INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS
For example, GPS capabilities allow admin- istrators to know if bus drivers are idling unnecessarily or speeding. “Our speed report shows not just the
drivers’ speed but also how long they went that speed. You can use different kinds of geo-fences to define the areas you don’t want school buses to go,” Carnahan con- tinued. “Tese technologies put data on the table about what’s going on and are used to evaluate individual operators.”
SHARING AND STORING FOOTAGE Ted Wu of Planet Halo said video
cameras for monitoring activity inside the school bus are increasingly in demand. Te company’s PH4 vehicle recorder features four cameras, and two provide interior views of the driver at the wheel as well as showing his or her perspective. So far, it has drawn interest from First Student and school districts in California, Nevada and Wyoming, he added. “Tey want to see what the drivers are up
ALL EYES ON DECK
Industry innovators share how school-bus operations benefit from technology that monitors and measures bus driver performance
WRITTEN BY MICHELLE FISHER S
urveillance is a hot topic in the news, from coverage about government monitoring of phone records to the media storm around a veteran bus
driver’s actions during a school bus beating in Gulfport, Fla. After this violent incident involving three older teens beating up a younger boy, debate arose about whether the 64-year-old driver should have physically intervened on top of his verbal directives and call to dispatch for help. Yet the video surveillance footage helped
prove the driver followed district policy and prevented him from facing charges of child neglect. Having this video evidence provid- ed quick answers in this case. But such evidence is often not readily attainable when a child is harmed. Take the Kentucky State Police’s report about the 2012 Carroll County school bus crash that killed two preschool students. It took investigators one year to determine the bus driver caused the crash by over-correcting and over-steering.
With bus-driver monitoring systems such as video cameras and GPS, pinpointing such unsafe driving behaviors has never been easier — or faster. Don Carnahan, vice president of Zonar
Systems, said he has seen the evolution of technologies designed to measure driver performance. Before the advent of GPS, he recalled, certain aspects of performance, such as pre- and post-trip inspections, were tracked with time and date stamps. “Tis gave managers and trainers a way to
determine drivers’ efficiency — if they took too long, or if they went too quickly and never found anything, they weren’t doing a thorough job. Tat started providing met- rics,” said Carnahan, who becomes president of NAPT this fall. “Te purpose for this isn’t to call school bus drivers bad people but to determine what the norms ought to be in that equation.” Today’s monitoring technology provides
tools for behavior modification, he stressed, that help fleet managers see the big picture.
16 School Transportation News September 2013
to … typically when you put a camera in to monitor people’s behavior, the number of incidents definitely goes down,” said Wu. “It also gives managers peace of mind, and it negates hearsay.” Peter Plate of Rosco Vision Systems stat- ed that cameras also give bus drivers peace of mind. Te Dual-Vision 200 series DVXC tracks events through an accelerometer and GPS while communicating with drivers through an audible chime and visual alert if they exceed proper parameters. Besides speeding, Plate said man-
agement is also watching for distracted driving, out-of-route vehicle usage and “harsh” driving practices that increase wear and tear on buses. Jeff Taylor of Safety Vision said custom-
ers appreciate the SVR-4100 MDVR be- cause of its ability to record to a removable SD card and to use up to four cameras. He also said it uses a G-force sensor to record erratic driving and a GPS module to record the speed of the bus. In February, Angeltrax introduced the
MOTOTrax mobile video surveillance management system, which enables manag- ers to monitor driver behavior and vehicle status from their office. “MOTOTrax gives fleet directors peace of mind of knowing the footage they need is being captured reliably,” said Richie How- ard, AngelTrax president. “Sharing the video footage with driving
groups and with one-on-one coaching ses- sions reinforces management’s involvement
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