GLENVIEW, Ill. — Provider Enterprises, a New Hampshire-based school transportation company, was recently recognized at the 2010 InfoWorld Green 15 Awards for its use of Navman Wireless of North America’s OnlineAVL2 fleet tracking solution to reduce fuel consumption and achieve other operational efficiencies.

Provider Enterprises handles transportation services for more than 1,500 special-needs children who attend 200 different schools. With Navman Wireless’ technology, the company is able to track the locations of its 188 vehicles in real time, monitor fuel consumption, optimize vehicle maintenance schedules, notify drivers electronically when a child does not need to be picked up and quickly route buses with or without wheelchair lifts as needed, among other tasks.

“Response times have been cut by 50 percent,” Garrett Scholes, operations manager at Provider Enterprises, told InfoWorld. “Before Navman Wireless, we did all of our dispatching over the radio. Some buses have wheelchair lifts and some don’t. Routing the correctly equipped buses to the appropriate stops was time consuming and tedious.”

In the first year of use, the Navman system reportedly helped the company reduce fuel expenses by nearly 10 percent for a savings of approximately $50,000. Contributing factors included the system’s ability to alert dispatchers when vehicles are idling in violation of company policy and identify unauthorized personal vehicle use.

Navman Wireless’ OnlineAVL2 solution has also helped Provider Enterprises increase safety by identifying drivers who speed or fail to stop at railroad tracks. The system works in tandem with the Qube, a Navman tracking device installed in each vehicle.