Cutting edge technology is to be installed on New York’s school buses to provide parents and students a new level of transparency and security.
‘Via for Schools’ will bring together automated school bus routing, tracking, and communication in a single platform. This will give parents and students the ability to track, in real-time, their bus’ whereabouts and receive frequent and reliable communications in the event of service changes.
Meanwhile, by utilizing Via’s algorithms to optimize school bus routing, the Department of Education will be able to achieve operational efficiencies and reduce transportation costs. The bespoke bus system is said to be a global first and could be replicated across the world.
The new system has been introduced to address major issues in the school bus network, which operates 9,000 routes serving around 150,000 students. Last September alone, more than 130,000 complaints were lodged, with most relating to punctuality and capacity.
In addition, greater flexibility and adaptability was needed to cope with changes to pupil circumstances in a system where one in ten public school students lives in temporary housing.
Daniel Ramot, co-founder and CEO of Via, said, “We’re thrilled to have an opportunity to further serve the New York community by applying our technology to operate a world-class school bus system.”
