RFID News Roundup

The following are news announcements made during the past week by the following organizations: Zonar; DRB Systems; Checkpoint Systems; iDTRONIC; Elatec RFID Systems; Smartrac; and STMicroelectronics.

Zonar App Increases Bus Rider Safety With Real-Time Data

Zonar, a provider of smart fleet management technology, has introduced Zonar Count, an app designed for Zonar tablets that enables users to accurately count passengers that enter and exit a vehicle, as well as track average travel times, passenger trip lengths and operating costs per passenger trip. This data allows fleet managers to ensure safer vehicle operations, balance ridership and streamline federal reporting, including Medicaid reimbursement.

"We built Zonar Count to help managers better understand how their fleets perform so they could make their vehicles safer and routes more efficient for drivers and passengers," said H. Kevin Mest, Zonar's senior VP and general manager of passenger services, in a prepared statement. "Operations managers would know how many students were actually riding a route in comparison to how many were assigned, providing a key productivity metric to right size fleets to actual load counts and accurately capturing state ridership information for state reporting."

In additional to providing schools and mass-transit organizations with increased access to ridership data, Zonar Count's data-collection functionality helps to eliminate the complexity and paperwork involved in tracking and submitting ridership information regarding special-need students. With an accurate digitally recorded count of these students, school administrators can then submit the information to receive reimbursements from Medicaid.