Benefits of using GPS Technology in School Buses

Vinod Kakumanu
March 30, 2019, 5:29 p.m.

With the network of schools widening and the priority attached to education by parents overriding considerations attached to contingencies like distance from the school, making available conveyance facilities have become primary for all school managements, bar none. Transportation is a daily commitment to be fulfilled and requires mobilization of buses or lighter vehicles.

It is to state the obvious that the conveyance for the children ought to have infallible safety protocols. There used to be standards for collective security that standardized the speed and burden of the buses besides the vehicular condition and comfort. Now, the question of individual safety of the students has also come to the fore and it has to be addressed by the aid of the technology.

School transportation is subject to the traffic conditions of the city and sometimes it becomes expedient to deviate from the fix route; this is just one instance where the Global Positioning System equipment allays misgivings besides making the conveyance centrally administered and accountable.

It is fundamentally important to have the school’s vehicular traffic on the radar and it has been acknowledged by the boards of education as evident from the mandates issued to the affiliated schools.

Parents, invariably, are concerned about the safety of their children while they commute and several measures were employed by the schools to ensure order and safety in the transporting vehicle which included allotment of a member of staff to each vehicle besides attesting the reliability of the driver and the conductor of the vehicle. Remote monitoring of the vehicle en route has its obvious value when scores of vehicles are on the move within the same time frame and thus, the GPS technology is the intelligent addition to the inventory of school conveyance that facilitates management and manifolds its efficiency.

Companies have launched many electronic devices especially GPS system equipment which is helping out the school leaders to maintain the student's safety.

This GPS device can especially be installed in school buses and the movements can be tracked from the control room in the school. It’s easy to install and also advanced in technology, and minimal manpower is involved in the entire usage cycle of the device.

Centralized and optimally supervised school transportation system is proven to make the incumbent drivers and the conductors more responsible and accountable. This directly helps in reducing the risk of mishaps that occur due to lapses in judgement of the one behind the wheel or the one monitoring entry and exit.

Schools in the cities with substantial volume of traffic have adopted the GPS technology more readily than the schools in the smaller cities or townships. The installation of a GPS system must not be seen as superfluous by the school management in smaller cities with less voluminous or marginal traffic. The use of the GPS device is a security imperative now and it must be seen as such. The hardware required for the central monitoring of the school vehicles must also be installed in the school not any later than the inception of the school itself.

The confidence of the parents must never be betrayed and child security must never be jeopardized. An institution unmindful of the safety and security of the children is unsustainable and grossly unethical.

GPS is among the final touches in rendering the school transportation fool proof and it finally precludes the possibility of lapses in the entire scenario of children’s conveyance.