HEADLINES Staying Ahead by Keeping Track of Driver Time Whether it’s by clocking in with a pen or a punch card, keeping
track of employee hours can take you away from many other more important duties. For some school districts, technology offers more than one solution. “Te reality is that no one likes today’s primary time tracking
method: handwritten time sheets,” said Scott Prewett, Exaktime’s vice president of technical services. “I have neither met a driver that liked doing them, nor have I met a bookkeeper that liked reading them and hand-entering them in a PC. When you combine this with the increase in accuracy with the shorter payroll processing time, the motivation to automate can be huge.” Exaktime’s JobClock allows drivers to “clock in” every time they
step onto their buses by simply touching a keytab on the porta- ble timeclock reader that attaches to the dash. Information can then be transmitted wirelessly to a central office. But, will employees feelthat “big brother” is watching? “Certainly some will. But most districts that we work with are mak-
ing the decision to automate because of the efficiency for payroll processing. I have many districts where the drivers themselves were cheating themselves out of time by under-reporting,” said Prewett. Exaktime’s latest solution, PocketClock, allows drivers to “punch
in” via Blackberry or PDA. Other companies, like Access 1 Source, offer similar options, including the ability to clock in from a com- puter, with fingerprints and by using a cell phone or landline. Cost savings, once again, top the reasons for moving away from pencil and paperwork. “If an employer has 50 employees who average $10 per hour,
and each of those employees add just three minutes of extra time to their time sheets, that employer will pay out more than $10,000 annually,” said Chad Fittro, an account manager at Access 1 Source. Sometimes a solution can come from a produce originally
designed for an entirely different purpose. Take SkyLogix offers re- mote control and monitoring solutions for engine heaters. While presenting a system to Marshall (Ariz.) Public Schools, Transpor- tation Director Mike Walbach asked if he could record the time when the bus heaters were unplugged and plugged back in. “Tis would tell me when the bus left,” said Walbach. “Te driv-
ers would use a pin pad to punch in an ID number to plug and unplug their buses. I thought that piece might be beneficial be- cause it would be readily accessible to tell me when they plugged their buses that night. If they plug in their bus at 4:30 p.m., that means they’re done with their routes.” ■
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Bitzer F400 Bus A/C Compressor For more information contact:
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www.BitzerUS.com // Bitzer US Inc. // Atlanta, Georgia 24 School Transportation News Magazine April 2010
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