Redesigning SCHOOL transportation
THE LARGEST MASS TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM IN THE U.S
Our nation’s schools rely on the iconic but archaic ‘yellow bus’ system which is stuck in the 1930s and extremely expensive to run and maintain. These 500,000+ buses are over 90% diesel fueled, making this the largest mass transportation system in the U.S.
In February 2020, Zūm leveraged its proprietary technology to optimize the daily school routes for Oakland Unified School District in Alameda County, deploying a fleet of right-size vehicles to transport students efficiently while adapting to the dynamic daily needs of its unique student population.
A WORTHY CAUSE
Redesign for equity, access, and opportunity for students
Our nation's existing school bus system is inflexible and unable to meet modern family needs where children may live miles away from school and do not come straight home, but pursue various activities after school. Despite this large school bus system, there are over 6 billion parent driven trips to schools to transport students annually. The world has moved on in many productive ways, but our children are still stuck with a one-hundred year old mobility solution which does not care for family’s evolved needs and a child’s experience. This system assumes it is still acceptable for a child to travel for 60 minutes (the average time spent per trip by a child in the U.S. on a school bus), or for a working mom to cut back on her career to drive her children.
"Our children are still stuck in a one-hundred year old mobility solution which does not care for a family’s evolved needs and a child’s experience."
Zūm is solving this massive problem. We are reinventing how our children move and creating a world where families and schools get flexible and reliable mobility solutions at the right price.
In February 2020, Zūm started a project with Oakland Unified School District in Alameda County to redesign its school transportation system. The district transports over 1,300 students for various needs – home to school, athletics, activities, etc. They also serve students with special needs and individualized education plans that require them to travel outside the district. Oakland historically used a yellow bus system to serve these needs. But, there were routes where buses were underutilized and had less than 15 students, and yet over 70% of students spent over an hour traveling. There was also no way for schools or parents to track their students while on the road and know when the bus would be at the stop and if their child boarded the bus and arrived safely at the school. Teachers often reported that students arrived at school tired from their commutes and early wake-ups, requiring teachers to use valuable class time to calm students and help them to be ready to learn.
Zūm designed and implemented a transportation solution for Oakland which is solving their needs in a unique way. Zūm has optimized its routes and introduced a technology-enabled fleet that utilizes a variety of sizes of transportation–from sedans to SUVs, to vans and school buses. Now, Oakland uses the right size of transportation to move the right group of students, saving district money and families time. Now 97% of students have less than 60 minutes of commute time and 50% less than 20 minutes.
"Students with special needs... now arrive at school within 20 minutes, prepared to learn."
REFLECTIONS
A unique approach to benefit many
What’s unique about this project is how a public and private entity have worked together to revolutionize a 100-year old industry that is moving millions of students across the US every single day. It has created a smart transportation system which is flexible, sustainable, connected and efficient. It’s a system that makes schools and enrichment activities accessible to address all the physical, emotional and special needs that our children may have. Together we are enabling our children to pursue their dreams and potential without having to worry about how they will get from here to there.
"It's a system that makes schools and enrichment activities accessible to address all the physical, emotional and special needs that our children may have."
This project also simplifies the lives of busy families. It’s created one seamless system that meets the needs of a child across their entire day, both in and out of school. Kids’ lives are no longer simple. They no longer just attend a local school and return home. They now have highly orchestrated lives that combine multiple schools, programs and support systems to meet their needs and interests. Parents can now use the same Zūm system they’re using for school transportation, for mobility outside of school. They use one mobile app to track all their child’s movements.
Finally, specialized transportation is vitally important for our most vulnerable populations. With Zūm, Oakland Unified’s special needs and at-risk children can now safely and reliably arrive at school and access specialized learning programs. They can move easily in and out of the district, and arrive ready to learn. As a society we’ve done a great job creating an array of programs to meet just about any need a child may have. But, the limiting factor has been whether the child, family and school can find a way to bring the opportunity and child together. By solving transportation, we are expanding educational opportunities for those most in need.
Transportation has also become personalized where students with special needs can be picked up from their doorstep and driven to school, without the stigma of the short yellow bus. Students now arrive at school within 20 minutes, prepared to learn. This solution is also flexible and caters to dynamic requirements such as dropping students off at an activity center in the afternoon. And now, schools have dashboards allowing them to track the status of every ride and quickly respond to needs, saving countless administrative hours.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Our redesign is a win-win
Multi-size assets
Zum's approach of multi-size vehicles reduces the need for costly and inefficient "one size fits all" yellow buses.
Optimized routes
Our proprietary technology takes various constraints to ensure commute times are minimized for students and right size of vehicles are deployed on the routes to save districts money
Dynamic updates
Parents are able to cancel their child's ride via the Zum platform, so vehicles do not waste time on a route if a child is absent.
360° degree visibility
A common platform for parents, students, drivers, schools and transportation vendors keeps children safe and stakeholders informed of vehicle locations in real-time.
No need for children to wait in the snow or rain, wondering when their bus will arrive.
Our technology scales to easily onboard new transportation vendors and their existing fleet.
Improved childrens' experience
Our children need to be ready to learn when they arrive at school. Our redesign reduces the anxiety around 'just getting to school' and improves engagement once children are there.
Post COVID-19 friendly
Zum's platform automates the massive task of planning routes for 1,300+ students to accommodate the new realities of our post pandemic world.
Staggered shifts and bell schedules, providing socially distanced safe seating, contact tracing and day-to-day symptom management through Zum's mobile app are made possible by our flexible platform and solution.
We are excited to extend our redesign of the Yellow School Bus system to over 50 million children across the United States