Dubai school buses limit number of students with 50 per cent capacity
- 25 Aug 2020
Gulf Today, Staff Reporter
RTA’s Dubai Taxi Corporation (DTC) is gearing up for the new school year by introducing a set of coherent precautionary measures to protect against the spread of Covid-19 in its school transport service. The move echoes the directives of the Dubai’s leaders to provide students with a healthy and safe environment par excellence.
“The precautionary measures we have taken aimed to revive the confidence of parents in our handling of their children using our school transport services. The Dubai Taxi Corporation has taken extensive safety measures to protect students against the risks of catching Covid-19. Measures taken include the scheduling of bus sanitisation time such that it would take place before and after the embarkation/disembarkation of students. They also include setting a cap on the number of students on board each bus such that it would be 50% only of the total bus capacity, and scanning the temperature of each student before boarding the bus,” said Marwan Al Zarooni, Director of Operations and Commercial Affairs, Dubai Taxi Corporation.
“DTC’s school transport service has 18,608 registered students who are served by a fleet of more than 400 smart buses. About 21 schools in Dubai have signed up with DTC. Such numbers reflect the high satisfaction of clients with our excellent mobility services. The success of the services is also attributable to the hand-picked 408 drivers hired for the school transport service who were trained on the skills of driving smart buses. About 129 lady attendants were also employed and trained in caring for students of various age groups. They have also attended training on the handling of emergencies, and were certified by the Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services on First Aid and other disciplines to ensure the provision of exceptional service to students,” continued Al Zarooni.
“The school buses are fitted with hi-tech devices for monitoring and tracking both buses and students, and accordingly improve the security and safety of the service. Devices include cameras, sensors to ensure no student is left behind in the bus, emergency button to communicate with the control centre, GPS-based electronic tracking system, Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) system, and engine self-extinguishing system. All these features have been selected to conform to the highest global safety standards,” he added.
“To register for the service, or update their details, parents are advised to log-in to (https://schoolbus.dubaitaxi.ae/parentportal), which will also assist them with the online payment. Through this portal, parents can track the movement of the bus and students, and figure out the pick-up and drop-off points. It also contains an indicator to measure the happiness and satisfaction of parents. The service supports DTC School Bus app available at Google Play and iOS Store, thus enabling the tracking of the movement of students by using smartphones,” he added.
The Director of Operations and Commercial Affairs, Dubai Taxi Corporation expressed hope to enhance the profile of the DTC as a trusted entity by both students and parents. “DTC will do whatever it takes to be the first choice when it comes to the smart school transport services for students of schools and universities in Dubai. The improvements of the school transport service concur with key strategic goals of the DTC, namely People Happiness and Excellent Operation,” he concluded.