School Bus Mobile Safety Inspection System Makes Inspections More Efficient
The Maryland Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Administration (MDOT MVA) has introduced an innovative approach to school bus inspections – a process that allows inspectors to complete the inspection electronically. The Maryland School Bus Safety Inspection System, implemented with a handheld tablet, replaces a manual paper-based inspection process and lets inspectors use mobile devices to inspect and report results electronically. Additionally, the system creates a database MDOT MVA can use to track all bus inspections.
“Our mission is to provide safe transportation solutions,” said Christine E. Nizer, MDOT MVA Administrator and Governor Hogan’s Highway Safety Representative. “School bus inspections are critical to ensuring the safety of our children being transported to and from school. This new system allows us to more efficiently monitor the safety of school buses operated on Maryland roadways.”
The state of Maryland requires every one of its roughly 9,000 school buses to be inspected three times a year. After an inspection using a mobile device, the electronically recorded results either indicate the bus has passed inspection or requires a repair order for additional follow up. The efficiency of the new reporting method has reduced the time it takes to complete inspection reports. In the month of May, 1,582 inspections were completed using the new system.
The Maryland School Bus Safety Inspection System was developed at no cost to MDOT MVA by NIC Inc., a Kansas-based information service provider, through the self-funded digital government services contract with the Maryland Department of Information Technology (DoIT).
