Phone ID on buses

[PROUD MEMBER]

Stopped by the yard today to drop off my medical and was talking to Bobby. He told me there is going to be some kind of new thing on the buses when each child gets on he has to swipe something that automatically lets the board of Ed know that that child is on the bus and if he doesn't have his ID card then you have to program his name in. Each driver has to go into the drivers room every morning and get some kind of phone or something. Maybe Buzz can get the specifics of whatever the hell it is. I see a lot of guys retiring.

[TheKid24]

Stopped by the yard today to drop off my medical and was talking to Bobby. He told me there is going to be some kind of new thing on the buses when each child gets on he has to swipe something that automatically lets the board of Ed know that that child is on the bus and if he doesn't have his ID card then you have to program his name in. Each driver has to go into the drivers room every morning and get some kind of phone or something. Maybe Buzz can get the specifics of whatever the hell it is. I see a lot of guys retiring.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 whatever happened to just driving the bus

[TheKid24]

You know how
Many kids are gonna lose
Their "phones", leave it on the bus

[faceit]

The kids aren't going to have the phones we are they need to carry a identification card to swipe

[Buzz]

Sounds like they're finally implementing the "Via" GPS and routing system. If you recall, somebody from OPT came to one of our safety meeting in the spring of 2019 and told us about this. He sarcastically said, "If any of you were thinking about retiring you're going to want to hold off when you hear this," knowing it wouldn't be very popular.

Via could not be installed in time for the city council's mandate of Sept. 5, 2019 so they temporarily installed the GPS systems we currently have. You know, the one that tells them how many times you've made harsh turns. 

And as PROUD MEMBER said, these units are going to have to be turned in and picked up from the office every day. (He called the units "phones," they look more like tablets from pics I've seen.) Be prepared to stand on line a while. Leave it to OPT to figure out ways to fuck things up even more.

And if that isn't enough, I also learned that schools again are given the choice of changing their session times ... which will certainly fuck up a lot of runs. The first one we know of is IS 72 going from a 1:30 dismissal to 2:20 come September. That alone will fuck up dozens of runs. And there will be more.

Below are some articles that explain the Via system.

https://gothamist.com/news/parents-will-be-able-to-track-nyc-school-buses-with-an-app

https://stnonline.com/news/gps-and-parent-apps-are-coming-to-new-york-city-school-buses/

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/ny-school-bus-gps-20190911-qfryx3svjrdyzkvyrovhme4jvi-story.html

[Buzz]

The kids aren't going to have the phones we are they need to carry a identification card to swipe

Correct.

[PROUD MEMBER]

Hmmm
Stand on line for a tablet. It bad enough for the past year on a few occasions I had to go into the driver's room to get another driver's card for him. Which I didn't mind. I hope he doesn't think I'm waiting on line to get him a tablet!!! Lol
I'm not mentioning any names!!!

[Buzz]

Hmmm
Stand on line for a tablet. It bad enough for the past year on a few occasions I had to go into the driver's room to get another driver's card for him. Which I didn't mind. I hope he doesn't think I'm waiting on line to get him a tablet!!! Lol
I'm not mentioning any names!!!

LOL ... no sense both standing there.   

[TheKid24]

They had us return to the yard after our AM run to have these things installed. Guy was supposed to be there at 8AM, he showed up at 9:45 🤦🏻‍♂️. They also installed the charging stations for the phones

[TheKid24]

And it begins

[Buzz]

What are we looking at here?

What did he put in your bus?

Why did the driver have to be there?

[Buzz]

OK ... another driver explained to me that the box in the top picture that you posted is what the phones go into each night to be charged. It is located where the trip card racks used to be. (Apparently a shelf or table has been built for these charging units.)  The card racks have been moved to the hallway that leads to the back door. (Cluster fuck #1)

He sent me this picture of what gets installed in buses, minus the phone that goes in the holder in the picture. I heard that even the people installing them, sent by the DOE, said they're not going to last.

[TheKid24]

What are we looking at here?

What did he put in your bus?

Why did the driver have to be there?

I put photos up if you actually click the topic thread on the home page of this topic

[Buzz]

I put photos up if you actually click the topic thread on the home page of this topic

How else would I have posted my questions?

[TheKid24]

Gotta return after my AM for training on this thing....paper says we gotta sign in to
Claim our routes every AM/PM 🤦🏻‍♂️ Some new technology real time route GPS