UAE: More parents can now track school buses through app in Abu Dhabi

Following the success of the Salama app in its initial phase, the transport authority in Abu Dhabi announced the expansion of the apps coverage to include all schools in the emirate.

The application will now include all government and some nurseries in the emirate, reaching a total of 672 educational establishments that are covered by the application.

By expanding the smart Salama application, the Integrated Transport Centre of the Department of Municipalities and Transport (DMT) aims to boost parents' trust in the school transport sector. The service will enhance communication between parents and all schools across the emirate.

Through this step, the authority aims to elevate levels of students’ security and safety during their trips using school buses. At the time being, 239,000 students use the school transport service, who constitute 49% of the total students count in the emirate.

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The application was developed in collaboration with the Department of Education and Knowledge and Emirates Schools Establishment, as part of a unified and integrated system for managing school transport.

In its initial phase, over 15,000 parents have downloaded the Salama app. The application presents several features to parents and guardians, such as real-time updates on the status and details of ongoing school trips, the departure time and destination of each journey, the student's boarding and arrival times, and the ability to report a student's absence.

Moreover, it provides information on the expected arrival time at the school or home, sends notifications a certain time prior to the arrival of the bus, and offers details on the driver and supervisor, in addition to allowing direct communication with both the supervisor and operators.

The application enables the supervisor to record students time of boarding and disembarking from the bus, submit a report on status of the school trip, and add remarks to the smart system in case of emergency during the trip, which is monitored by the ITC’s control centre.

The application also provides detailed data that supports the process of planning, implementation, and development of strategic projects that aim to reinforce students’ safety and security, and elevate the quality of services in the school transport sector of the emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Salama system for school transport

The system outputs consist of an integrated central system and smart applications available to parents, educational institutions, school transport operating entities, drivers, and bus supervisors.

This enables the relevant parties in school transport to monitor students' journeys, track school buses in real-time, and communicate instantly on the road, therefore enhancing the level of trust and confidence among students' parents, and improving authorities' ability to quickly respond to emergencies and accurately reach the bus’s location.

The central platform provides a mechanism to monitor and evaluate the performance of all relevant authorities in the school transport system. This is carried out through calculating the start of the journey from the time that the first student boards the school bus until the end of the trip, while taking into account traffic congestion around schools and traffic flow during peak hours.

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