Case Study: Ohio Shared Services Collaborative achieves nearly $6M in projected savings and streamlined student tracking with Zonar Systems

Ohio Shared Services Collaborative Uses Zonar Smart Fleet Technology to Reduce Costs

Ohio Shared Services Collaborative (OSSC) is a partnership of 20 school districts, a board of developmental disabilities, four educational service centers and two IT centers in Ohio serving 35,000 students across 2,825 square miles. Facing rising transportation costs and declining enrollment, OSSC — backed by a $1.76 million grant — set targets to save $4 million over five years, reduce its fleet by 5% and cut operating costs by 2% through better data and route optimization.

OSSC deployed Zonar smart fleet technology (V3, Z Pass, Z Pass+, Ground Traffic Control) integrated with Esri ArcGIS and custom analytics, capturing 2.5 million data points to analyze ridership, routes and idling. The collaborative eliminated 19 routes, reduced idling by 20%, enabled strategic bus sharing, and improved student tracking and parent notifications (700+ Z Pass+ signups), yielding $1.2M in annual route savings, ~$50.8K from less idling, $62.7K–$77.3K from sharing, and nearly $6 million in projected savings over five years.

Ohio Shared Services Collaborative

Brad Hollingsworth

Assistant Director