Rossville Consolidated School District

School bus tracking took this small but mighty district from “where?” to “there.”

Rossville Consolidated School District (Rossville Schools) is small and primarily rural. They have one school building, less than a dozen drivers, and their 10 school buses transport fewer than 400 students.

It was a crisp spring morning, and the buses were making their rounds, halfway through their routes, when a sudden, urgent voice crackled over the radio. “He’s on my bus! He’s on my bus!”

Dr. Jim Hanna immediately recognized the voice as one of his drivers. But the message was vague. Who’s on the bus? Where? With no further details, the situation was as chilling as it was uncertain.

In that moment, it was clear: The district needed a better way to respond to emergencies.

That call sparked a district-wide push for real-time GPS tracking and a modern fleet management system; tools essential for student safety and rapid crisis response.

Zonar GPS fit this small district’s big need.

Each Rossville Schools bus route is roughly 18 miles long, round trip. And each run takes about an hour.

Dr. Hanna recently participated in a Zonar webinar, in which he shares how our fleet management and real-time tracking give him more control over his fleet’s operations. And in some surprising ways.

• Know precisely where each bus is located.
• Track current trip and see previous runs.
• Strengthen student safety and driver support.

“Zonar gives me the breadcrumb trail and the path,” says Dr. Hanna. “I can see where that bus went.”

Now playing: The entire fleet.

Zonar Ground Traffic Control stays up on the office big screen. Everyone in the office sees bus locations, movements, speeds and activities by looking.

• Enhance student safety with precision, real-time location and movement.
• Track the school buses and activity from start to finish.
• Raise service reliability with clear accountability and communication.
• Stay in the know with geofences and notifications on a variety of events.

Unlike the phone call that started this story, the district’s school buses are now equipped with Zonar GPS and telematics technology. District staff know each vehicle’s exact location and activity, in real time and at any given moment.

Dr. Hanna remembers seeing a substitute driver take a wrong turn. Before the lost driver called for help, Dr. Hanna knew what to do.

• Look at bus’s location in Ground Traffic Control.
• Send backup to the next stop to finish service.
• Direct the lost substitute back on course.

Learn how Rossville Schools uses Zonar to hold stop-arm violators accountable. Watch the webinar

Geofences keep eyes on each bus 24/7.

With the district’s fleet being fewer than 10 vehicles, some drivers park their school bus at home instead of a dedicated yard. Creating geofences in Ground Traffic Control for these homes helps staff track the district’s dispersed fleet and ensure reliability.

• Confirm drivers start routes on time.
• Verify off-hours driving, such as field trips.

Same goes for the school building and grounds, and for the local mechanic’s shop that services the school buses.

• Monitor bus arrivals and departures.
• See which buses are in for repairs and service.

Today’s answers lay in the past (trips).

Calls about unsafe bus driving are taken seriously. When someone calls about a speeding school bus, GPS tracking and vehicle trip histories in Ground Traffic Control determine the truth.

• Set up temporary zones to see which vehicles traveled in that zone.
• See who was associated with that driver tablet—and therefore behind the wheel.
• Respond to callers appropriately, showing that you monitor your fleet.

Either way, Rossville Schools staff have the insights to address issues and exonerate their drivers. In one case, Dr. Hanna proved his driver was innocent of colliding with a resident’s mailbox, and saved liability costs. Watch the webinar for that story.

I/O, I/O, it’s off to school, on time, we go.

Zonar telematics captures vehicle I/O data. When a caller reported that the Rossville Schools driver failed to stop at their house, Dr. Hanna looked up the vehicle’s trip details and saw that in addition to being on time, “my bus shows that it stopped at 7:28. They opened the door, they closed the door and the lights were activated.”

He adds, “If I had a radio system, I wouldn’t be able to do that because I don’t have the breadcrumbs.”

Two clicks and they knew where to send help.

When a student experienced a medical emergency on a school bus, office staff identified the bus’s exact location with two clicks in Ground Traffic Control.

• Pinpoint the bus’s exact location faster.
• Free the driver to focus on the student.
• Identify and send closest backup for the other riders, faster.

Any time they need, staff gives the backup driver directions by visually tracking real-time bus locations on a map view in Ground Traffic Control.

Fuel is money. Notifications save both.

Rossville Schools set up idling notifications in Ground Traffic Control to alert office staff when a bus idles beyond a certain threshold. These notifications help Dr. Hanna discover causes for and mitigate the amount of unnecessary idling.

Sometimes the idling is due to driver performance. And sometimes it’s not.

One January, Rossville Schools had a two-hour delay due to freezing temperatures. Dr. Hanna received a Zonar notification that the bus had been idling for eight minutes at 6:30 a.m. instead of the delayed time, 8:30 a.m. In calling the driver, Dr. Hanna found out the driver hadn’t received notice of the delay.

That Zonar idling notification helped prevent the driver from starting an empty run. Saved time, fuel and wear-and-tear on the bus.

Healthy buses stay that way.

Zonar EVIR inspections have helped Rossville keep their school buses healthy for 10 years—and counting.

• Inspection tags are placed in designated zones on the vehicle.
• Drivers physically visit each zone and scan the tag with their Zonar tablet.
• When they’re done, drivers upload the results to Ground Traffic Control for online review.

Office staff review EVIR results for what was found and reported, and when it was repaired. They have a reliable, digital documentation to support their efforts in maintaining a safe, healthy, reliable fleet

On their Zonar tablets, drivers also see which defects were found during previous inspections. And when those defects were repaired.

Drivers verify: no student on board.

No one wants a student left on the bus. Required post-trip student checks are part of each driver’s post-trip inspections.

Each school bus has a puck installed inside, at the back. Drivers are required to scan that puck with their Zonar tablet to verify they checked and did not see any student still onboard.

Each inspection zone has a date and time stamp for when it was inspected. This includes the post-trip child check. If there’s a mistake and a student is left on board, staff know whom to hold accountable.

Learn more, plus a bit more.

Rossville Schools is small, which means this district has found its own way of putting real-time GPS to work solving challenges student transportation fleets of all sizes face.

Watch Dr. Hanna tell his district’s story to hear more about what they do, how they do it, and how well it works.

• Protect service reliability and on-time performance.
• Exonerate drivers and reduce liability.
• Identify dangerous conditions to avoid.
• Adjust routes on the fly, as needed.
• Ensure required inspections are performed.