Zonar, a provider of smart fleet management technology, introduced Zonar Count, an app designed for Zonar tablets that enables users to accurately count passengers who get on and off a vehicle, and track average travel time, average passenger trip length, 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, senior vice president and general manager of passenger services at Zonar. “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.”

Developed for safety and ease-of-use, Zonar Count can only be used when the vehicle is not in motion and a driver “wakes up” the tablet to conduct a count. This ensures that a driver will not be distracted while operating the vehicle. With the touch of the screen, drivers can easily conduct a rider count and quickly transmit that data to a secure database for immediate access through with Zonar's Ground Traffic Control. When paired with Zonar's Z Pass, an RFID reader, which with passive Zonar RFID cards logs each entry and exit from the bus, the Zonar solution enables fleet managers visibility into exactly when and where riders got on and off a bus.

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