The best way to make your school system’s buses are as safe and efficient as possible is through careful route planning. Optimal routes will save time and money, and keep your students safe. But even with considerable planning, it’s important to audit your routes and monitor them on a frequent basis.
You need insights to how your routes are performing relative to the planned routes. Are your bus drivers following the routes as designed? Did the bus get to its stop on time, and not early or late? Did it make all the stops it was supposed to, or were stops added? Did the bus arrive at the school on time? Synovia’s Comparative Analysis tool allows transportation managers to review the route planning with the actual results.
Comparative Analysis tracks key performance indicators like arrival time at school, missed stops, extra stops made, and punctuality so you know how your drivers are doing, and can determine why vehicle routing problems occur. It matches your planned routes to the actual data on both a macro and micro level. For any district, Comparative Analysis can give you a percentage of buses running on time to gauge your overall fleet. And it gives you the ability to drill down to look at specific schools, specific routes, etc. to make adjustments.
A transportation director can even monitor buses in real time. With live updates, a route’s current status is always available with an ETA on individual stops and arrival at the school. With the Yard Monitor, you know when buses enter and leave the parking lot so you know as early as possible if a bus is late or a driver is a no-show, and can take the appropriate action.
Comparative Analysis provides you with the facts to deal with issues such as a missed bus. Rather than having to take a driver’s word against that of a parent claiming the bus didn’t stop for their child, a transportation director can go to the data to see exactly what happened, and defuse conflict before it starts. Historical data can be provided to tell the parent when the best time would be for their child to get to their stop.
Routing adjustments are made to help you optimize your routes and improve your fleet metrics. Is a driver taking 20 miles to drive a 10-mile route because of problems with traffic in the area? Is it driver error? Is the driver avoiding dangerous intersections? Now you have the data to compare what’s supposed to be happening with what is happening, and whether changes need to be made to the plan.
The best transportation plan is the one that’s safe for passengers and drivers, provides convenient service for students and parents, and saves the district money. With Comparative Analysis and accurate real-time data and insights, that plan can become reality.
