SEATLLE, Wash. — While school buses are the safest way to transport children to school, children are lost every year after missing the bus or exiting at the wrong stop. Zonar’s new ZPass+ provides parents a new level of comfort and assurance through instant notifications when their child boards and exits the school bus.
Zonar, provider of electronic fleet inspection, tracking and operations technology, designed ZPass+ to coincide with its award-winning, patented ZPass™ solution. With ZPass, students are issued a unique RFID identification card. As the student passes the ZPass reader upon boarding and exiting the bus, the time, date and location are transmitted to a secure database.
ZPass integrates with Zonar’s HD-GPS technology that captures data in four dimensions including latitude, longitude, time, and speed at every data collection point. This provides administrators with a clear view of the bus’ path, each stop and start, and even the time, date, and location at which the door was opened. School districts access the vehicle and ridership data via a secure web browser connection to ensure the safety of bus-riding students.
ZPass+ now provides specific student rider information to parents through a password protected website. After setting up an account, parents can create notification preferences by cell phone text message and email. Freeport School District #145 in Freeport, IL was part of a pilot program for ZPass+ and is offering the service to parents.
“ZPass+ is an excellent tool for parents. Calls to the transportation department are no longer necessary, because parents have that information on their cell phones,” said Dallas Rackow, director of transportation for Freeport School District. “Student ridership tracking with ZPass provides us with a level of security and confidence we didn’t know was possible. It has eliminated the anxiety associated with locating a child that didn’t get off the bus.”
This new technology is especially useful for children walking to and from a bus stop and for special needs children. Parents can now better coordinate pick up and drop off knowing precisely when the bus has arrived.
Earlier in 2011, ZPass was recognized with the internationally known Edison Best New Product Award in the Innovative Services for Health, Wellness and Safety category. “We are excited to extend the information and value provided through ZPass to parents with the new ZPass+,” said Chris Oliver, Zonar’s V.P. of Sales & Marketing. “Throughout the past decade, Zonar has innovated technology to increase fleet safety and efficiency. ZPass+ is a significant milestone as parents not only have greater peace-of-mind, but can also use the information to more efficiently coordinate their child’s school transportation.”
Parents can access ZPass+ only if the school district offers the program. When a school participates, parents visit www.zpassplus.com to set up an account using their child’s ZPass card number.
