W


hen Todd Hawkins pores over mountains of information generated by data analytics to track bus fleet maintenance and schedule up- coming service, he ultimately distills its value


into a two-sided graph with scheduled work on the left and un- scheduled work on the right.


“Scheduled work is cost effective. Unscheduled work is expensive,” explained


Hawkins, senior vice president of maintenance for First Student, the nation’s largest student transportation provider. “Scheduled work is cost effective. Unscheduled work is chaos. A scheduled repair means a happy customer, while an unexpected break- down leads to frustration.” Hawkins’ goal? Keep repairs on the left side—planned, scheduled and strategic— and out of the chaos on the right, where misdiagnosed issues, road calls and deferred maintenance lurk as costly time bombs. Predictive data analysis lends a big helping hand to achieving that goal. Of course, the yellow school bus service industry’s other big names also rely on


predictive analytics and are increasingly using AI to keep vehicles on the road and contain costs that want to only go in one direction: Up. Predictive analysis by using AI is “a gamechanger for transportation companies,” said Shannon Sawyer, senior vice president of fleet for school bus contractor Beacon Mobility. Traditional maintenance relied on a reactive strategy, or fixing what broke after it


broke. The problem is that the vehicle is out of service as a result, and service techs are left scrambling to deal with an emergency rather than focusing on scheduled work. Predictive analytics models, increasingly powered by AI-enhanced software, shift the old paradigm by collecting vehicle data and integrating it with work order history to identify failure patterns and transform that information into actionable insights. Once a pattern is detected, technicians receive alerts about potential failures, en- abling them to address issues proactively. “Specifically, we have leveraged data for preventative maintenance, asset utilization and driver performance and safety. Analyzing maintenance trends, combined with pre- and post-trip inspection checklists, helps maintenance teams monitor vehicle components and detect issues proactively, reducing unplanned repairs and maxi- mizing the vehicle fleet,” Sawyer said.


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