School buses have traditionally been one of the most popular means of transport to and from schools; and for a bunch of different good reasons. And keeping an eye where these school buses are and knowing everything is OK is important. That’s where GPS trackers for school buses come in handy.
Benefits of using school buses
Some of the benefits in transporting students via school buses include:
- parents not having to drive their kids to school themselves
- arrival of students at school on time
- less traffic and pollution on the roads
- safer trips to school and back
Thinking about safety
Although school buses are widely used by the largest percentage of students, some parents may have doubts when considering this way of transport for their kids. That’s due to safety reasons, despite the fact that school buses are quite safe, in general.
Over the last few years, GPS trackers for school buses have been developed with telematics technology. And they are now used in a lot of different schools — or school buses, rather — all over the world. Such systems offer a host of benefits; not only for parents, but for schools as well.
Advantages of GPS trackers for school buses
School bus location
Knowing the real-time location of buses, parents know exactly when to take their kids to the bus stop or be there on time to take them back home. And that’s not the end of it; many tracking services offer very handy features, such as receiving alerts when the bus leaves the school, or if it’s delayed in a traffic jam.
School bus safety
Some tracking services are capable of sending alerts if something unexpected happens during a trip on the school bus. For example, if the bus is involved in a crash, parents can receive alerts about it and get there as soon as possible. The same goes for the educational institution; they can call in an emergency, as quickly as possible.
Better route planning
By using a GPS tracker for school buses, a school — or whoever manages the buses — can see the exact routes the buses follow every day and improve on them. This has many advantages, such as:
- shorter commute time
- more effective routes
- arrival of buses to schools on time
- more fuel-efficient trips
Driver behavior monitoring
A wide variety of fleet tracking devices — or GPS trackers for school buses — offer access to behavioral data regarding bus drivers. Such data can include, but are not limited to:
- the speed of the vehicle
- rapid acceleration
- hard braking
Knowing such facts, the institution can offer safe driving courses to optimize driver behavior; thus making bus trips all the more efficient and much safer. Moreover, they can minimize issues like the use of a school bus without permission and/or fuel theft.
Convenience in trip logging and maintenance scheduling
A lot of GPS trackers will provide features for automatically creating a mileage report; and even exporting it to a readable file. This is very handy; not only for keeping records of bus trips, but also for taxation and deductible expenses. Instead of manually writing down the trips and mileage of each bus, a lot of time can be saved by having your tracking software do it automatically for you. Additionally, if the tracking system shows you facts about the health of the bus, such as Diagnostic Trouble Code (DTC) alerts, you can schedule a repair — or standard maintenance — immediately.
GPS trackers for school buses: they solve problems
As you can understand, a GPS tracker for school buses can solve a host of different problems, increase safety and make the bus operation more efficient. Having such a tool under your belt and giving parents the option to know where the bus carrying their kids is, is a bonus argument against those opposing the use of school buses.
If you’re in the market for such a tracking service we would highly recommend looking for one that provides at least the features aforementioned. And you’ll be managing your fleet of school buses like a pro, in no time!