Hview Tech Group, a local software company has laid out plans to implement its student transportation service, in Kigali, following a successful 6-month pilot phase. The initiative dubbed ‘ShuriBus’ has so far partnered with three city schools, ten buses and benefiting a total of 550 students. Patricie Nostaligie, Hview Tech Group Chief Executive, projects that by January, next year the company will add more 38 buses increasing the number of students to 1500. “Every idea starts with a problem. Ours was simple: We wanted to ensure that students are safe on their way to and from school,” he said ShuriBus was conceived following numerous complaints by parents, different schools for the poor monitoring of student’s transportation. In particular, parents have also previously raised concerns of poor services that individual transporters offer to their children during their routine home-school travels. The company plans to use technology to bring the vice into a new age enabling innovation in a single software. How does it work? The software is a fully fledged platform that connects parents, schools, to offer the safest students transportation experience with real-time itinerary bus data. “Using technology, we are challenging the status quo of basic needs. We are doing this by maintaining the safety of students,” said Guy Bruce Rindiro, lead software developer at the company. Rindiro explained that through the initiative, students are notified five minutes prior to the bus arrival before they onboard. Bus drivers equipped with gadgets composing the same database are able to register the student in the system. This leaves no room for the student’s safety since their whereabouts can be tracked in the system, Rindiro observed. “On the side of schools it is easier to access reports of students’ overall attendance while buses can also optimize routes, trip planning, and efficient drivers’ management, ‘’ he said. To ensure a modernized student transportation, drivers are provided with gadgets including internet for accurate tracking, while student’s attendance is taken daily and notified to parents. Student transportation systems have for long been static especially in Kigali, with experts describing it as an unexplored niche which should be penetrated by competitors. “As a result, we’re in touch with bus companies employed by schools as well as schools with their own buses,” added Nostalgie.
