SEATTLE — Zonar, the leader in smart fleet technology, today announced an exclusive partnership with BusPatrol, a safety tech company with the most deployed stop-arm enforcement program in America.
This exclusive partnership enables schools and districts in states with approved stop-arm camera legislation to equip their bus fleets with the latest in school bus safety and efficiency technologies from both companies at no cost. Communities can improve student safety with no capital outlay by implementing BusPatrol’s seamless stop-arm enforcement program.
Stop-arm Camera
According to the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS), the more than 17 million school bus stop-arm violations in the U.S. throughout a 180-day school year in 2019 represented a two million violation increase from 2018, with over 95,000 occurring in one day. In response, a growing number of states are allowing cameras to be placed on the outside of school buses to record illegal passing in an attempt to catch violators.
BusPatrol’s mission is to reduce stop-arm violations and change the driving culture. Stop-arm enforcement programs are being implemented nationwide where the stop-arm violation ticket processing, maintenance and program management is handled by BusPatrol, all at no cost to a school. In addition, with no capital outlay, schools and districts can now benefit from Zonar’s telematics and smart fleet technology and additional BusPatrol safety tech for school buses. This is made possible through BusPatrol’s enforcement program that re-invests fines paid by violators to cover equipment, installation, service, and management costs.
“Despite the fact that students are safer riding to and from school on a bus, we are still at the mercy of drivers who violate the law. That’s why BusPatrol’s partnership is so important to Zonar, school districts and communities,” said H. Kevin Mest, senior vice president of passenger services at Zonar. “Together, we provide a full suite of solutions that includes smart fleet management, fleet health, student visibility, and full stop-arm enforcement to reduce illegal passing, better ensure student safety and give parents and school officials peace of mind.”
To get started, school transportation departments can choose from two custom, turn-key packages: SafeTech Student and SafeTech Complete. While the SafeTech Complete package includes four additional products for school bus safety and efficiency —Samsung Galaxy Tab Active 2 tablet, Zonar Coach, Verify and Advanced Diagnostics—both packages outfit school bus fleets with safety technology by BusPatrol and Zonar to make each vehicle and student rider safer.
“BusPatrol’s stop-arm enforcement program enables fines issued to motorists who illegally pass school buses to fund the costs of the technology. This offsets any costs to schools, school boards, bus operators or municipalities and extra funds can be used for additional safety initiatives,” said Jean Souliere, chief executive officer at BusPatrol. “BusPatrol also educates communities to reduce stop-arm violations. Ninety-eight percent of violators who get a ticket do not receive a second one, and because of that, we know the program works. Safeguarding student lives and creating a culture of awareness and responsibility for drivers is our mission.”
For more information on Zonar and BusPatrol packages, please visit www.zonarsystems.com/buspatrol.
About Zonar
Founded in 2001, Zonar has pioneered smart fleet management solutions throughout vocational, pupil, mass transit and commercial trucking industries. Zonar’s mission is to enhance the safety, performance and success of our customers by transforming the delivery of innovative insights for commercial fleets around the world. Zonar achieves this by helping fleets of all sizes maximize the use of their assets with solutions dedicated to improving compliance, efficiency, maintenance, ridership visibility, safety and tracking. Cloud-based services with open APIs drive Zonar’s smart fleet solutions by making it easy for fleet owners and managers to stay connected to their fleets and drivers and operators to dispatch. Headquartered in Seattle and majority-owned by technology company Continental, Zonar also has a Technology Development Center in downtown Seattle, a regional office in Cincinnati, and a distribution center outside of Atlanta. For more information about Zonar, go to www.zonarsystems.com.
About BusPatrol
BusPatrol’s mission is to reduce stop-arm violations and make the journey to and from school safer. BusPatrol deploys school bus stop-arm cameras and safety technology and manages all aspects of automated stop-arm violation reduction programs. BusPatrol has the most deployed school bus stop-arm camera safety technology in North America. For more information about BusPatrol, go to www.buspatrol.com.
