Adams 12 Five Star Schools
Customer Spotlight
Adams 12 Five Star School District Uses Zonar Smart Fleet Management Technology to Overhaul School Bus Operations and Student Experience.
Adams 12 Five Star School District is located just north of Denver, Colorado. The district serves 43,000 students in the five communities of Broomfield, Federal Heights, Northglenn, Thornton, Westminster and unincorporated Adams County.
Similar to many school districts, Adams 12 was under pressure to identify and implement new cost-cutting measures. For Director of Transportation, Dave Anderson, the challenge was to improve routing, compliance, accountability and student ridership tracking while saving money for his school district. Adams 12 had an existing routing system, but it was slow, clunky and required a long time to implement updates. Anderson wanted a solution that integrated and synced daily with their Infinite Campus student system and provided GPS, improved operation efficiencies such as fuel economy and idling, student ridership information, preventative and proactive maintenance and improved compliance.
The solution Anderson chose was a combination of Transfinder routing and Zonar smart fleet technologies. Zonar and Transfinder easily integrate with each other, and Transfinder works in conjunction with the Adams 12 Infinite Campus student information system.
To initiate a three-system solution, Adams 12 began by installing Zonar’s V3 telematics device on each of its buses and Zonar’s Ground Traffic Control web portal. Adams County funded the entire project independently, and it paid for itself after one year.
The Adams12 Solution Includes
Zonar’s Electronic Verified Inspection Reporting (EVIR®) tool for pre-and post-trip inspections. Trip inspections are a required part of a school bus driver’s day, but prior to Zonar, they were paper-based and hard to account for by Adams 12. EVIR has automated the process, eliminated paperwork and ensured consistency of drivers completing inspections. With EVIR, if there is an accident or mechanical issue with a bus there is digitally documented proof of whether a driver complied with CDL pre- and post- trip inspection regulations prior to the issue.
EVIR has also led to a reduction in the number of large repairs on Adams 12 buses because small problems are reported and repaired quickly.
Bus idling tracking. The Zonar solution tracks how long vehicles are idling, the location a vehicle idles and the cost of fuel spent on unnecessary idling. In addition to wanting to save on fuel costs and have a greener fleet, as the director of transportation, Anderson’s focus on idling is also for the purpose of children’s health. He and his team set up geofences in Zonar’s Ground Traffic Control to specifically identify when excessive idling was occurring near schools. With that information, fleet managers could then coach their drivers on how to operate more efficiently.
Predictive and proactive maintenance. Traditionally school bus repairs cost Adams 12 additional time, money and paperwork. But with EVIR inspection data connected to the fleet management repair system, mandatory repairs such as a broken head light are recognized during pre-trip inspections and instantly communicated to the repair shop. Repairs can be completed and new replacement parts can be ordered without any paperwork. With that information, fleet managers could then coach their drivers on how to operate more efficiently.
Route optimization. The Zonar with Transfinder solution at Adams 12 enables remote route management. Location, speed and engine diagnostics for every bus in the fleet are available in real time on Ground Traffic Control. enables a route change, Routefinder Pro, using Zonar GPS information, can easily reroute the bus.
Routefinder Pro can also easily be optimized for variant bus schedules. For example, if a school has staggered start times, optimized routing can configure a route in this scenario to only require a single bus. The Adams 12 routing solutions also integrate seamlessly with the district’s student system, Infinite Campus, so when there are changes to student enrollment and ridership, that information is synced daily and updated with the Routefinder Pro to ensure every bus is routed appropriately.
Driver accountability – With Zonar, Adams 12 can determine a driver’s location and exact speeds compared to the posted speed limit, at any time. This helps hold the drivers and the district accountable because complaints can be followed up directly and precisely.
EVIR gives drivers a digitally-verified record that proves that they completed pre- and post-trip inspections, and that they reported any issues they found.
Student accountability. Adams 12 School District uses Zonar’s Z Pass System. Z Pass improves the safety and security of Adams 12 school bus entered and exited buses. With Z Pass data, Adams 12 can quickly locate location of each scan is logged and transmitted to a secure database for (RFID) that they scan when they get on and off the bus. The time, date and operation by enabling the school to quickly see where and when children students who ride the bus, even if they got on the wrong bus. Adams 12 can also use the historical data to improve routes and overall utilization. With Z Pass, students carry a passive radio frequency identification tag immediate access through Zonar’s Ground Traffic Control. Anderson says that there was an initial learning curve but using the RFID passes has become as second nature to students as remembering to bring their books to school.
