COQUITLAM, British Columbia  — Seon Design Inc. has launched vMax Trac, an RFID-card based student ridership tracking system that is designed to give school transportation staff real-time information on whether a student is on the bus, missed the bus, or got off at the wrong stop.

vMax Trac uses RFID technology to identify vehicle occupants. As students and drivers enter and exit the school bus, card ID numbers are processed, sent to a central server over a secure cellular connection, and stored in the vMax Compass central student database. This allows transportation staff to generate a roster of students currently traveling on a bus, or instantly identify a student’s last known location at the click of a button, using the vMax Compass web-based routing platform.

“A missing student or a school bus involved in an accident often results in a large-scale effort using valuable emergency personnel and school district resources,” said Peter Simmons, director of marketing at Seon. “Having a low cost, easy-to-use system to track the movement of students on and off the bus greatly enhances student safety while reducing the time and cost of responding to an incident.”

Customers with Seon video surveillance systems also get the extra benefit of video verification of student ridership. Student transporters can schedule the download of video footage to visually verify student entry or exit in emergency situations, according to the supplier.

“What makes vMax Trac especially unique is its integration with Seon’s routing, fleet tracking and video systems,” Simmons added. “All student information is stored in one central database, and transportation staff can easily access the current status as well as the history of a student’s movement through one web-based interface in seconds.”

vMax Trac can be easily added to vMax Compass and vMax Live Plus at a minimal cost, company officials said.

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