Zonar’s Pupil Transportation Smart Fleet Solutions Suite Supports Electric Vehicles

Seattle - April 19, 2021 - Zonar the leader in smart fleet technology, today announced that its pupil product solutions are supported on electric school buses. These solutions are currently running on Chesapeake Public School’s Thomas Built Bus Saf-T-Liner C2 Jouley electric vehicle fleet and Zeeland Public School’s Lion Electric school bus fleet. Adapted for electric commercial vehicles, the Zonar V4 telematics system, Electronic Verified Inspection Reporting (EVIR®) system Zonar Access, Zonar Coach, Zonar mobile ecosystem, Zonar tablets, Z Pass, Zonar Verify and support Zonar customers with EV buses.

“With grants available, federal infrastructure initiatives on the horizon and the ongoing push towards greener transportation, we are excited to work with our forward thinking partners and schools on their electric school bus initiatives,” said H. Kevin Mest, senior vice president of passenger services at Zonar. “By getting hands-on experience with the pilots of these buses, we can help ensure that the smart fleet management experience our customers have come to expect on their combustion engine vehicles is seamless for their EVs.”

Data from electric buses is captured in many different ways. The Zonar V4 telematics systems captures EV CAN bus signal data which is then pushed to Ground Traffic Control where the information is easy for fleet managers and dispatchers to review and digest while providing powerful data.

Additionally, Zonar’s electric bus solutions work with data input by the driver from its tablets and over-the-top solutions. With Zonar, drivers have the tools they need to inspect vehicles and communicate with the back office regardless of vehicle type. Zonar’s strong partner ecosystem and existing API integrations enable customers to connect Zonar data with a school transportation department’s other critical business systems.

The Zonar V4 telematics system and web-based portal for transportation departments adding EVs, provides essential operational solutions for customer’s mixed fleets. Zonar its working with its customer-base to add additional EV information:

• Compliance and inspections for EVs
• Fleet vehicle location and EV charge status
• EV power usage
• EV charge locations
• EV charge status
• EV partner portals
• EV analytics

“We’re excited to put our Thomas Built Buses’ Saf-T-Liner C2 Jouley buses to use with onboard technology powered to drive insights into how our district can best utilize electric buses going forward,” said Dr. David Benson, director of transportation at Chesapeake Public Schools. “By partnering with Thomas Built Buses and Zonar we aim to be at the forefront of understanding how to best utilize these vehicles to provide the Chesapeake community a cleaner and greener future.”

“As a long-time Zonar customer, we are thrilled with the easy EV technology integration across our pilot,” said Dave Meeuwsen, transportation director at Zeeland Public Schools. “Zonar is a leader in the school transportation industry and it is without question that we consistently look to its team to ensure our fleet management needs for EVs are met.”

To learn more about Zonar’s EV initiatives, Zonar is attending and presenting at the upcoming virtual Green Bus Summit April 20 – 22, 2021 presented by School Transportation News. Zonar experts will speak at 11:30 PT on April 20th and 11:20 PT on April 21st and will be available to summit attendees.

About Zonar
Founded in 2001, Zonar has pioneered smart fleet management solutions throughout vocational, pupil, mass transit and commercial trucking industries. Zonar’s mission is to enhance the safety, performance and success of our customers by transforming the delivery of innovative insights for commercial fleets around the world. Zonar achieves this by helping fleets of all sizes maximize the use of their assets with solutions dedicated to improving compliance, efficiency, maintenance, ridership visibility, safety and tracking. Cloud-based services with open APIs drive Zonar's smart fleet solutions by making it easy for fleet owners and managers to stay connected to their fleets and drivers and operators to dispatch. Headquartered in Seattle and majority-owned by technology company Continental, Zonar also has a Technology Development Center in downtown Seattle, a regional office in Cincinnati, and a distribution center outside of Atlanta.