iDreams: Software Solutions Enabling Real-Time And Transparent School Fleet Management
With over 1.5 million schools located across the nation, India’s school bus system is one of the nation’s biggest public transit systems. Manual scheduling of timings and routes can prove to be an arduous task and one dimensional in nature that can be prone to errors. These inconsistent school bus schedules can severely impact the routine leading to frustrated parents, student safety at risk and increased expenditure. School bus managements are under tremendous pressure to ensure a safe and reliable service to school children while simultaneously running the business efficiently thus warranting the increasing implementation of vehicle tracking solutions for school buses. However, it is not an easy task to create effective tiered routes without the right vehicle tracking software in place. As student population keeps expanding or students keep relocating, school bus administrators need a solution that helps keep track of the routes and update them as required. Schools, coordinators and parents alike are on the lookout for a vehicle tracking solution that ensures optimization of the bus routes that reduces costs, assures student safety, provides updated notifications and bus locations and minimizes ride time.Bringing the ideal app that meets every customer requirement is Bangalore headquartered iDreams Software Solutions that has designed and developed an innovative and novel mobile application, WagonTrack. The application has been engineered to track live school vehicles of associated schools on smartphones. This assures that the students, school transport admin, the vehicle fleet and the parents are seamlessly connected via internet enabled smartphones. This is achieved through the utilization of ‘Global Positioning System satellite navigation technology’ for its scheme. “The application was designed with the intent of keeping the students’ school vehicle in the care of parents and school transport admin while on duty,” says Ilyas Akthar, Managing Director, iDreams Software Solutions.
Leveraging Smartphones for Better Connectedness
The easy-to-use and cost-effective solution is a business-to-business application where a school plays a vital role in providing the basic data required to set the solution in motion. This data comprises transport vehicle name, route name, details of the transport staff, commuting route with stop points, direction of onward or return trip and the details of the students who commute at each point with personal data of the parent with a mobile number.
No transport motor vehicle specific hardware installation is needed to use Wagon Track application; a unique feature that makes iDreams stand apart from its competitors in the market. Any working basic Android smart phone with a stable internet connection can be used to navigate through the app. The solution does not demand any costly maintenance of hardware as any workable smart mobile phone can be used for the tracking purpose. In the event of a faulty mobile phone, a substitute smart phone is present on duty with the same login credentials, thus avoiding any transfer of information hindrance that may occur.
Engaging in a Seamless Application Implementation
The company has a cooperative support team to cater to the needs or queries of the transport staff, parents and school admin during working hours. Once the client is onboard and the vital data is procured, the team of technically adept professionals at iDream sets up the mobile application with the amassed raw data and marks the stop points in real-time location with accuracy on field.
Guiding the transport staff through the transition of automating its fleet, the team trains the staff to track the movement of the vehicle, choose trip direction of pickup/drop, mark student attendance, send notifications to the parents/guardian of the approaching vehicle and initiate the trial run. In conjunction with this, the school admin is taught the nuances of the application with the ability to track multiple vehicles at a single go. The admin has the ability to configure routes and stops with stages and pick-up/drop timings and assign student to the selected route. A login setup is
made on the school admin’s computer to gather live reports of any transport data for export in excel sheet for reference, thus providing a holistic view of the entire operations to the school’s chairperson. Once the solution is put in place, the school admin is equipped with the authority to decide on and confirm the various parameters such as the proximity to the stop points or when to initiate vehicle arrival notifications. Transport attendance by onboard staff and confirmation notifications can be done as per the individual school needs. The school admin has the authority to manage complete vehicle information, insurance and RTO details and service history. One can maintain fuel purchase information as well.
Putting Parents at Ease with Real-time Notifications
Aware that parents of the students are also an important stakeholders whose needs are of top priority, the company developed the application where even the parents can login by installing the Wagon Track application to receive transport arrival alerts, transport attendance, confirmation of the student reaching school and also view live vehicle location data of the child along with vehicle and transport staff on the particular bus.
Parents with two or more children studying in the same school can access tracking features with just a single login. Perfectly understanding that there may be possibilities the student missed to board the school vehicle, the application has been designed to assist the parent to track the vehicular movements live and reach out to the vehicle and accomplish boarding. WagonTrack application download links can be shared by the school admin across the school transport staff and parents with just a single click.
Catering to the needs of school administrators, coordinators and parents alike with its broad range of features, the application also offers two of its premium features which are route-wise bulk notification and the ability to mark the student transport attendance even in the absence of internet. The data collated can then be synchronized to the cloud as and when the internet connection is restored.
Assuring Impenetrable Security
The ubiquity of smartphones also increases the susceptibility of sophisticated and financially motivated cyber attacks targeted at acquiring critical data. Putting the apprehensions that the stakeholders may have at ease, iDreams is always on high alert and pays close attention to the possibility of any hacking threats. The team of experts strive to keep its system functional with minimal down time for service upgrades. In addition to this, the team automates regular data backups to prevent any loss of data.
”The application was designed with the intent of keeping the students’ school vehicle in the care of parents and school transport admin while on duty”
Gearing up for the Future
Having carved a niche for itself in this domain, the company envisions to further its progress and is currently working on making WagonTrack automate onboard transport vehicle entry and exit attendance as well as furnish live camera feed to users with valid login and verified vigil authentications. Efforts are being made to monitor and keep a trained eye over the operations in order to check whether the transport vehicle adheres to prefixed route directions and speed limit. Striving to stay ahead of the technology and innovation curve, the team at iDreams is also working on delivering feasible solutions to trigger auto panic alerts in the event of any vehicle commute deviations that may occur. Having worked with a gamut of clients over its tenure, the company aims to increase its footprint and mark its national and international presence in the near future with the goal to continue to ensure superior levels of customer satisfaction.
Wagontrack is an innovative and novel mobile application that has been engineered to track live school vehicles of associated schools on smartphones
Putting Parents at Ease with Real-time Notifications
Aware that parents of the students are also an important stakeholders whose needs are of top priority, the company developed the application where even the parents can login by installing the Wagon Track application to receive transport arrival alerts, transport attendance, confirmation of the student reaching school and also view live vehicle location data of the child along with vehicle and transport staff on the particular bus.
Parents with two or more children studying in the same school can access tracking features with just a single login. Perfectly understanding that there may be possibilities the student missed to board the school vehicle, the application has been designed to assist the parent to track the vehicular movements live and reach out to the vehicle and accomplish boarding. WagonTrack application download links can be shared by the school admin across the school transport staff and parents with just a single click.
Catering to the needs of school administrators, coordinators and parents alike with its broad range of features, the application also offers two of its premium features which are route-wise bulk notification and the ability to mark the student transport attendance even in the absence of internet. The data collated can then be synchronized to the cloud as and when the internet connection is restored.
Assuring Impenetrable Security
The ubiquity of smartphones also increases the susceptibility of sophisticated and financially motivated cyber attacks targeted at acquiring critical data. Putting the apprehensions that the stakeholders may have at ease, iDreams is always on high alert and pays close attention to the possibility of any hacking threats. The team of experts strive to keep its system functional with minimal down time for service upgrades. In addition to this, the team automates regular data backups to prevent any loss of data.
”The application was designed with the intent of keeping the students’ school vehicle in the care of parents and school transport admin while on duty”
Gearing up for the Future
Having carved a niche for itself in this domain, the company envisions to further its progress and is currently working on making WagonTrack automate onboard transport vehicle entry and exit attendance as well as furnish live camera feed to users with valid login and verified vigil authentications. Efforts are being made to monitor and keep a trained eye over the operations in order to check whether the transport vehicle adheres to prefixed route directions and speed limit. Striving to stay ahead of the technology and innovation curve, the team at iDreams is also working on delivering feasible solutions to trigger auto panic alerts in the event of any vehicle commute deviations that may occur. Having worked with a gamut of clients over its tenure, the company aims to increase its footprint and mark its national and international presence in the near future with the goal to continue to ensure superior levels of customer satisfaction.
