Throughout the pupil transportation industry, one of the
most important aspects of keeping buses safe, reliable and able to be in
service for as long as it is possible to do so is a good preventive maintenance
program. Each state has its own manner
and method of completing these services, but the most common is having a bus
inspected by qualified shop technicians once per month. In many states, there are checklists or
inspection sheets that must be completed with detailed information of what
needs to be checked. However, the best
fleets, those recognized for the superior bus fleets all have one thing in
common, and that is that they go above and beyond what is required to be
inspected.
Why is it, then, that most of us within the industry don’t
add one piece of equipment to the monthly inspection and preventive maintenance
and it is one of the pieces of equipment that the school districts rely on for
the safety and security of their students:
the video system installed on your buses?
Even at a time where every bus shop across the country is
having to do more work with less time and resources, adding a preventive
maintenance check of your video systems doesn’t add that much time, and the
minimal time that it does require has been shown to increase the reliability of
the video systems. The following are
some simple tips that you can incorporate into your monthly school bus
maintenance program that will only add about 5 minutes per bus, but could save you
hours of work down the road, thousands of dollars and an untold number of
headaches.
Each month when a technician is checking a school bus, he
should plug the laptop into the DVR and check for the following:
1.
Are the
time and date set correctly? If no, then
a one touch synchronization button will match your time and date so that
incidents can be investigated and resolved much more quickly.
2.
Do you have clear video and audio on all
cameras? The technicians can see the
view from each camera and even hear the audio while the unit is connected to a
laptop computer.
3.
Are all cameras aligned to provide maximum
coverage for what your cameras are placed to see and record? Students are notorious, and quite frankly
pretty ingenious, when it comes to finding was to obscure what the camera
sees. While inspecting the unit and
watching the live view of what the cameras are seeing, adjustments can be made
to camera alignment to make sure you are seeing that view that helps keep our
students safe aboard the buses.
4.
Are all of the settings set according to the
original configuration as specified by the Director of Transportation to see
everything that they need to see?
A physical inspection also needs to be performed each month
once you have checked all of the items above.
5.
Inspect all visible wires and connections to the
back of the unit for cuts, frays and any signs of tampering. Loose connections are probably the number one
source of lost video.
6.
Inspect and CLEAN the fan filter (if equipped on
your unit). A 15 second removing of the
fan cover, cleaning of the filter and reinstallation is critical in keeping
your DVR systems working and extending their life span. If the filter is clogged, then the fan has no
way of cooling itself and protecting the unit from overheating. If there is only time for one thing to be
done to the DVR, this is quite possibly the number one process that needs to be
completed.
7.
Inspect for broken mounting screws and broken
shock absorbing springs isolating the DVR unit from the mounting bracket. Let’s face it, we are asking a computer system
to operate in one of the harshest environments out there in the mobile
electronics industry.
You have to remember what your DVR is, it is a computer
mounted inside a school bus, riding down the road each day. Everyone needs to have or implement a system
of monthly checks of these complex digital video solutions to make sure that it
is working properly and protecting your students, your drivers, your department
and your school system.
Just as you made the investment of resources to update your
video systems by going digital, we must invest a little time and effort each
month to make sure that your video systems are working for you.
Preventive maintenance is the key!
Thanks for sharing. Overall the end goal of maintenance reliability is to increase uptime of assets, decrease downtime, decrease replacement costs and decrease wrench time.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing! This page was very informative and I enjoyed it. Maintenance reliability
ReplyDeletea computer technician that does not want thing to change because he makes his money fixing the mess left by anti virus products. Complete Home CCTV Systems
ReplyDeleteThank you very much.Very informative.
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