REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – San Bernardino City Unified School District (SBCUSD) has awarded a five-year transportation contract, totaling $79.5 million, to Zum, the leader in modern student transportation. With this decision, the district joins a growing national movement to commit to cleaner, safer and more equitable transportation for students and families.
SBCUSD serves nearly 47,000 students in 72 schools. San Bernardino joins the growing number of innovative school districts that have partnered with Zum, including Los Angeles Unified School District, San Francisco Unified School District, Oakland Unified School District, Metro Nashville Public Schools and Seattle Public Schools.
Benefits of Zum include:
More equitable: Modernizing transportation across the district can address inequalities the current system exacerbates. Students with longer average times on buses report lower grades, fewer social activities and poorer study habits. Because low-income families, children of color and children with special needs are more likely to depend on school buses, they’re disproportionately affected. By selecting Zum, districts are demonstrating their commitment to modernizing student transportation to ensure equity and access for all students.
Safer and more reliable: Zum’s technology is built to keep students safe from the moment they get on the bus until they are back home. Through the Zum app, parents are able to view the complete profile of their child’s driver, along with real-time information about vehicle location and their child’s pickup or drop-off time and status. District administrators and operators are able to track rides in a map view from start to finish, and routes are adjusted in real time to account for absent students or traffic issues. At the same time, drivers are able to preview all students on assigned routes, along with important supplemental information for each student where necessary.
Through Zum’s proprietary safety technology, driver training, and certification program, SafeGuard, all drivers not only meet and exceed all state and federal requirements but also are trained on and required to adhere to specific protocols while picking up or dropping off students and while driving. The Zum platform also ensures timely, secure and centralized reporting to keep everyone appropriately informed.
Cleaner and greener: Transportation is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. As the first and only 100% carbon neutral student transportation company in the U.S., Zum is committed to transitioning school bus fleets to electric vehicles. In fact, through its Net Zero Initiative, the company has already offset 100% of its fleet’s carbon emissions.
“With this decision, San Bernardino will be able to deliver superior service built around the needs of students, families and the teachers, administrators and drivers committed to creating the best educational experience for children,” said Ritu Narayan, founder and CEO at Zum. “Zum is at the forefront of a transformation in student transportation, helping schools move away from a one-size-fits-all approach to safer, greener, more reliable transportation services.”
“San Bernardino City Unified looks forward to adding Zum to our transportation system,” said Marie Espinosa, Director of Transportation, San Bernardino City Unified School District. “Our students deserve the best, and Zum will help us bring a higher level of service to our school community. San Bernardino City Unified School District challenged all of our transportation partners to add real-time communication about the location of buses for parents and invest in a greener fleet that will make neighborhoods along bus routes healthier. Zum was chosen because they met our high expectations.”
Zum offers its drivers competitive pay, flexibility and strong training programs, resulting in excellent job satisfaction overall. Zum’s culture, driver satisfaction and benefits have already helped their partner districts overcome obstacles in the face of a nationwide driver shortage. If you are interested in joining the Zum team, please visit the website here or attend Zum’s upcoming job fair on February 23, 2023 at 10am to 6pm at Hilton Garden Inn San Bernardino (1755 S Waterman Ave, San Bernardino, CA 92408).
A National Movement:
School districts and families across the U.S. are already starting to see the benefits of working with Zum: San Francisco Unified School District is on track to save $15 million over the next five years. In Oakland, the number of students spending more than one hour on a bus has dropped from 70 percent to less than 10 percent.
Zum is available nationwide, serving thousands of schools, including the nation’s second largest school district, Los Angeles Unified School District, across the U.S. For more information, visit: www.ridezum.com.
About Zum:
Zum has reimagined student transportation, the nation’s largest mass transit system. Our robust operations and integrated end-to-end cloud-based platform provides a modern student transportation service for school districts purpose-built around the needs of kids and the expectations of their families. Zūm provides one seamless, real-time interface for parents, drivers, schools, districts, administrators and operators to transport children safely and with increased visibility and personalized care. Always investing in the wellbeing of the communities, Zum is also the only carbon neutral student transportation provider in the nation with plans to go Net Zero with EV transition. Learn more at www.ridezum.com.
