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By Greg Bartlett

Back-to-school season is upon us, which means it’s time once again to pull out the list of supplies your district says every kid needs. 24-color crayon set? Check. Appropriately glitzy notebook cover? Check. GPS tracking system installed in the bus your kid rides on? Check.

We all know how prevalent GPS tracking systems have become in the past decade. Wherever there is something of value, businesses will eventually find a cost-effective solution to track it. So it’s no surprise to find more and more school districts having GPS units ride along with school children each day. Most counties are eligible to apply for national grants which allow them to purchase fleet-wide systems that can effectively monitor the location of each bus in real time.

Just this month, the Polk County School District in Florida used a $100,000 grant to implement a system combining GPS and biometric scanning data to keep track of every student on a bus anywhere in the area. Other more popular GPS tracking systems simply employ student ID cards scanned inside the bus to allow parents to check departure and arrival times for their kids. Sometimes interior cameras are included for extra security, as well as cell-phone boosters and other helpful gear.

IC-Bus Corp helped spur the movement to increase bus security back in 2006 when it pledged to integrate GPS units in all of its future models. These specially-designed GPS tracking systems would feed data from every part of the vehicle to satellites real time, allowing dispatchers to monitor any maintenance issues, or even discern the nature of damage in the event of an accident. Having this information allows first responders to quickly determine any serious dangers in a damaged bus and get kids to safety.

Of course, most school districts find bus replacement and maintenance to be one of the most expensive items in the annual budget, so many employ vehicles older than the kids riding them. In these cases, installed GPS tracking systems are the best solution, allowing an appropriate peace of mind to parents left waiting at the bus stop. Johnny may lose his pencil case sometime during the day, but there’s no way his parents are losing him.

Certainly, bus fleets represent just one notable example of all the vehicles in this economy that transport valuable cargo. GPS systems are less expensive than ever, and businesses are finding that their customers appreciate the added assurance and security that an effectively implemented fleet management system provides.