School buses to go tech savvy soon

Bhaskar Hazarika

NEW DELHI: School buses will soon have Vehicle Tracking Systems.

Tata Indicom, in association with Tata Motors and Tata Technologies, has developed the solution. The solution helps in tracing the location and movement of the vehicle along with status on engine performance.

“We had introduced this system for the commercial vehicles early this year and it has proved to be successful after a number of vehicle owners opted for it. With its successful implementation on these commercial vehicles, school authorities have also shown interest in it,” Vinayak Deshpande, president - Operations, Tata Teleservices, said.

He said that the solution offers two prime features, with vehicle locator that enables keeping track of the vehicle through the Global Positioning System (GPS). The other feature is the vehicle data recorder that helps monitor driver bahaviour, critical performance and health parameters for the vehicle.

“Additionally, warnings, standard messages reports about the vehicle operations are sent to user mobile phones, which would make the school buses safer,” he added.

He said they are currently testing it on the school buses of some private schools of Delhi, and are soon to install them permanently in those buses after they get the permission from the respective school authorities.

However, speaking about the affordability of the solution, Deshpande said that it is not highly expensive as it could be fitted with the solution during the time of purchasing the vehicle.

“It is as expensive as using a mobile phone as there is a monthly subscription for this solution. The messages report of the vehicle would be sent to the authorities through the messaging service making it secure and safer travel for students from home to school and back home,” he said.