Cloud-based GPS monitored school bus management system ensures student safety

Trigent's quality deliverables nearly eliminated crashes, helping boost customer retention to an all-time high. Their managers adhere to strict guidelines to ensure top-notch deliverables and ease logistical concerns. They're adaptable, seamlessly integrating new developers or features as requested.

About the clientISV offering real-time remote monitoring geo-enabled school bus management system.

The client is a technology company, providing state-of-the-art, safe, and secure transportation solutions related to student safety, compliance, and fleet management. Their solutions ensure unparalleled safety and convenience for school children, peace of mind for parents, and operational control for school administrators through real-time location monitoring and tracking of school buses.

The comprehensively designed remotely operated and administered system ensures the safety and security of more than 2 million school children. The software enables the management of several school buses at hundreds of different school districts across the United States. Their web and mobile applications manage and oversee over 14,000 school buses to ensure a safe commute for school children.

Business needCapture a significant share in the $14 billion public school bus services industry by introducing innovative solutions

School administrators face a major responsibility of ensuring convenient and secure commutes for students. They are accountable to parents who expect the school bus system to work glitch-free. While parents and administrators supervise the school and home environments, it is not the same when students are on their way to school. It is this need that prompted the client to think of a comprehensive digital solution that was cost-effective and convenient to use for school administrators and provided the much-needed assurance parents were expecting.

The client realized the gap in the market due to the lack of a sound school bus management system providing adequate child safety and security features. The client envisaged a remotely managed, geo-enabled real-time monitoring system for school buses to capitalize on the unmet potential market demand.

The new software would provide a dependable and affordable school bus tracking system for all school districts. The new digital system would enable the monitoring of buses to make the school bus-riding experience a safer, and more convenient process for students and parents.

The key features of the new advanced solution were as follows:

• Monitoring and governing school bus movement
• Getting real-time updates of student's bus location
• Screening students as they board and deboard to prevent them from getting onto the wrong bus or getting off at the wrong stop
• Providing real-time updates to parents, administrators, and drivers

The system is intelligent enough to predict the expected time of arrival of the bus at their stops and present real-time location of the bus and its progress. The system alerts parents about breakdowns and alternate buses when used.

Trigent solutionEnabled the client to quickly launch an innovative product to capture a majority share in a growing market

Trigent's technology team collaborated with the client's product team to build a great product by carefully studying the requirement and evaluating it against the competition and future needs. Based on its assessment, the tech team then suggested technology interventions to introduce and upgrade features that would significantly improve safety and convenience for students using the school bus system.

Trigent followed the agile development methodology to ensure a faster time to market of the product. The two-week sprint cycle ensured that the development and updates of new features were carried out at pace to complement the web and mobile app solution to comprehensively monitor and regulate the school bus movement through the different pick-up points, the various schools, and the depot.

The solution had 3 components

• A purpose built app on a custom android tablet for the bus driver
• A web and mobile app for school administrators to monitor and regulate school bus movement
• A mobile app on both Android and iOS for the parents to keep track of students’ riding the buses

Features available in the Android app configured on the custom-built device on school buses:

• Voice prompts for navigation, route, and pickup and drops
• Displays border's name and photo at each stop
• RFID and/or barcode scanning of ID cards to register the entry and exit of students
• Notifies the driver about students that require assistance to board or exit the bus
• Works offline (without an Internet connection)
• Pre-configured and tamper-proof
• A completely automated system for maintenance and monitoring that includes app upgrades, latest data sync up, connection to network Bluetooth & GPS, to name a few
• The devices automatically shut down, a short while after the engine is turned off
• High bandwidth or data-intensive operations are done at a predefined schedule via wi-fi when the buses are at the depot

Feature benefits for parents using the Android or iOS mobile app

• Real-time location of the bus on the app
• The exact time of arrival of the bus is given for every location, thereby reducing wait time
• Instant notifications and banners to notify about bus breakdowns, alternate bus assigned, route change, or any other exigency
• Ready reference to verify swipe in and out time of their child
• Online support for complaints and suggestions

Features on the mobile and web app for school administrators

• Real-time location tracking of all school buses
• Real-time monitor in case of route deviations
• Monitoring driver check-in and check-out
• Ability to allocate alternate school buses in case of an exigency
• Alerting admins on overspeeding by bus drivers

Client benefits

• Over 40% business growth each year for the last 3 years
• Secure 2 million students across 3,500 schools
• Expansion from 2 to 62 school districts
• Eliminated unnecessary wait time at bus stops for 45,000 happy parents