School Bus Fleet, February 2018
Untitled 2 1 1 18 18 8 59 AM 42 SCHOOL BUS FLEET FEBRUARY 2018 WWW SCHOOLBUSFLEET COMmake her stop today We are directing students from the Shady Grove Apartments to board your bus this afternoon Please add this stop to the end of your afternoon route Traffic detours There has been a water main break that will impact your route so you will need to take the bypass and come in to the school from the other direction Emergency communications There has been a bomb threat Drive to a specified location not to the school Do not let Johnny off at his stop He will be in danger Vehicle health Tire pressure has dropped to an unsafe level Engine conditions require the driver to pull over immediately These warnings are displayed to the driver and sent as automatic notifications to maintenance staff The key here is to make sure that messages are communicated in such a way that the driver cannot read them while the bus is in motion Perhaps a light indicator could inform the driver whether to pull over and check in immediately between runs or when parked at the end of a shift Experience can guide policy Including a small computer in the drivers area of the school bus opens up numerous opportunities and potential applications The pupil transportation community should keep an open mind to improvements offered by MDT technology while balancing the safety based responsibilities of the driver The experience needed to address these issues can only be gained at the local level which can be used to help forge state and federal policy going forward with cellular connections on a school bus opens up new opportunities for communication with drivers Here are some examples Bus stop passenger changes Johnny is not riding the bus today so you can eliminate the 3 mile loop required to serve his stop Suzy is back on the bus having recovered from an injury so be sure to activating the eight way light system counting students and giving the student crossing signal interacting with an MDT must be done in such a way that the other processes cannot be overlooked Training training training Enhancing communication The world of MDTs goes beyond student ridership apps The presence of an MDT MOBILE DATA TERMINALS Derek Graham is an industry consultant with clients that include Education Logistics Edulog a provider of school bus routing software solutions school bus GPS tracking and other related systems He previously served as state pupil transportation director in North Carolina for 21 years
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