FIRST TAKE


Remote Control: Finding a ‘Why’ in Wi-Fi


WRITTEN BY RYAN GRAY | RYAN@STNONLINE.COM O


ne can’t go anywhere these days without the ability to connect to one Wi-Fi network or another, whether wanted or not. Finding a connection away from the comfortable


confines of home or the office was once a frustrating game of hide and go seek, but now having a choice of networks is expected. Hotels now offer it for free. So do coffee houses and many restaurants. ISPs offer their customers secure, mobile connections whenever and wherever they can’t connect to home base. You can even use your cell phone as a hotspot. Tere is seemingly no limit to the reach of Wi-Fi, as


seen by the increasing number of connected school bus garages. While school networks utilized by transporta- tion departments aren’t for public consumption, they are becoming requisite for sharing the increasing amount of data flowing from today’s and tomorrow’s school buses. Tis month, we talk to school districts that are using


remote diagnostics to gauge the real-time health of their bus fleets, including some that are using Wi-Fi to do it. Certainly there is a cost to establishing a Wi-Fi network and adding the antennas at a garage or at individual campuses districtwide. But some student transporters, like Tom Vaughn of Garland ISD east of Dallas, are real- izing that Wi-Fi, wherever and however the connection exists, is a less expensive alternative to cellular networks and the associated monthly fees. No longer is the Wi-Fi conversation solely about using the school bus to extend classroom time for students, or simply to provide a diversion during lengthy trips. Vehicle and engine OEMs are delivering real-time fault codes via Wi-Fi, and providing a predictive element to fleet management that heretofore was hard to fathom. Meanwhile, mobile surveillance companies now offer the ability to automatically download video when the bus rolls into the transportation yard rather than require a staff member to physically pull a DVR, or more anti- quated yet, a VCR tape. For those still on the fence about whether to invest in any of today’s latest technology, not to mention wonder- ing how they’ll secure the funding for it, a question that inevitably comes up is how to seamlessly manage two


10 School Transportation News • FEBRUARY 2018


or more different environments. It’s the latest version of juggling the haves and have-nots. Vaughn recognizes how lucky he and Garland ISD


are. IC Bus installed OnCommand Connection free of charge on nearly 90 percent of the district’s daily home- to-school route buses, some of which are powered by the old MaxxForce 7 engine. But also consider that Garland ISD’s fleet consists of another 137 school buses used for shuttles, activity and sports trips, other programs or as spares that don’t have remote diagnostics. In Vaughn’s view, the district is still in its infancy stage with the technology, but even so the district is also on the cutting edge of remote diagnostics considering how new it is to the entire school bus industry. Garland ISD’s 16 bus technicians still hook up laptops to per- form manual diagnostics and implement service action plans. It’s just that the newest school buses arriving at the district, along with those already retroffited, now automatically deliver the data, which allows Vaughn’s staff to be more efficient. But more importantly it helps ensure there aren’t breakdowns in the field, especially with students on board. Adopting the new technology is quickly becoming just another facet of his replacement cycle and poten- tially everyone else’s. Vaughn reasoned that remote diagnostics are now included on every new bus purchase and built into the cost. When spending $100,000 on a new school bus, he said a piece of additional hardware that costs relatively “a few dollars” is money well spent considering the benefits his technicians are realizing in increased vehicle uptime. Tey see a problem before it becomes one and can proactively respond to make an immediate repair, if needed, or simply keep an eye on a particular issue. “To me, it’s a no brainer,” he concluded. “What we’ve seen so far we really like.” 


Ryan Gray, Editor-in-Chief


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