Keeping track of students at all times, that's the goal of the North Little Rock School District. That's why GPS technology has been installed in sixty-five buses. Now, not only can dispatchers track the buses, parents can now find out exactly where their child is.
With the new GPS technology, dispatchers can track the whereabouts of sixty-five of its buses every two minutes. Using the Xora GPS Time Track Software, for the first time, North Little Rock Transportation Director John Haynie can pinpoint where all of his buses are, not to mention the whereabouts of the five-thousand students who ride the bus in a matter of seconds.
The GPS software runs on cell phones that have been hardmounted to the dashboard of the bus. "With the events of 911 and some of the things that have come out lately about security on buses, the fact that they are considered soft targets. Also, people may com in and get an empty bus, drive it off, and fill it with explosives, we needed a way to track buses," said John Haynie.
Before the GPS software, Haynie says pinpointing the exact street the buses were on was impossible. "We couldn't say we knew where they were. We were dependent on one supervisor who's out trying to cover sixty-five to seventy-five buses, he couldn't possibly be at all those locations," said John Haynie.
Judy Babb, is the grandmother of eight, who says the technology will help her stop worrying. "I am so proud that they have done this for our children, and making us feel so much more secure," said Judy Babb.
The Xora GPS Technology is costing the district about $40,000 a year. They say it's money well spent, considering they can track the buses nationwide. John Haynie and his team, check the Xora maps at least twenty times a day, but are just now beginning to scratch the surface on the technology capabilities.
Soon, they'll be able to use the 'Geo-Fence feature' which will alert them whenever a bus travels outside a prescribed area.
