Bus Safety at AISL

​I thought that many of you might be interested to better understand our emphasis on safety in our bus service.  Even if your son or daughter does not use our daily bus service, most students will use our buses at some point for a field trip or an Explore Zambia trip. I would be willing to bet that our bus service is the safest of any school in the country. The key to this is our multi-pronged approach that includes driver training, quality equipment, and technological surveillance.

First and foremost is our skilled and reliable driving team. Our licensed drivers are carefully vetted and then given training in first aid and defensive driving skills. We are grateful to the U.S. Embassy for supporting them with training in the Smith System of safe driving. Our driving protocols include regular medical checkups for drivers, required use of seatbelts for all occupants, careful adherence to speed limits, and a prohibition on night driving except in extreme circumstances.

Second, we ensure that the drivers have good equipment. Our high-quality Toyota buses are regularly maintained and cleaned both inside and out. The average age of the buses in our fleet is less than three years.

Finally, we have installed satellite tracking and dashcams in each bus. The satellite tracking system allows us to view the location of each bus in real-time. It also notifies us when a driver exceeds our speed limits, brakes or corners harshly, or, in the worst case, has an accident. This system helps us to ensure that all drivers are following our protocols and gathers fleet use data for improved efficiencies. We have also installed dashboard cameras that record both the forward view and also rearward into the passenger compartment. All of these technological surveillance tools allow us to ensure that our drivers are operating their vehicles safely and smoothly in accordance with our protocols.
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If you have questions about our buses or wish to inquire about our daily bus service to and from school, please contact our Transport Manager, Faith Dube (fdube@aislusaka.org).