Five Ways a School Bus Tracking App Can Help in an Emergency

Whenever the news reports on a major incident involving a school bus, it's hard not to think "What if that happened to us?" News of a bus emergency is excellent for reflecting on the district's own training and response policies. Would the bus driver know how to handle the situation on their own? How long would it even take for the transportation office to know there was a problem at all?

If you are concerned about response times and overall emergency response effectiveness, it might be time to consider a school bus tracking app. GPS-based tracking systems significantly improve emergency response, and can greatly increase the chances of an emergency resolving in a positive manner.

Five Ways a School Bus Tracking App Helps in Emergencies

1. At-A-Glance Oversight of Your Bus Routes

There's no need to ever wonder if everything is all right with your buses when you're tracking them on a map. GPS tracking systems give you real-time updates on the location of every bus, so you can quickly see whether anything is amiss.

2. Programmable Alerts

Since the school bus tracking app is operating in real time, and is accurate within a few feet, you can set it up to alert you if anything odd happens. If the bus suddenly stops, or it deviates from its route, or its speed becomes erratic, you'll know within seconds of it happening.  

That greatly cuts down response time.

3. Improved Communications

Most GPS systems and school bus tracking apps include communications features as well. These are fully digital, being transmitted over data channels. That makes them more reliable and better-sounding than radio sets. This redundancy in communication channels could make a difference, if something has happened to damage the cab.

4. Faster Routing of Emergency Vehicles

If your district is in an area with a lot of rural territory, the ability to precisely plot a bus's location can potentially save lives. There's no guesswork involved in figuring out the bus's location. You know exactly where it is, within a couple meters, and you can relay that information to emergency response vehicles.

5. Keep Parents in the Loop

Dealing with parent calls about delayed buses is always a chore, but a school bus tracking app makes it easier because you can give them more accurate information. Or, you could even make the app available to parents, so they can look up the location of their child's bus for themselves. That cuts down on distracting calls to the office which clog up phones lines!

BusBoss can help you deploy both GPS units and the school bus tracking app needed to integrate them into your software. Contact us to learn more!