SAFE FLEET BLOG

The combined value of a significant number of Safe Fleet school bus safety and efficiency solutions have been brought together to form the Safe Fleet Connected School Bus. The stronger together adage is reflected in this Connected Bus, which leverages the strengths of its separate parts resulting in an integrated, wholly realized, super cool school bus that truly delivers an exceptional number of benefits to students, parents and school administrators alike:

• Enhanced Learning Opportunities
• Risk Mitigation (both generalized, as well as risk associated with COVID-19)
• On-Board and Off-Board Student Safety
• Routing Efficiencies
• Lower Operating Costs Improved School/Parent Communication

Today’s typical school bus is usually outfitted with basic video surveillance, comprised of cameras and recording devices. In the Connected School Bus, the camera system is accompanied with a cellular router and modem, a vehicle tracking unit and an on-board mobile data terminal. These easy-to-implement devices help drive the following, full-range of solutions:

• Distance Learning and Mobile Classrooms
• Student Contact Tracing
• Vehicle/COVID-19 Cleaning Inspections
• Video Downloading
• Live Video Streaming
• Video System Health Checks
• Navigation
• Routing
• Student Accountability and Vehicle Tracking
• Parent Notifications

Each of these solutions on their own solve significant challenges faced by today’s school districts, but when operating together they perform in concert. Here’s an example:

Before the bus hits the road, the bus driver conducts an auditable vehicle disinfection and safety inspection, better protecting themselves and the students about to board.

As students board, they can start preparing for school, or even get a head start on upcoming homework; the bus is a mobile classroom and offers internet service to students on their commute (or even when the bus is parked in underserved communities).

The bus also employs video surveillance for enhanced school bus safety. To maximize the value of this system, a school transportation official can determine the health of the system, (Are cameras offline? Is there a problem with a recorder’s hard drive?) without leaving their desks. Further still, they can live stream video and audio from any of the on-board cameras as necessary. Any incident triggers an automatic download of the video, saving that official important man-hours. They no longer have to manually pull hard drives, or sift through hours of footage to find what they are looking for.

The bus driver benefits from routes that are created to improve student safety and commute time. The driver receives turn-by-turn navigation instructions, so even if the driver is assigned a completely new and unfamiliar route, they will make every stop like a pro. The bus driver can also account for every student onboard their bus. Similarly, the school district can account for each bus, each route and each student and automatically alert parents through smartphone notifications with any deviation from plan. These same tools are utilized in the event of a confirmed COVID-19 infection. In such a case, the school district would be able to determine each bus, route, bus driver and student that came in contact with the affected student.

The Safe Fleet Connected School Bus represents a very large step towards the IoT (Internet of Things), in which all vehicle systems “talk” to each other. This ‘Incredibly Connected Bus’ enables the communication between multiple Safe Fleet systems and also lays a foundation for when we’ll have devices communicating not just within our own silos, as we see here today, but eventually across systems and networking types for a more connected world. A world in which both the quality and scope of information being accessed from our devices will drive more contextualized and responsive interactions, reactions and overall safety.