State police administrators know all too well the challenges of keeping track of thousands of annual school bus inspections, so recently the Michigan State Police (MSP) created a paperless solution: a Web-based app that stores inspection results.
Provided to schools, contractors, and dealers free of charge, the new app not only organizes inspection results but also includes data-search capabilities. Inspectors can directly enter inspection records into the application using Wi-Fi. The app is also functional offline and stores data until an Internet connection becomes available.
Prior to this, school bus inspection records were hand-written in triplicate forms and filed away for three years. According to the MSP, this often made both retrieving data and tracking repair history a difficult task.
Mike McLaughlin, head of the MSP school bus inspection unit, told STN that the transition to this paperless system has been smooth.
“My inspectors caught on to the new system rather quickly. We are currently in the process of familiarizing and registering school bus operations to switch to the online capability,” he said.
He added that his inspectors immediately saw the advantages of using this program.
“Benefits for the department began day one. Paper work, once overwhelming, dropped to almost zero when it comes to completion, filing, and retention. The cost of the triplicate forms is no longer a budget concern. Organization of data is available with the press of a button,” he said.
Each individual bus is tagged with an identifying bar code, which allows inspectors to quickly and easily enter and retrieve inspection information by scanning the code. McLaughlin confirmed that of the 17,000 school buses statewide, 5,000 are currently equipped with the bar code, and that all will have them by the end of this school year.
In addition to the bar codes, the buses will also have QR codes for parents to view inspection information from their smart phones or tablets.
During an inspection, the inspector confirms a vehicle’s identification information, then scans the bar code to retrieve the necessary information. School buses receive different tags from the inspection that indicate the results: Green means the bus successfully passed, yellow means the bus is safe but requires some repairs within 60 days and red tag means a bus did not pass.
In October 2013, the MSP Vehicle Enforcement began building the Automated School Bus Inspection (ASBI) application. Development took about one year, and was completed in time for the beginning of the 2014-2015 inspection cycle last September.
McLaughlin noted that the response of the school bus industry to this online system has been very positive.
“The industry has been waiting for an electronic inspection form for many years, and has responded positively to the process. They understand that the electronic files are backed up and secure on state servers, therefore available from anywhere there is a network connection. The consistency and transparency of the process is appreciated by the industry as well and the public,” he said.
