More than 60,000 school buses nationwide are being outfitted with state-of-the-art RFID inspection systems, GPS tracking and Web-based fleet operations and management applications to improve student safety. That was the announcement today from the largest school bus operator in North America and its technology provider.

For the last decade, Zonar Systems has provided the school transportation industry with its EVIR Inspection System, which allows bus drivers to walk around the bus and use a hand-held device to scan necessary areas of the vehicle during school district-required pre- and post-trip safety inspections. Now, every school bus owned and operated by First Student, an arm of FirstGroup North America, will have the technology.

In addition, First Student is receiving Zonar's V2J Vehicle Diagnostic Device, a GPS tool for tracking and managing bus assets and transmitting real-time vehicle data. The school buses are also receiving the Ground Traffic Control product that allows a transportation department to manage its fleet and view inspection reports, monitor maintenance repairs and receive GPS vehicle information via the Internet.

“We have been working with Zonar over the last six years, first as a pilot customer, then as a full-service solutions provider,” said Gary Catapano, senior vice president of safety for First Student. “Zonar has proven itself to be a valuable partner, providing a unique solution that enables us to support our primary business objective of delivering the highest level of safety and security to our customers and the four million students we transport to and from school each day.”

First Student transports about 4 million school children each day

Zonar is one of only three company's recognized by NAPT with the association's "Recommended Product" program. Requirements for recognition include the product being tested and approved by the NAPT board.

“Zonar products and services are used by NAPT members across the broad spectrum of fleet size," said Mike Martin, executive director of NAPT. "The need for timely, accurate, useful and manageable data is the same whether you are an extremely large service provider like First Student or a small school district."

Transportation solutions company Velociti headquartered in Kansas City is performing the installations at each First Student location, a Zonar spokesman confirmed. Work began this month, the first 9,000 buses were expectedto be completed by mid-August.