Efficiency Tips for Transportation

Transcription

1 Efficiency Tips for Transportation P R E S E N T E D BY F I D E L A E. H I N O J O S A B. A., M.ED., C S R M, RTSBA C O O R D I N A T O R F O R S C H O O L SAFETY & B U S D R I V E R T R A I N I N G S E R V I C E S

2 PURPOSE The purpose of this presentation is to provide tips (suggestions and recommendations) on how to get started on evaluating your transportation operations in order to improve its overall performance as you provide transportation services to district students.

3 SUPPORT REASSURANCE In our continued effort to support our districts, we are always ready to help you review and evaluate your Transportation Department, and make recommendations for improved efficiency and effectiveness based on those findings. If interested please contact Mr. Tony Lara, Region One ESC-Deputy Director at ( ).

4 Tighter Budgets While tighter budgets are forcing many districts to re-evaluate spending, there s simply no substitute or value that can be placed on the safety and well-being of your students. That s why transportation software is designed to help you efficiently and cost-effectively manage your day-to-day transportation needs so you safely transport students to and from their educational programs on time and on budget.

5 Automation vs. Manual Have you ever tried to evaluate the transportation department for efficiency? Lets take a glance at a time-consuming review the manual way!!!

6 Action Plan #1 Data Collection Identify department staff by position Collect Turn-by-Turn Bus Route Descriptions Collect Bus Depreciation Schedule along with all other vehicles used to transport students Collect Bus Accident Data for current and previous three years

7 Action Plan #1 Data Collection (cont d) Collect Transportation Staff Training Documentation (Agenda/Sign-in Sheets) Department/Employee Handbook, Policies and Procedures Manual Written policies governing the issuance of field trip assignments

8 Action Plan #1 Data Collection (cont d) Collect copy of hiring procedures Does the district have a daily guarantee system for bus drivers? School Bell Times (Starting & Ending) Collect a copy of the school board adopted Hazardous areas/routes Collect a list of buses retrofitted with emission controls

9 Action Plan #1 Data Collection (cont d) Collect written inventory control procedures Collect reconciled inventory reports How often are they reconciled? Collect reports on full accounting process to verify odometers and miles per gallon usage

10 Action Plan #1 Data Collection (cont d) Collect map for current parking configuration for evaluation (hazards) Evaluate school-loading areas for adequate, safe bus loading zones Extra-curricular activity reimbursement rate adopted Collect your state transportation reports for the previous three years

11 Action Plan #2 Data Evaluation What does all this data mean? How do I compare to other local districts? Am I over staffed? Do we maximize capacity utilization on individual bus runs? (ridership vs. capacity) Does our eligibility criteria policy need to be reviewed? (bus stop locations)

12 Action Plan #2 Data Evaluation(cont d) How much will we save if we implement the 2-mile radius rule? What is our linear density compared to actual cost? Based on the data review am I able to cut down/combine bus routes?

13 Action Plan #3 Considerations How efficient is your office staff? Are personnel reductions possible? Routing and Scheduling Is there any redundancy? Are all routes required? Evaluation of ridership per bus, walk to stop, student ride time and bell time restrictions

14 Action Plan #3 Considerations (cont d) Does the age of your fleet impact M&O operations? Are there enough spare buses to allow normal daily operations? How long are your routes? Is payroll data collection automated?

15 Action Plan #3 Considerations (cont d) How are trips assigned? How do you minimize field trip impact on regular route service? How do you minimize overtime generated by field trips? How do you recover trip expenses?

16 Task on Hand!!! Where can I cut expenditures?

17 Routing Automation Systems The power of routing automation system goes well beyond a school bus routing software it s a complete student transportation management solution for school districts of all sizes. Routing Automation Systems help you with tasks like efficient route building, field trip scheduling, fleet maintenance management, GPS data collection, retrieval and utilization as well as 'what-if' scenarios to assist in planning for the future.

18 Automation Systems Versatran Transfinder Other software also available.

19 Some Packages Offered Route Creation & Planning Telematic GPS GPS Vehicle Location Student Tracking Incident Management Field Trip Scheduling Fleet Management Online Information Portal Information Warehouse

20 Key Benefits Routing & Scheduling to ensure that ridership is maintained at all times. This component will help the district determine overall efficiency to ensure that only the correct number of buses and drivers retained based on ridership rather than route. Bell time windows complied with Student ride time evaluated Maximize number of riders per by route Helps to establish walk to stop parameters

21 Helps minimize non-required service Helps manage extra-curricular trips Provides actual maps that can be used to plot students based on PEIMS data. Provides online routing data to administration and parents (bus #, route #, departure times). Monthly ridership rosters can be created and generated for State Transportation Funding.

22 Successful Implementation Qualified Staff!!!! Collaborative Effort!!!! Continual Data Evaluation!!! These are the key component to ensure any software is successfully implemented and utilized to its maximum potential!!!

23 Questions Interested in learning more about the Region One ESC School Safety Project, contact: Fidela E. Hinojosa Region One ESC - Safe Transport Project 1900 W. Schunior Edinburg, Texas (956) fhinojosa@esc1.net

24 Pete A. Gonzalez Jr. ROUTE COORDINATOR PHARR SAN JUAN-ALAMO ISD.

25 Been in the Transportation Business since October Started at Weslaco ISD as a school bus driver. Worked with Laidlaw Transit for a year in Weslaco as Dispatcher. Moved to Pharr-San Juan Alamo in March 1999

26 Transportation Automation Routing Software District Purchased Routing Software in March 2007 Started working on Software April 2007 Map installed was outdated map information was obtained from County Started updating map June 2007 Depart hired a Data Entry Clerk to assist with Software Jan

27 Transportation Automation Routing Software Feb training was given on setting up and how to operate the software. March 2008 to June 2008 went out in the field street by street, block by block, updating street names and house numbers. June 2008 student import was done. Out of 28,000 plus students an estimated 24,000 were unlocated. Student addresses information had errors or incorrect Started working to correcting the problem with Admin. and school campuses.

28 Transportation Automation Routing Software June 2008 started creating school bus routes. Launched routing software August 2008 for the first time. Made adjustments as needed to the software. As to date adjustments are still done.

29 Transportation Automation Routing Software - Benefits More control of your school bus routes More efficient school bus routes Know where to the student locations are to build more efficient routes. The ability to produce turn by turn route descriptions for state reporting. The ability to produce school bus count rosters.

30 Transportation Automation Routing Software Benefits cont. The ability to print out an area map or a route description of a bus route for your drivers.

31 Transportation Automation Routing Software Onscreen Demonstration