WINSTON-SALEM, N.C -- The ride to school looks to be a little less complicated for school bus drivers, and a lot safer for students in Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools. The district has gone high tech with planned upgrades to school buses which helps with navigation.
The school district first debuted 106 GPS tablets on some buses last fall. They worked so well that the buses are now going to get fitted with 300 more tablets to help other drivers get around more efficiently.
"Back in the day we used run sheets, driving and reading the run sheets," said Angela Lockhart who has worked with the school system as a bus driver for 20 years. Up until last year, she and some of her colleagues have run their pick-up and drop-off routes the old-fashioned way.
Often drivers have to consult maps and run sheets to cross-check locations and schedules. School administrators said this became a safety hazard and slowed drivers down. Substitute drivers were most disadvantaged because they were not familiar with the routes they were helping to run.
"It was getting to the point where they were getting later because they didn't know the routes. These tablets will walk them right through it and tell them where to go," said Darrell Taylor, the executive director of transportation for WSFCS. The tablets will also track the drivers' stops and when they clock in and out.
On August 14th, the School Board approved the additional tablets for the school buses bringing the total to 400. They plan to upgrade all 514 buses in the school system with the GPS tablets.
Parents already have the ability to track their children's school bus using a mobile app. The GPS tablets are currently just specifically for navigation, time and attendance and tracking routed stops, but have the capability to be enhanced for additional uses.
"It's very helpful, it will speak to you, you won't have this paper a run sheet to look at, you are focused more on where you are going. It's a great thing to have," added Lockhart.
Meanwhile, school officials are pleading with parents to be, or have someone at the bus stop for children who need to be escorted. Last year, there were more than 3600 students with no one to pick them up at the bus stop. Officials say if this happens, parents will have to pick their child up at the nearest high school.
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