Compared to the consumer car segment, school bus connectivity is cruising in a slower lane, due to cost sensitivity and the need to justify public funding. Connected technologies are showing up in early adopter districts, school bus pilot programs and exploratory partnerships. But as the internet of things, or IoT, takes shapes in cities and on roads, the next five years could put school buses on a fast track into the future.
Bus fleets can age up to a dozen years, putting them in a position for advanced aftermarket products. Over the next decade, there will come more Wi-Fi hot spots, stronger cellular infrastructure and wider bandwidth. All of it is expected to increase the desire for “real-time” information.
For now, it’s spotty. A recent STN survey indicated that many districts are at a pilot stage or early phase for implementing new bus technologies. More than half of the 265 readers who responded reported that they have on-board video surveillance, followed by a third with child reminder systems and a trickling of incident management and location notification systems. Yet many respondents said they have yet to venture into the world connected technology or still operate with legacy systems dating back a decade. One merely had a cell phone.
“Wireless management of video is making the biggest impact. Significant staff time is saved and video is used more regularly, making the investment more productive. Management of data is key to efficiency,” said Robert Scott, vice president of video surveillance and fleet management company 247 Security Inc., which offers Touchdown Wireless Management System to the school bus market.
The list of camera providers and software companies that are expanding their solutions into and fleet management continue to grow, as do the school bus manufacturers that are partnering with them to provide IoT for increased safety and visibility on the bus and of vehicle performance. As an extension, school districts are seeing their options increase for tapping into and testing this connectivity.
Pilot Programs with Eyes
When there’s a watchful eye and data on accountability, road behavior tends to improve. A combination of GPS, camera and video recorders offer a classroom extension to the school bus and improve student behavior during the ride. Technology secures situations outside of the bus, too. School districts that have had enough of vehicles passing stopped school buses are involved in a few pilot projects to collect data on violators and install cameras on stop arms to deter incidents.
In response to a rear-end collision of a stopped school bus that killed two siblings, the state of Michigan has been conducting a pilot program using a Driver Alert Lighting System on the back of school buses to reduce the number of unsafe pass-bys. Michigan State Police will join school transportation directors in reviewing the data this year and school transportation directors to determine next steps in technology installations.
The Deer Valley School District near Phoenix conducted a similar pilot project with equipment from tech vendors to catch pass-by violators in the act. It found that roughly 99 out of 100 people who get tickets never get a second ticket. They learn their lesson. And the number of citations issued goes down after the cameras have been on the buses for a while.
“Photo enforcement programs work. The goal of our programs is to modify driver behavior through the use of technology,” said James Saunders, president and CEO of Redflex, which provides mobile technology and applications in the field.
Next Step Pilot Programs
Other yellow space pilot programs will keep buses rolling toward the inevitable next chapter of mobility—the Internet of Things and Smart Cities. The thinking: Connected services will leverage the Internet and affordable mobile connectivity to improve student and driver safety, reduce operations costs and increase school bus operator efficiencies.
“It is clear that IoT will provide a major impact for the school bus industry going forward. Based on our customers implementation and transition needs, we are well positioned to take a leading role supporting surveillance and fleet management infrastructure that addresses IoT and smart city deployment,” Bill Durno, senior product manager at Seon, which offers a video management Software as a Service (SaaS) in aftermarket and also a full routing system in with its U.S. Computing arm.
The recent investment by Daimler Trucks North America in Zonar points to a long-term preparation for transportation logistics through intelligent connectivity. For the school bus industry, this strategic partnership underlines an evolution of diagnostic, safety and tracking systems integrated into vehicles on the factory floor.
Thomas Built Buses announced an offering called BusWise, a platform of connected school bus technologies, loaded with Zonar offerings such as Z Pass, EVIR and Ground Traffic Control in addition to an enhanced 360-degree camera system around the bus, that manages fleet operations, keeps an on-board eye for safety, and lowers the total cost of ownership of new buses.
“The IoT is the future of the industrialization of school bus transportation. It connects employees, machines, students, and services to streamline the flow of information, enabling real-time decisions to coordinate student drop off and pick up, bus maintenance and routing while tracking efficiencies,” Bill Brinton, cofounder and vice president of pupil transportation at Zonar.
Zonar utilizes pilots during its sales process, allowing school transportation directors to evaluate hardware and software before purchasing units for their fleets.
“It is important when adopting a new technology to ensure that you can see how a product’s capabilities and metrics have an impact on performance. How drivers adapt to new technologies is important too. If drivers are too resistant, the adoption curve just hit a big hiccup,” added Brinton.
