Just like with other types of software, Rhodes started off with the basic function- ality, utilizing the program for bus-locating purposes. But he then began to add other tracking elements, such as driver behavior and engine diagnostics. “(Tyler representatives) helped us walk
through some of these added tracking procedures, and trained us on, for example, customizing driving behavior or engine diagnostic reports,” Rhodes said. “I was looking for a flawless connection, which I think we got.”
Tracking driver behavior has helped pre-
vent excessive idling, and reduce harsh turns and brakes. Now Rhodes said he can meet with drivers periodically or at the end of the school year to review their personal driving reports. He noted that he’s been able to reduce idling dramatically, which has resulted in fuel savings. With the engine diagnostics tracking, an email is sent to him outlining any type of issue with the engine, such as if it’s running hot while on the road. “In receiving an email, we can then tell the
driver to get the bus in the yard or shut down before they blow the engine,” Rhodes noted. GPS has also helped him out during
emergency situations, such as school grounds evacuations. “If you have to do any of evacuation, GPS helps with dispatching,” he said. Or, if a passenger on a bus while on the road is in medical distress. Tis actually happened one time, Rhodes said, during a field trip. “We had a yellow bus and a van on a rural
route that no one was familiar with when a female passenger in one of the vehicles went into medical distress,” he said. “With GPS, we were able to get the EMTs out faster to the vehicles’ location.”
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