Once considered a means to modify student behavior, at best, or capture proof of unruly conduct, onboard video systems are delivering a gold mine of data. Still, as more school districts and transportation contractors have employed video systems in recent years, the challenge for many has been how to efficiently and effectively use that captured information.
Rob Scott, vice president of sales and marketing at 247 Securities, Inc., acknowledged the drawback of early generation systems still in use by thousands of districts across the country, namely their reliance on systems that require personnel to physically board the bus to retrieve video.
“Someone has to go out to the bus in the yard, pull the hard drive, review the video and then maybe create a video clip. Depending on the system, they have to get that clip onto a disc or a flash drive and then transport it to another place,” Scott said. “All that takes human resources, time and money. Then the person on the other end has to have the knowledge and tools to open it up and use it. That’s been going on for years.”
Curtiss Routh, vice president of sales at REI, said several years ago, video experts began realizing that physically pulling hard drives from school buses was becoming an outdated solution because of the increased pressure on schools to respond quickly to accusations and incidents.
As a result, “The demand for our Wi-Fi DVRs and A.R.M.O.R. software has grown tenfold over the last 18 months as schools see the value in a lot based Wi-Fi solution for their fleet,” he added.
Routh stated the upfront cost to a school in setting up a lot-based, Wi-Fi system and procurement of Wi-Fi-ready DVRs is quickly offset by increased employee efficiency and response time when important events occur.
“Because REI engineers our systems to be backward compatible, our customer base can make a smaller investment than their peers to upgrade current systems to a wireless solution,” Routh said. “While a lot-based, Wi-Fi solution speeds up video retrieval and sharing, that’s only a small part of what a lot-based solution can do for a school district.”
He indicated the company’s software can also evaluate driver behavior and actual driving abilities because the system interfaces with the engine diagnostics. “Our goal at REI is to provide a DVR and wireless system wherein schools have a single source for all the information they need to run an efficient fleet and respond to important events as they occur,” Routh said. “Even if a school is not ready to fund a lot based Wi-Fi application today, I would recommend purchasing Wi-Fi enabled DVRs on any upcoming orders. This will save a school a lot of money when the funds are available to go wireless in the coming years.”
The Brainerd Independent School District in Minnesota and Cook-Illinois, a school bus contractor with roughly 2,200 vehicles in the Chicago area, are just two entities that still rely on hard-drive technology. Brainerd transportation director, Kala Henkensiefken and Cook-Illinois Chief Operating Officer John Benish, Jr., touted the virtues of their video systems, but agreed that their current operating procedures add to the amount of time and labor it takes to review video.
“I can’t wait for the day we can go wireless. We’ve talked about it, but it becomes a funding issue,” Henkensiefken said. “Our building principals would really like it because they could download video without leaving their desk. Right now, I go to them or they come to us.”
Benish noted that new technology “is light years ahead and more reliable,” but contractors need to make sure the equipment becomes obsolete.
“When we buy equipment we expect to run it for a minimum of seven years,” he said. “It’s not us that pays; it’s the district…We have to pass our costs along.”
When the time comes to purchase new equipment, Henkensiefken said the district’s IT staff will be involved because “they are the experts and they can help ask some of those questions that I might not think about.”
Wireless Management
Benish, Scott and Henkensiefken all recalled the earliest days of bus video, when a metal box containing a camera and video cassette recorder would be shuffled from vehicle to vehicle. Starting about five years ago, Scott said the industry began to undertake a wireless revolution.
Scott said his sales team recently talked about the increasing interest from customers in state-of-the-art systems because “more and more people have a wireless management system, they know it works and there are advantages to it.”
Wireless management systems allow access by approved personnel who are located virtually anywhere because data is stored in the cloud or a local network. “Someone can access the software, if they’re authorized, type in a few key strokes and the video will come back to them,” Scott added. “It’s a lot less labor intensive.”
Scott acknowledged districts and contractors often feel forced to opt for systems with less upfront costs, but he encouraged consideration of total vehicle-cost analysis when purchasing equipment. “Places with (large fleets) will employ a person or two to do nothing but manage video. If they employ a wireless management system like ours, they can dramatically reduce that cost,” he said. “Districts and contractors will now find that the cost of a wireless management system is less than they may think.”
Transportation Director Carlos Chicas led the push to install video systems in the Capistrano Unified School District’s entire active fleet of 130-plus buses when he arrived at California’s eighth-largest district two years ago. He said went through the same process four years earlier at the Stockton Unified School District in northern California, where cameras were instrumental in thwarting two major legal issues.
When a driver attempted to fondle a student on a bus, Chicas said, the district was able to act immediately. “We had footage, so the situation did not progress and get worse. We were able to get the authorities involved and get rid of that person. I don’t know how you do it without video,” he said.
Chicas also cited the incident involving a probationary driver whose bus was rear ended one morning. At the time, the driver reported no injuries and no damage to the bus. Later in the day, however, the driver complained of back pains attributed to the incident in an attempt to file a worker’s compensation claim. A review of the video indicated the driver and students had barely noticed the impact.
“We contacted our risk management people. A copy of the video was sent to the physician and the claim was denied,” Chicas said, who uses a system developed and maintained by Seon. “Needless to say, we did not hire that person when the probation was over. (The video system) more than paid for itself because we would have hired a person who had filed multiple worker’s comp claims in the past and would have been a problem down the line.”
Scott, meanwhile, told of an incident in which a child was struck by a car and, miraculously, was uninjured. When asked by his parents and police why he cut across the front of the bus and into the path of the oncoming car, the child said the bus driver signaled him to do so. Facing the possibility of a costly lawsuit, the district was able to present video evidence that showed the driver’s hands never left the steering wheel.
“We have video sent to us all the time and people say, ‘Your system saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars,’” Scott said.
How Much Is Enough?
Benish said Cook-Illinois uses a variety of video systems, but prefers vendors with a proven track record. While he said he does see video as an especially useful tool for driver audits because it eliminates the need for the auditor to ride along, he added that it’s challenging for student transportation departments to keep up with the increasing amount of technology, meet society’s demands for iron-clad evidence and absorb the accompanying price tag.
“I say our name should almost be the Cook-Illinois School Bus and Video Company. A child goes to school six or seven hours a day and there’s no video in the classroom. Yet, they’re on the bus 30 minutes and we have to have video,” Benish said. “I’ve been driving 25 years and in the family business a lot longer. It used to be that I could pull into school, say ‘Bobby and Mary got in a fight’ and they’d take my word for it. Now, your word as a driver is no good, So, it almost has to be on video. In that sense, the camera is an advocate for the driver.”
He added that, “The question is, how many cameras are enough? It used to be one, then two, then three or four, then outside the bus and then back-up cameras. That’s great, but is society willing to pay for all that? Then you’ve got to catalog the video. It’s gotten out of hand and it’s gotten expensive.”
Henkensiefken said Brainerd ISD uses the video to perform spot checks on drivers, but she added, “I’ll be honest, watching video takes time and it isn’t always easy to dedicate hours a day to watching it.”
Henkensiefken said video benefits all students and drivers, but especially Individualized Education Program students and the drivers who transport them. “We may take a look at that video and realize that a driver or bus assistant needs additional training. You can’t blame the driver or assistant if we haven’t given them the training they need and video sometimes helps us realize we need to do more training,” she said.
The Brainerd district also performs spot checks of bus video and reviews specific incidents when a parent, teacher, administrator or driver calls attention to an incident or issue. “Video has been a big help when we get bullying reports. We’re able to resolve them quickly because everything is documented on bus reports,” Henkensiefken said.
The experts agree video coverage of an entire fleet is essential to earning driver and parental support. Meanwhile, Chicas said it’s impossible to predict when an event is going to happen, not to mention what incidents require documentation. “Equal coverage is fair to all drivers and accomplishes the goal of getting data from every unit,” Chicas said. “If an incident arises on a bus not equipped with a camera, parents are going to ask why their child’s bus wasn’t covered.”
Chicas added that he views a video system as a “tool for behavior influence.”
“We all know we’re accountable while we’re being paid on the job, but if someone is leaning toward cutting corners or being loosey-goosey about performance, this tool often helps them get on the right side,” Chicas said. “High-performing employees don’t even notice cameras and for those who are somewhere in the middle, it does improve their performance.”
Chicas also emphasized situations in which video documents exemplary actions by drivers, such as noticing a radiator leak that prompted a bus evacuation. “It captured on tape how super-efficient the driver was and (how the driver) followed all the right procedures,” Chicas said. “It works both ways and more often than not, it works in the driver’s favor.”
He continued, “Our first and foremost priority is to protect the kids, but we’re here for our employees to protect them from false accusations, too. An accusation may be proven false but the stigma stays with you. It is so unfair when someone is accused and they’re completely innocent. Having video can protect the kids, but it’s a good thing for everyone…Video has become almost a given, not a luxury.”
