Webfleet has done exactly what we hoped. It provides us with crucial data to communicate with parents about the safety of their children.

The Company

The Company

Kentwood Public Schools Department of Transportation provides safe daily transportation for 6,100 students via 48 school buses.

The Challenge

The Challenge

The transport of ‘precious cargo’ is an awesome responsibility Kentwood’s Department of Transportation takes very seriously. Our priority is the safety of Kentwood’s students. When parents entrust us with that responsibility, we need a way to communicate where their children are, and who they are with during that 10-15-minute bus ride, says Todd Bell, Executive Director of Finance and Operations at Kentwood Public Schools.

hile Kentwood Public Schools knew it operated safely, it had no data to show parents. Transportation of students was not tracked and staff couldn’t easily answer questions about the location of buses and passengers.

The Solution

The Solution

In the fall of 2018, Bell sat down with managed IT provider Moss to brainstorm a solution. The answer – implement Webfleet, a robust fleet tracking solution to provide the school’s transportation office with precise, near real-time knowledge of bus and passenger locations and fleet safety performance.

The full solution provided to Kentwood Public Schools includes:

• LINK 530 for GPS-enabled vehicle tracking;
• PRO 8275M TRUCK for turn-by-turn route navigation plus built-in camera support;
• OptiDrive 360 for driver behavior monitoring;
• Input/output cables for bus light integration;
• Integration with school district mapping system and student information system (SIS)

Phase one, implemented for the Winter 2019 semester, focused on GPS tracking and driver familiarization with the Webfleet system. A new flat screen monitor installed in the Department of Transportation’s renovated offices allowed staff to visualize the position of buses on a map of the district and quickly and easily respond to parent inquiries.

Phase two, which went live with the start of the 2019 school year, incorporates route navigation and driver behavior notifications.

Integration with the school district’s mapping system pushes routes to drivers via Webfleet. Input/output cables and onboard cameras allow staff to correlate stops with bus light activations and capture video of route locations. This information assures parents that stops (pickups and drop-offs) are performed as scheduled. OptiDrive 360 provides drivers with in-the-moment feedback and predictive driving advice.

In just one semester, Webfleet was able to demonstrate Kentwood Department of Transportation operates a safe and responsible fleet. There were no speeding events and no harsh braking incidents recorded. The school board was able to cut $35,000 in fuel costs from its expenses by optimizing bus routes. Says Bell, We spend $380,000 annually in diesel fuel. If we can bring that down we can put those resources into the classroom. He also expects to see additional cost savings in vehicle maintenance and tire wear. When you have 48 buses each with 6 tires and those tires cost $600 each, the savings can add up fast.

Webfleet is so user friendly. The mapping is obvious and the graphics are perfect, says Bell. It’s been a wonderful tool and it has done exactly what we hoped it would do. It provides us with crucial data to communicate with parents about the safety and well-being of their children.

Kentwood Public Schools found the perfect fleet management solution with these components¹:

LINK

Track real-time vehicle location & driving behavior.

PRO Driver Terminals

PRO Driver Terminals help your drivers avoid traffic and arrive on time. They also feature job workflow management, working hour regis­tration and much more.

Webfleet

Everything you need to manage your vehicles and workforce on the road.

Build the right fleet management solution for you in seconds