Dubai, 1st March 2017: STS, the UAE’s biggest private school bus operator enters a strategic partnership with RoadSafetyUAE. According to official data, road traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for children below the age of 14 years in the UAE. Currently, there is no mandatory road safety content in UAE’s school curricula. Young drivers account for a big share of traffic accidents (for example in Abu Dhabi 63% of all accidents).
The partnership between STS and RoadSafetyUAE will consist of various engagement initiatives aimed at children and parents at events, campaigns and online activities, like an online pledge for children and parents to always wear their seatbelt. In addition, there will be a strong content collaboration between the parties for the recently launched STS magazine “Our Journey“.
Thomas Edelmann, Managing Director of RoadSafetyUAE: “Collaborating with STS means, that we have the chance to expose kids to road safety while they are in and around school buses, hence we speak about the ‘extended classroom’. STS drivers and school bus attendants are experts in road safety and they can engage with kids on a daily basis about proper and safe behaviour. STS offers leading safety technology in its fleet and has a great safety track record, so they are a perfect partner for us.”
Children must learn how to safely wait for and enter the school bus. They must learn the importance of buckling up themselves or be buckled up in the school bus. Children must be made aware of the proper behaviour while being driven in school buses and how to safely disembark and approach their waiting parents or guardians, and how to safely cross roads on their way home after their school bus ride. We must make it clear to our children, that school bus drivers and attendants are persons of authority and that their directions must be obeyed, in the same manner as the guidance of regular teachers is obeyed. Besides school bus staff, the teacher body, as well as the parents, must make it crystal clear to students, that they must behave properly in school buses and that they must follow the rules given to them by schools, school bus operators and school bus personnel.
The partnership aims to go beyond the expected, by providing students with the opportunity for ‘good citizen’ contributions, for academic projects with regards to sustainability and emission reductions and for arts and crafts competitions.
STS becomes the patron of the topic ‘Safety around schools and school buses’ on RoadSafetyUAE’s online portal www.roadsafetyuae.com.
Our responsibility to parents and schools doesn’t end when we drop your children home. We are so committed to making positive contributions to the communities that we serve across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the Northern Emirates, that we are always on the lookout for new community and education initiatives to get involved with.
So when we were invited to take part in Empowerment Day 2017 at Dubai English Speaking College, we were delighted to have the opportunity to get involved.
As well as talking to students about the challenges and complexities of running a school transportation service, we invited students to sign up for our summer internships where they will gain insight into different parts of the business and add valuable work experience to their CVs.
This year, STS is offering month-long internships for three DESC students and we were delighted with the response with students signing up to apply for work experience placements in our Operations, Marketing and Human Resources departments. The next stage will be to review and shortlist applicants, and then invite them to join us for a month over the summer holidays.
Whether or not these young people go on to become the next entrepreneurs in the public transportation industry, they will all have gained valuable exposure to different business units, and will have worked alongside some of the most passionate and dedicated professionals in the school bus business.
“Traffic accidents are responsible for 63% of deaths among children aged 14 and younger in the UAE. Knowledge saves lives!”
We talked to our new Road Safety Education partner, Thomas Edelman at RoadSafetyUAE for our Journey magazine.
Read the article in full.
STS is the only ISO Certified School Transport provider having ISO 9001:2008 Quality System Certifications (UKAS Management Systems) and OHSAS 18001:2007 (Occupational Health and Safety) Swiss System Certification for the scope of provision of transport services to the Schools, Hotels and Tourism in the UAE.
School transportation is no longer a routine pick up and drop off of students. It has now become a specialised field. The service sectors have seen a revolutionary growth both in terms of quality and delivery. Outsourcing of transport has taken care of both these values. Safety of students and quality of transportation is as vital as Education and Healthcare.
A continuous research on school transportation is going on in various parts of the world; seminars, conferences and discussions are held regularly. Understanding the importance of school transportation, the Road Transport Authority in Dubai has taken the initiative to implement bus specifications in September 2008. Many schools across the world have outsourced transportation to reputed transport companies specialising in school transportation. The outsourcing of school transportation by GEMS schools in Dubai, in 2008 was well appreciated by the authorities and the parents. The spokesperson of the Ministry of Education praised the move of the GEMS schools in outsourcing the school transportation and recommended the other private schools across the country to adopt the same approach.
Outsourcing school transportation not only helps the schools but also the parents as they can avail safe and high-quality transportation for their children and spares them from the tedious and expensive exercise of dropping and picking up their youngsters themselves. It reduces traffic on the roads and helps to reduce the number of vehicles at the parking zone of the schools which is unsafe and dangerous for the small children moving around.
Students’ transport safety is our prime concern and we strive hard to make school transport a learning experience. We seek the support of the parents, the school authorities and the public to ensure the safety of our students while on the bus and at the parking zones. We can ensure the safety of our students if all concerned fulfil their responsibilities.
Read more about School Bus Safety.
These are just some of the ways in which we strive to achieve this:
But even though nearly a third of residents identified school bus drivers as the safest, they also said they would like to see tougher regulations for how buses are operated. Residents said drivers should undergo more rigorous and intensive training and have a minimum of five years’ driving experience in the UAE.
Neither the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority nor Abu Dhabi’s Department of Transport requires drivers to have a minimum number of years of experience to get their School Bus Driving Permit. However, they do require applicants to be at least 25 years old, hold a prior UAE driver’s permit, complete a school bus driver basic course and pass a theoretical test, hold a “no criminal precedents certificate” from the police, have a disease-free certificate and proof of drug and alcohol-free status, and speak English and Arabic. And even though the government does not require the drivers to have a minimum number of years’ experience, many school bus companies do.
School Transport Services (STS), which provides transportation to more than 60,000 pupils in 52 schools across the country, only hires drivers with a minimum two years’ experience of driving in the UAE.
“Every bus driver of STS is selected through a rigorous process, and after selection is put through 30 hours of behind-the-wheel training before being deployed,” a spokesman for the company said.
“The school bus drivers of STS are not only screened by STS for the background check but also need to get CID clearance and an RTA permit before they start driving a school bus in the emirate. Along with the refresher course on defensive driving, STS drivers are also trained on customer service, health and safety, student management, firefighting, emergency management, etc.”
An even greater proportion of survey respondents agreed that school bus drivers should undergo background and police checks, and strongly agreed with the idea that drivers should undergo an alcohol breathalyser test before every shift.
Bright Bus Transport, STS’s sister company which employs 140 school bus drivers in Abu Dhabi, conducts random breathalyser tests on its drivers, said Anish Rajan, the company’s business development executive.
“We do understand that it is very important,” said Mr Rajan. “We have zero tolerance for alcohol. The fleet inspectors do check randomly. We also have an internal auditor who inspects everything.”
Survey respondents expressed little tolerance for speeding, with 90 per cent at least favouring the idea that bus drivers who exceed the speed limit should be banned. Sixty-six per cent disagreed with the proposition that bus drivers should be female, while 93 per cent agreed that there should be a female attendant on each bus. Similarly, 91 per cent agreed attendants should also undergo checks.
In Abu Dhabi, bus attendants are regulated by the Abu Dhabi Education Council. In Dubai, the RTA requires attendants to be at least 25 years old, hold a secondary school diploma, attend a school bus driver course and pass a theoretical test, be medically fit and of good conduct.
Survey respondents said the buses themselves should also be checked by registered authorities each week for roadworthiness and inspected monthly by a registered authority or garage. Furthermore, 94 per cent felt the buses should be equipped with cameras.
In Abu Dhabi, school buses are required to have seven CCTV cameras and be equipped with a GPS system. These requirements are not yet enforced in Dubai, but the emirate does require buses to undergo regular maintenance every 10,000 kilometres. Each school bus must also have a speed-control system installed so they cannot exceed 80kph.
Mr Rajan said he was not surprised by the survey findings that called for stricter regulations and monitoring.
“It involves the lives of children and that is the most important thing a person can ever have,” said Mr Rajan. “They should be the safest when they’re travelling on the road.”
Riddhi Tank, a 30-year-old Indian whose son is driven by bus to day care every day, said she had no complaint about school bus drivers. “Compared to taxis, they’re very safe,” said Mrs Tank. “They are not crossing the limit. There is always an attendant there, he follows the traffic rules.” She agreed with most of the survey’s findings, other than the question of a daily breathalyser test. “I don’t think it is required every day,” she said. “Once in a while as a random test, that’s OK, but not daily.”
Poornima Aithal, a 35-year-old Indian living in Abu Dhabi, also agreed with most of the findings, but she had one more suggestion. She said school buses should carry an exterior stop sign, as they do in the US, which forces traffic to stop in both directions when the bus is picking up or dropping off children.
“This I have not found in Abu Dhabi. Because if the school bus stops, the traffic still goes on. Nobody is stopping in traffic. That’s a big concern,” said Mrs Aithal.
School Transport Services signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Roads and Transport Authority of Dubai on 16th December, 2009 to support and consolidate their strategic partnership in order to unify the efforts to provide services to all classes of customers and to reflect the result of providing such services in social and economic fields.
Through this MOU, RTA and STS will use their best endeavours to consolidate the concept of sustainable transport in the Emirate of Dubai and to offer more transport options to employees thus reducing traffic jams in peak hours. This MOU will also help to exchange institutional knowledge, experiments and experiences in all fields.
We place the safety of the children as our highest priority. We value the parents trust in our service and endeavor to provide the highest standards of care. In this regard our STS Representatives in the schools are in constant touch with the parents. We listen to parents and we love hearing from them. Parents can give feedback directly to the STS Rep at their school, via our toll-free number (800 STSS/8788) or via our Contact Us form.
We believe that a school bus is an extension of a classroom and it is important that the school authorities give adequate attention to the discipline and well-being of the children in buses. It is with this purpose we request the schools to provide Bus Monitors or Conductors for every bus. We also advise the schools to have student monitors, in every bus, who can not only maintain discipline inside the bus but also give feedback to our Customer Care Executives in the school regarding the bus service.
Read more about our school partnerships and contract services.
The privilege of any student to ride a school bus is conditioned upon their good behaviour and observance of the rules and regulations set forth by the school and transport operator. Certain levels of conduct are expected of any and all students riding the bus. All students shall conduct themselves in a manner conducive to the safe transportation of all. No conduct will be tolerated that will in any way cause distraction of a driver’s attention that might result in unsafe operation of the bus. Students are expected to respect the authority of the bus driver and obey his/her instructions. If the rules are followed, all concerned can expect to have a safe bus trip.
Read and learn our Student Bus Behaviour Code.
Our fleet of Smart Buses are monitored and managed remotely by STS’s Operations Control Centre (OCC). This full-fledged, state-of-the-art control room is uniquely equipped to supervise the functions of the entire fleet of 3,100 buses. A dedicated and trained team monitors the exact location of each bus, the entry and exit of all students throughout the journey.
Our OCC team monitors the movement of all our buses in real time throughout the day ensuring the safety of all those on board.
All buses are installed with internationally acclaimed safety features such as CCTV security systems, GPS, RFID scanners, motion sensors, child check button and many other features. Data from these devices can be seen live on the OCC screens, enabling the team to take immediate action where necessary.
We have a trained and experienced route management team that evaluates and optimises bus routes on a regular basis to provide our customers with timely transport.
Real-time information ensures:
Continuous monitoring during travel ensures:
The STS App makes the school bus experience more convenient for the parent community. Many of the parents in the STS family are already using the mobile application for their child’s transport.
This year, we made a few modifications to the STS App. In addition to all the previous features, you can now do so much more. The App’s pop up feature allows you to see our new safety protocols that are being implemented in school buses for the start of the new academic year. The new and improved STS App is loaded with some great features.
We are constantly innovating the STS App to ensure our customers benefit from a seamless school bus experience. Download the STS App and travel with us today!
STS App is available on Google Play for Android and App Store for iPhone.
