CINCINNATI — First Student is advancing the company’s industry-leading safety focus through a new and innovative program. DriverScore™ is a tablet-based mobile application that measures a driver’s performance to help improve the quality of transportation service for school districts and their families.
DriverScore puts actionable information into the hands of location leadership. While performing daily routes, a driver is assessed in four key areas: hard braking, rapid acceleration, speeding and idling.
A First Student driver receives a rating of up to five stars in each key area. Location managers can efficiently access the data to monitor and review trends, creating an opportunity for coaching, recognition and positive reinforcement. DriverScore also generates healthy competition among drivers, improving employee satisfaction and overall morale.
“At First Student, our goal is to be the leader in safety in every way, beginning with our drivers,” said First Student Chief Operating Officer Dean Suhre. “The DriverScore program elevates our safety culture by inspiring our drivers to do their very best, while also further developing the critical skills necessary to provide safe transportation to the school districts, students and communities we serve.”
An internal data science team at First Student created the proprietary DriverScore model to help motivate drivers to actively work toward improving or maintaining a high-star measurement. The company continually seeks out, tests and develops new technology, hardware and software to help ensure school buses remain the safest way for students to get to and from school.
First Student began introducing DriverScore at its nearly 450 locations last year. Where the program has been implemented, driver performance has improved in all four of the key areas scored. First Student invests heavily in driver training and development to deliver a ride that is about twice as safe as the industry average.
DriverScore is the latest innovation to further demonstrate the company’s commitment to having the most technologically advanced school buses on the road. In recent years, First Student has introduced an exclusive technology suite, including the FirstView® District Dashboard and Parent App, to give school districts unparalleled visibility into its daily transportation system.
About First Student
As the leading school transportation solutions provider in North America, First Student strives to provide the best start and finish to every school day. First Student completes five million student journeys each day, moving more passengers than all U.S. airlines combined. With a team of highly-trained drivers and the industry’s strongest safety record, First Student delivers reliable, quality services including full-service transportation and management, special-needs transportation, route optimization and scheduling, maintenance, and charter services with a fleet of about 40,000 buses. For more information, please visit firststudentinc.com.