Students, parents, and school administrators love the results of school bus GPS tracking. Here is a small sampling of the kinds of things they have to say:
“Safety is really our #1 concern. Being able to answer questions about the location of kids at all times is very important to parents.”
“School bus GPS tracking has reduced the phone calls that come into our office, because parents can see where the bus is and where their children are on our school bus GPS tracking app.”
“In our district, the parents’ experience of school bus GPS tracking has been overwhelmingly positive. Parents are very appreciative of having the knowledge of where the bus is so they can more adequately plan their morning and afternoon schedules and be where they need to be at the perfect time.”
“Even when a bus is five or 10 minutes late, parents like GPS tracking for their child’s school bus. Knowing when the bus will come gives them a few extra minutes to get their kid’s shoes tied and get downstairs for the bus.”
Parents often report that they aren’t upset when the school bus is a few minutes late. The real problem is that they didn’t know the bus was going to be late. But when school districts adapt universal school bus tracking with GPS and integrate that GPS tracking with an app, parents will know their children are getting on the right bus at the right stop at the right time.
How Does School Bus GPS Tracking Work?
School bus GPS tracking isn’t really like the GPS in your car. School bus GPS tracking is really a function known as fleet telematics. School bus GPS tracking involves a lot more than just locating a bus in real time.
If teachers wanted to explain the difference between GPS tracking and fleet telematics with a Venn diagram, they would draw two concentric circles. All telematics involves GPS, but there is a lot about telematics that goes beyond GPS.
GPS tells you where your school buses are. That’s essential information. It’s even more useful when it can be shared with parents and students through an app.
Telematics tells parents whether their children are on the bus or not. It can trace your child’s movements from the time they leave school until they arrive at your door and keep this information private for your use only unless a school administrator searches the system.
Telematics can be wired into the electronics of every school bus. Telematic school bus GPS tracking can monitor fuel use, driver safety, engine performance, and even tire pressure. School bus GPS tracking can help schools reduce fuel costs, catch mechanical problems early before they require costly repairs, and weed out drivers with unsafe driving habits. And when the unthinkable happens and a school bus crashes, school bus GPS tracking can pinpoint the location of the bus for emergency personnel, generate lists of students who were on the bus and students who have already been dropped off, and produce a record of the bus’s movements just before the accident.
School bus GPS tracking can do contract tracing. It can help schools deliver breakfasts and lunches during shut-downs, holidays, and summer break. It increases engagement with parents and drives satisfaction with schools.
School Bus GPS Tracking Isn’t a Do-It-Yourself Proposition
No matter how knowledgeable and talented your school’s IT manager may be, installing a school bus GPS tracking system isn’t a project school districts should plan to do in-house.
Most school buses come with factory-installed GPS, but telematic systems require more sensors and more communication ports. Installing additional GPS tracking without voiding the warranty on the school bus requires expert knowledge by the installer.
The information available from school bus GPS tracking is only meaningful if it can be accessed at a glance. Your school will need the ability to track particular buses and individual students at a glance through a phone or laptop app. You will need Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.
School bus GPS tracking isn’t just about remote monitoring. It is also about remote control. Your school bus GPS monitoring system should give you the ability to start a school bus remotely, shut off the engine of a school bus remotely, and monitor all school bus systems, the engine, electrical, brakes, and tires.
School bus GPS tracking should create meaningful data for school administrators’ decision making. It should tie into existing accounting and management systems for meaningful budget inputs and credible performance monitoring.
And school bus GPS monitoring should help schools identify their heroes. School bus drivers spend as much time with individual students as most of their teachers. School bus drivers influence young lives, and devoted school bus drivers deserve recognition.
GPS Technologies Has the Experience and Expertise Your School District Needs for School Bus GPS Tracking
There aren’t any one-size-fits-all solutions for school bus GPS tracking.
Rolling out a school bus GPS tracking program for your entire district requires fact-based choices of GPS technology, school bus maintenance, user experience of the app for parents, user experience of the tracking system for administration, and sensitive decision-making that supports the needs of all kinds of families.
School districts need a vendor who “has done this before.” School districts rolling out GPS school bus tracking need GPS Technologies.
GPS Technologies is here to help you find the GPS tracking and control solutions that best meet your needs. Contact us online or call us for a free quote at (847) 382-5107 8am-5pm, Mon-Fri CST.