For many districts, onboard video camera systems represent an excellent solution to many school bus security issues. With video cameras, you can keep a close eye on the behavior of students and drivers, while always having footage available if there are disputes between drivers, students, and\or parents. That said, video cameras can create problems of their own, particularly if students or parents are concerned about privacy. Having a clear policy outlining best practices for use of the cameras will go a long way towards preventing these problems ..read more

Due to the amount of competition involved in winning bids from school bus transportation programs, contractors must provide services that give them an advantage over competitors. GPS vehicle tracking and bus routing software offer benefits that manually creating bus routes simply cannot.  ..read more

If you are investigating the possibility of upgrading your bus fleet to use alternative fuel systems, you have a lot of choices. Green fuels can potentially lower the emissions of your school buses, which in turn can reduce school bus maintenance costs; but that depends on which emissions they reduce. Often, buyers focus solely on NOx (nitrogen oxide) but there’s more to the story than that ..read more

Timing is everything when it comes to new investments. After all, there's no time like the present crisis to get approval for projects you've needed for months ..read more

It’s a situation bus drivers have seen countless times: They bring the bus to a stop, extend the stop-arm, begin to let students disembark – only to see a car behind them ignore the stop sign and speed past. Every time this happens, children are endangered, and estimates are that it happens millions of times a year in America. There’s one tactic which has shown promise in cutting down on this trend: stop-arm cameras. Much like stoplight cameras, these can capture the details of cars which disregard the bus’s stop sign, sending automated tickets to violators. Tests performed in districts with ..read more

To outsource or not to outsource? For decades, this has been a pressing question which student bus transportation coordinators have wrestled with. A recent study by The Mackinac Center for Public Policy looked at outsourcing by school districts in several states, including Pennsylvania. They found some interesting distinctions that made Pennsylvania a special case for school bus contracting ..read more

Are you having much luck hiring new school bus drivers? If you're like many districts around the country, this is a constant source of frustration. The bus driver shortage shows no signs of abating, with some outlets even referring to it as "the new norm." To get qualified drivers into your district, you need to be creative about your recruitment techniques - but without sacrificing any quality in your hires. We've got some suggestions for how to do just that ..read more

 One of the cornerstones of a proper school bus safety training program is an emphasis on the "Danger Zone." That is, the area immediately surrounding the school bus where children could be in danger of being hit by other cars - or the bus itself - and are potentially hidden by the bus's blind spots. Drivers must understand the threat represented by the Danger Zone, and be thoroughly trained on how to minimize the actual danger to their students ..read more

Many parents are shocked when they discover their school district does not use up-to-date fleet management techniques for creating school bus routes. Parents assume their children board the same bus every day, but this is sometimes not true when districts don’t use route management systems ..read more

As difficult and frustrating as city driving can be in an automobile, the problems are multiplied when driving a school bus. Buses can be up to 45 feet long, which makes maneuvering them around city corners a real challenge. Plus, with a full load of passengers on board, it’s easy for school bus drivers to become stressed out, which can diminish their effectiveness in an emergency. The challenges your drivers face are going to be largely particular to your city. However, with proper training, there are certain strategies which will help mitigate the chances of problems while on city streets ..read more