School buses under Dubai Taxi Corporation (DTC) will operate at only 50 per cent seating capacity in compliance with precautionary measures against the spread of COVID-19.

“The precautionary measures are aimed at reviving the confidence of parents in our handling of their children using our school transport services. The DTC has taken extensive safety measures to protect students against the risks of catching COVID-19,” Marwan Al Zarooni, DTC director of operations and commercial affairs, said on Monday.

The DTC, which is under the Roads and Transport Authority, has also taken other measures, including bus sanitisation before and after the embarkation/disembarkation of students as well as scanning the temperature of each student before boarding the bus and wearing of face masks.

DTC has a fleet of over 400 school buses serving 18,608 students from 21 schools across Dubai. The company employs 408 drivers hired for the school transport service and 129 lady attendants who look after students of various age groups. All staff have undergone first aid training at Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services, according to Al Zarooni.

Hi-tech devices

He added: “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, RFID (radio-frequency identification) system, and engine self-extinguishing system. DTC noted all these features have been selected to conform to the highest global safety standards

Parents can also track the movement of the bus and students, and figure out the pickup and drop-off points via the DTC website or App.