Case Study: Chicago Public Schools achieves $20 million in student transportation savings with Zonar Systems

Chicago Public Schools - Customer Case Study

Chicago Public Schools faced unsafe, inefficient student transportation: drivers were "pencil‑whipping" pre- and post-trip inspections, vendors lacked accountability, and children were occasionally left on buses (about 1 in 80,000 runs). The district also struggled with high costs and underutilized vehicles, prompting leadership to seek a solution that would improve safety, efficiency and service.

CPS deployed Zonar telematics (EVIR inspections, V3/HD‑GPS and the Zonar 2010 handheld) integrated with its EDULOG routing software to enforce RFID-verified inspections, monitor routes in real time and hold vendors accountable. The program generated $20 million in transportation savings, reduced fleet size by 350 buses (>20%), increased runs per bus by 18.5% (2.7 to 3.2), cut left‑behind incidents to about 1 in a million (one incident in 2015), raised on‑time performance to over 90% and produced an additional $5 million in staffing efficiencies.

Chicago Public Schools

Paul Osland

Chief of Facilities