What's Under the Hood Matters
The safe transportation of our students depends not only on our team members but on the reliability of the vehicles we operate. Onboard vehicle technology, safety and compliance systems, routing and scheduling programs, and fleet maintenance software are all innovations that we have invested heavily in over the years to ensure we are providing the safest service possible when transporting our students.
We are dedicated to providing our customers with maximum vehicle safety and reliability through the strict adherence of our preventive maintenance program, and ensure all vehicles will be maintained in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommended intervals alongside DOT, DMV, and RMV regulatory requirements.
Fleet Maintenance
We employ highly trained, ASE-certified technicians to ensure certified safety and brake inspections are performed at specified intervals to proactively monitor “wear” conditions, and make adjustments or repairs before they constitute a safety defect.
We utilize a comprehensive maintenance management software system that not only plans preventive maintenance schedules, but provides maintenance interval performance reports and repair trend analysis data which assist in predicting component life, improving fleet reliability, and reducing overall fleet costs.
- Preventive maintenance scheduling based upon specific duty cycle of the vehicle (miles driven, hours used, calendar days).
- Ability to customize schedule by vehicle.
- Parts inventory management tool that predicts proper on-hand inventory based upon historical use reports, providing a streamlined inventory with the right parts on-hand to maintain uptime of your fleet.
- Warranty and recall management to ensure service alerts are addressed immediately.
- Complete tire and fuel management
- Compliance and audit trail reporting
Emissions: Protecting the Community
We adhere to a very strict “Vehicle and Equipment Idling Policy”, which places limitations on unnecessary engine idling that wastes fuel and generates needless and harmful emissions.
No Ocean State Transit school bus shall be permitted to idle for more than 5 minutes while the vehicle is not in motion (outside of forced circumstances such as remaining motionless due to traffic conditions, safety concerns, or where local regulations dictate).
All of our employees complete a “no idling” training session which includes:
- The EPA’s anti-idling video
- Fuel-efficient driving practices
- Education of the health risks associated with excessive exposure to diesel emissions
- Coordination of parking, loading, and unloading plans with schools
- Planning efficient routes to reduce diesel exhaust exposure
- Promoting energy (fossil fuel) conservation
- Reducing wear and service needs on vehicles and equipment
- Guidance to ensure proper maintenance of fleet
- Insights to how anit-idling contributes to the reduction of noise pollution
- Our commitment to the overall improvement of air quality in the communities we service
Onboard Vehicle Technology
The impact of technology is far reaching. It reverberates across all aspects of our business to enhance services, improve operations, and lower costs. From the innovative safety and communications equipment on our buses to cutting-edge routing systems and sophisticated cloud IT services that keep our employees connected, Ocean State Transit remains ahead of the curve in technology and fleet innovation.
GPS Tracking Systems: Equipping vehicles with GPS not only provides the capability to locate a bus on its route at any time, but also improves routing and determining important factors such as speed, idling, and fuel usage.
Crossing Gate Arms: This standard piece of safety equipment not only helps student cross in front of the bus at a safe distance, but also serves as an alert to surrounding vehicles that they are required to stop, allowing for the safe passage of students loading and unloading the school bus.
Digital Camera Systems: An important safety tool that helps manage driver accountability as well as to assist in the safe management of student behavior.
Child Check-Mate Systems: It is the driver’s responsibility to check for children who may be left on the bus at the end of their routes. This system is an additional aid to the driver by providing audible and visual alerts when the bus ignition is turned off at the end of any route or activity trip.