School Bus Fleet, January 2020

20 SCHOOL BUS FLEET JANUARY 2020 WWW SCHOOLBUSFLEET COM Photo courtesy Central Valley School District with inclement weather We currently use a master grid which is a Google Sheet to manage a matrix of all buses routes drivers and assistants as well as route start and end times This grid also includes tabs with Driver certifications Staff contact information The district calendar Student overflow information matrix shared by various schools Special transportation gifted homeless program information Snow route and delay procedures Absences In addition to the master grid sheet we built a Google Sheet we call our sub worksheet We use this to manage substitute drivers and their daily a m p m and midday routes It looks forward one week is managed in real time and color coded for easy reference We manage these sheets in dispatch inventories tracking driver seniority for trips and special weather related procedures Another benefit the IT director said it cost nothing GREATER ACCESS FLEXIBILITY Given the nature of the products all this information is portable and available to anyone based on access levels at any location with internet on personal computers tablets or mobile devices It also allows us to have duplicate versions even if they are formatted differently on screens at separate locations We manage information in our dispatch center but it is displayed in a uniquely designed format in the drivers lounge For example we aligned our editable versions of key spreadsheets to other versions designed for the large screen vertically oriented spreadsheets fit better on the large screen However they are edited by us on horizontally oriented versions that automatically update in real time on the large screen version This realtime capability is vital during early morning operations especially when combined EFFICIENCY The transportation departments operations board is a series of Google Sheets with data covering routes driver and district information managed by dispatch and displayed on a 64 inch monitor but display them on a 64 inch monitor in the drivers lounge along other webbased apps including NOAA Weather the weekly maintenance schedule a rotating slide show with training and department information and the Atomic clock a device that uses a hyperfine transition frequency for more accurate time This operations board or Ops Board has become the heart of the transportation department It has reduced recurring questions clutter misinformation confusion and dispatch distractions by 75 I can equate this to a savings of 25 full time equivalent FTE hours Districts that are similar in size to ours could see this kind of service improvement and cost savings or even greater REQUIREMENTS It is important to note that transitioning to electronic infrastructure requires more screen space Thus transportation staff members specifically in dispatch need three monitors for taking advantage of the information This can be a challenge given where transportation departments fall on the priority list for technology in the average school district With some creative assistance from the IT department we got it done We implemented G Suite on a wireless network added email addresses and edited permission levels and installed a large screen donated by a school in the drivers lounge along with the Chromebox that runs Google Chromes operating system Stuart Vogelman is a dispatcher for Central Valley School District in Spokane Valley Wash He has also worked as a senior executive international business consultant pastor and chaplain for a state police agency He can be contacted at 509 558 5493 Whether you are anticipating new state and federal regulations or accommodating a student with a disability let SynTec show you how to convert our S3C seats to lap shoulder belts or integrated child seats quickly and easily SynTecs S3C convertible seating system gives you the ability to configure your school bus seating to meet both your immediate and future needs For more information contact SynTec Seating Solutions toll free at 1 866 931 7328 or visit our website at SynTecSeating com Watch our 6 2 1 Quick Seat Back Change Video