SPECIAL REPORT
With more than 30,000 parts in stock for all makes and models, Auto-jet keeps your maintenance shop on schedule. And Auto-jet is your single source for radiators, DPFs, and EGRs too!
Reggie Payton checks the real- time location of Midlothian ISD’s school buses via a parent notification app.
Real-Time, Real Problems Solved In a world brimming with technology, Synovia’s Here Comes The Bus
Andy
Anderson Sales Manager
software was a winner at the popular Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year. “Here Comes The Bus won the IHS Markit Inno- vation Award at CES 2019, because our app delivers real-time school bus tracking,” said company spokesman Bryan Mitchell. “The judges realized that while the competition, like LG and Samsung, had some amazing products, ours actually solved the problem of parents not knowing where the school bus was.” The company is also working on a “lite” version that is designed specif-
ically for rural and underserved districts. The company announced it will be available later this year. “We wanted to provide a solution to districts that didn’t have routing software,” Mitchell added. Janet Petrisin, director of transportation for the Metropolitan School
District of Wayne Township near Indianapolis, said she is very happy with the district’s decision to use Here Comes The Bus. “The system refreshes every 30 seconds, and works very well with our Transfinder Routing Sys- tem, so it’s a very accurate data tool. I’m getting a lot of positive feedback from parents, especially the parents of kindergarten students,” said Petri- sin. “We won’t let a kindergarten student off the bus without a parent at the bus stop, so the app has been a very positive experience for them. The other group that uses it the most are high school students, who wait until the last minute to go to the bus stop.” She added that some parents even call the district if they see that a bus
AUTO-JET.COM 800-247-5391
22 School Transportation News • APRIL 2019
has taken a different road, or is running late. “They are really paying atten- tion,” Petrisin said. “We explain that sometimes there is traffic, an accident or road construction and the bus had to take a detour.” Petrisin encouraged other districts to do their homework and make sure the systems they purchase work well together. ●
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
