Belvedere school implement driver behaviour monitoring on their bus fleet
Posted on 7 December 2024 in General
Belvedere school caters for learners with mild to moderate mental disabilities in Benoni, Johannesburg.
The majority of their learners come from previously disadvantage areas like Daveton, Vosloorus and Reigerpark on the East Rand. The school subsidies 40% of their learners, this also includes bus subsidies, and less than 50% of their learners’ parents are in a position to afford school fees.
Even though poverty is not a new condition in South Africa, conditions of poverty may negatively impact a student's social and academic performance. Combine this with a disability, and some everyday social difficulties such as transport availability, which some of these students face, the situation becomes overwhelming.
One of Belvedere’s third party transportation suppliers recently closed down business, and the school has been forced to empower themselves by acquiring and managing their own fleet of school busses. More than 140 students, who come from far and wide, rely heavily on the availability of these bus services to get to Belvedere and back, daily.
Ctrack South Africa stepped in and sponsored Belvedere school a comprehensive vehicle tracking, fleet management solution, not only to track the location of their busses, but allows further visibility to manage time efficiently and show complete driver behaviour which monitors acceleration, harsh braking, harsh cornering, over-speeding as well as harsh bumps and excessive idling.
With the solution in place for more than six weeks the school’s Principle, Hannes du Plessis commented on the benefits this solution holds for the school: “Improving safety was our main objective and this new system sponsored by Ctrack gives us online visibility of our school busses, on a map, and enable us to monitor the driving habits and behaviour of our school bus drivers. The information that is provided by the Ctrack system helps the school proactively improve the safety of transporting our children to and from school. We are able to give feedback to our drivers in real-time on their driving styles as well let parents know the whereabouts of the busses if they should call.”
With over 12,000 kilometres of driver behaviour tracked since its inception 6 weeks ago, it is apparent that these monitoring features allow Belvedere the ability to manage and control their small fleet of school busses, either from their smart phones or from the school’s computers. Cost savings in fuel and maintenance cost is a further benefit, but most importantly, it allows for an “always visible” culture on the safety and location of their learners. Belvedere has already seen an improvement in driver behaviour and can proactively engage their drivers to nurture a culture of saver driving.
This increased accountability for the school is a small step towards the greater goal to genuinely increase academic proficiency in learners with disabilities and cultural or linguistic differences.