Baltimore Chooses a Wireless Application

Just in time for the new school year, Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS) is installing a turn-key automatic vehicle location system on more than 300 special needs school buses.

The AVL system provided by Radio Satellite Integrators Inc. (RSI) combines global positioning and wireless communications and is fully integrated with the Trapeze Software’s Mapnet routing application already owned by the district. Transportation officials will be able to tap into real-time data from the vehicles such as the location and speed of the buses and the time the vehicle stopped, said Brett Lim, director of marketing. The system will also include bar code readers that the driver will swipe from a manifest list for each corresponding student getting on or off the bus.

“Each technology has strengths but when put together they leverage significant additional value for the district,” said Clint Rooley, director of school sales for Trapeze.
With software specifically designed for special need operations, the system has a live dashboard to monitor planned routes on a daily basis and includes a dispatch screen that will integrate the AVL and student data supplied by RSI to monitor bus performance in real time.

Beyond the compatibility of the system with Trapeze, BCPSS found RSI provides a system that will accommodate planned upgrades and enhancements such as same-day route changes, two-way communication, streaming video and emergency response, said director of transportation Don Swift.

“We needed the ability to generate operational and service reports detailing vehicle and driver performance, safety and ridership audits,” he said. “These routes had to be customizable.”

The integration of systems is “a true breakthrough in technology for school districts,” Rooley said, noting increased efficiencies, real-time tracking, and detailed safety applications.

“RSI and Trapeze are leading the way in the deployment of these technologies, and Baltimore City Schools is showing the vision to use them,” he said.

Source: School Transportation News, October 2006. All rights reserved.