Plan ahead to act fast during school bus emergencies.

Prepare to respond swiftly with real-time fleet data.

What’s harder than planning for an emergency onboard a school bus? Explaining why you didn’t.

Student transportation fleets face a growing number of external threats. Transportation managers need detailed, daily operational data to respond to any incident at a moment’s notice—be it a bus off-route, disoriented driver, highway breakdown or active shooter.

Increase your chance to protect students with real-time, online visibility into everyday fleet operations. Download our complimentary white paper, In case of emergency, be informed and act fast, for more about using smart fleet management and mobility solutions to prepare your fleet to respond swiftly with real-time fleet data.

Respond with agility, insight and information.

Crisis planning that includes modern smart fleet management and mobility solutions enables everyone involved in responding to make smart decisions when it matters most.

• Locate each bus online to quickly determine where the emergency is and send help.
• Remotely deploy and reroute buses for evacuations, avoiding danger, and supporting emergency operations (as required).
• Account for students still on board, at any moment, for faster response and more confident reunification.
• Support emergency responders’ assessment, planning and action strategies by providing critical information such as bus locations and rider manifests.

Communicate directly with parents more easily.

Keep families up to date and reduce their reliance on word of mouth. Include a flexible, parent-facing app for bus tracking in everyday fleet operations as well as your contingency plan. Mitigate the influx of incoming phone calls and strain on your communication channels. Also reduce the risk of anxious parents and families swarming schools or chasing buses.

Plan, practice, repeat.

Anticipating every contingency is impossible. Instead, focus on modernizing your fleet management technologies and include them in your emergency planning.

And regularly practice with drivers and students using age-appropriate scenarios. Heads aren’t always clear when under intense pressure. Regular, consistent practice will help the brain kick in during emergencies.

Prevent as many on-board emergencies as realistically possible.

Emergency planning and emergency prevention go hand-in-hand. While you assess what smart fleet solutions enable swift crisis response, also look at what additional solutions will help prevent emergencies in the first place.

Time for your next step.

Districts and school transportation departments without real-time fleet visibility and information are less agile, especially during emergencies. Download our complimentary white paper, In case of emergency, be informed and act fast, for more about using smart fleet management and mobility solutions to prepare your fleet to respond with real-time fleet information.

• Check vehicle inspection records to investigate (or rule out) possible causes.
• Add layers of student safeguards such as digital, stop-by-stop rider verification.
• Maintain safe routes using geofences and alerts.
• Extend ridership tracking technology to the buildings to determine who’s in which room.
• Enhance driver crisis training so they firmly understand how to use the tools and tech to respond.

When you’re done reading, schedule your complimentary consultation with our team of dedicated safety & compliance experts. They’ll work with you to review your plan and identify any opportunities for updating your plan with the right fleet tech.