SOTI supports RollCall to deliver real-time student tracking of school bus systems

Students' safety and well-being are at the forefront of all schools' policies and procedures in today's challenging environment. New online systems designed with the safety of children at the heart assist schools and bus companies with duty-of-care, service quality, route optimisation and School Bus Tracking, working to bring peace of mind to both parents and teachers in today's 'hybrid' educational system.

Leading mobile and IoT device management solutions provider, SOTI, is working with RollCall to deliver its advanced bus management system, giving real-time tracking of every aspect of the school bus system for 200 schools and 1,000 vehicles.

"Harnessing the latest technology to manage the movements of children on and off buses during daily commutes and school excursions, safety is delivered through visibility – something that RollCall prides itself on delivering to parents, school staff and bus drivers. The RollCall solution is now employed widely across Australia. It helps to optimise route planning and improve bus utilisation for schools and bus companies and automates the duty of care for school transport," says RollCall, CEO, Craig McIntyre.

RollCall's mapping technology brings school bus route planning into the digital world. Bus stops are created using verified real addresses; then, by simply dragging and dropping stops into routes, schools can create large networks very quickly.

With RollCall, students use near-field communication (NFC) technology, either tokens or smart cards, that they touch on and off the Nokia Android device at the front of their bus. The device features a full manifest screen display showing the driver the locations where they must stop, who is due to get on or off the bus, and the scheduled times of these stops. In addition, the scanning of the student's NFC technology sends data to the parents and school staff, so they have total transparency throughout the entire transport journey.

As a student taps onto a bus using the RollCall system, schools and bus companies are also instantly updated through a cloud admin application, where fares are applied and manifests are filled so that staff can see exactly which students are on their way to school.

"To successfully manage and support the RollCall technology, it is essential that there is visibility of all aspects of the process, including the devices on which the RollCall platform is deployed. The RollCall solution also needs to be deployed remotely, and training and support for drivers can be conducted in the same manner," says SOTI, APAC VP of sales, Michael Dyson.

Deploying, managing, updating and supporting a solution like RollCall is made possible by implementing SOTI MobiControl. The ability to appropriately configure or 'lock down' devices to meet users' needs and customise the look and feel of the device for simple and efficient operation have been key.

Most of the RollCall deployments are completed remotely, which was especially important during the pandemic. SOTI has enabled remote training sessions for drivers, and RollCall can remotely monitor the drivers using the new units. In addition, RollCall now has complete visibility of all devices, and the RollCall technology can be deployed remotely.

The remote deployment, demonstration and training capabilities enabled by SOTI MobiControl, have reduced travel and associated costs for RollCall significantly while improving efficiency, user adoption and reducing the number of manual processes. Support costs over the same period have also been reduced by using SOTI's remote control technology, enabling swift and effective incident resolution and minimising the need for device replacement and onsite visits.

"With an ever-increasing number of schools and bus companies using the RollCall solution, we simply could not operate without SOTI MobiControl and the ability it provides us to deploy, secure and update our solution and to remotely support users across Australia," adds Craig.