Track your child in Dubai with special bus chip

In a bid to step up the safety of a child in a school bus, the Emirates Transport has unveiled a unique pilot project that allows parents to track the movement of their children.

Every time a child swipes their unique ID card while boarding their school bus, an SMS alert will reach their parents, informing them of their child’s location.

This will help them track their child’s journey from home to school, and back.

The Emirates Transport announced this new initiative on the last day of the three-day long Roads and Transport Authority’s (RTA) School Transport Conference.

As part of the introduction of the RFID (or Radio Frequency Identifcation), Emirates247 was allowed to witness how the system works.

Officials at the Al Qayim School in Al Barsha also briefed us about the safety programmes conceptualised by Emirates Transport and RTA.

A yellow school bus was parked in a block of yellow paint, which demarcated the zone that is safe for children. A box of red, painted to the rear, displayed the area that was dangerous. And a white walk way, painted right outside the door of the bus, directed the kids on how to disembark a bus safely.

The Emirates Transport revealed an exercise where an inspector first checks the bus before it is deemed fit to transport children.

“The inspector first checks if the driver is certified, then he inspects if the interiors are as per the school standard, whether the fire extinguisher and first-aid kit are in good condition, and if the level of the windows is higher than the reach of the kids,” explained an Emirates Transport officer.

“They also check if there are any sharp objects inside, if the rear mirrors, ‘stop’ sign and tyres are in working condition, and if the outside of the bus also meets the prescribed specifications.”

Such inspections go a long way in ensuring the safety of the children’s transportation insisted Khalid, another top official from Emirates Transport.

The safety drill, the officer added, was adopted from the US, and it was tweaked and improved to meet the UAE standards.

Their organisation also distributed pamphlets and books, educating the children about school bus safety and how to go about using it without exposing themselves to any danger.

Another member rehearsed how the SMS alert is sent out to the parents, when their child swipes a card while entering the bus.

In its trial phase, the system will be introduced in kindergarten buses and depending on its impact, it will be introduced in all public school buses, informed Bader AL Attar, Executive Director Of Logistics Services at Emirates Transport.

The school bus inspections, he insisted, was not aimed at penalising the schools with fines, but to ensure that the safety of the children are not compromised.

Talking to Emirates247, Hussain Hassan Khansaheb, deputy director of Marine Transport Departmen stressed how the safety regulations are universal for public and private school buses.

“The Emirates Transport is willing to share this technology to any private school that wishes to capitalise on it, but that decision lies entirely with them and I’m not aware if such an option has been looked into,” he added.

The authorities also held a mini-exhibition detailing the safety drill and a hosted a quick class for students on the topic.

The day-long drill was undertaken a day after the Emirates Transport announced the Smart Bus programme that tracks the movement of all school buses.

During the first phase of the programme, a fleet of 3,200 buses transporting around 170,000 pupils from all public schools will be equipped with the advanced tracking system.

In the second phase, the entire fleet will be equipped with CCTV cameras. Fifteen buses have been fitted with cameras as a pilot project. In September 2013, around 50 per cent of the 3,200 buses will be equipped with cameras.

The officials informed that each bus will have 12 cameras, four of which will be installed outside the bus and eight will be placed inside.

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