b'Supersized TechnologyKatrina Falk of Shelby Eastern School Corporation near Indianapolis uses GPS technology to verify the districts school bus routing actually works in the real world.In many cases, the technology is newly installed, anding phase of getting students accustomed to using the the buying process started with GPS as the bedrockbadges. Because our No. 1 priority is safety, we had to acquisition. track students and know where they are getting on and John Wilcots, general manager of transportation at theoff the buses, he added.Houston Independent School District in Texas, overseesWilcots said a second factor to contend with is the the transportation of more than 25,000 students daily.software back end. He said the large size of Houstons He has an 850-bus fleet that travels 830 routes, whichtransportation program made it a challenge in the past makes it the largest operation in the state. Wilcots saidto know true ridership numbers.his GPS software, which is provided by Zonar, enhancesWe have a big magnet program, so we wanted to safety and helps identify his student riders. know how many of our riders are magnet students and We have two functionalities, Wilcots began. First, wehow many students live outside the two-mile radius of can use Electronic Vehicle Inspection Reporting (EVIR)their campus, which [then] qualifies them for ridership, for pre-trip and post-trip inspections. And we have Z-PassWilcots explained. We are also able to identify students for student badging. The badges were implemented lastin high risk areas, such as construction zones and free-year, so we have no strong data now to report. way areas with obstructions on the walk paths.According to Wilcots, the district is still in the dat- Wilcots pointed out that exceptions to the two-mile 54School Transportation NewsSEPTEMBER 2019'