Case Study: Chicago Public Schools Erases $20 Million in Student Transportation Costs with Zonar

Chicago Public Schools cuts student transportation costs by $20 million with Zonar

Chicago Public Schools faced significant challenges in its student transportation services, including a lack of driver accountability evidenced by "pencil whipping" inspection forms and incidents of children being left on buses. These issues, coupled with a need for greater operational efficiency, led the district to partner with Zonar Systems to implement its telematics solution, which included the Electronic Verified Inspection Reporting (EVIR®) system and the Zonar 2010 handheld device.

By implementing Zonar's system, Chicago Public Schools gained real-time data and integration with its routing software, which eliminated fraudulent inspections and nearly eradicated the problem of students left on buses. The solution provided the actionable information needed to optimize routes and reassign resources, resulting in a fleet reduction of 350 buses and total savings of $20 million. The vendor, Zonar, helped the district increase runs per bus by 18.5 percent and achieve a vendor on-time performance rate above 90 percent.

Chicago Public Schools