Zūm, a startup that wants to upgrade student transportation, has been awarding a five-year $150 million contract to modernize its transport service throughout the district. A Unified School District in San Francisco gave out the award.
Zūm will Handle Day-to-Day Operations
Zūm operates its rideshare-meets-bus service in another local city, much of Western state, and other cities throughout the U.S., that will be responsible for handling day-to-day operations. In addition, handle transporting 3,500 students across 150 school campuses which begins this fall semester. Moreover, the startup’s fleet of 206 buses, vans, and cars is distributing based on particular use cases, to place students who live on more hectic routes on school buses thereby send them out to cars and vans for others to thereby increase efficiency. In fact, Zūm will also ease over 2,000 field trips per year for the school district.
Zūm Contracts and Funds
The San Francisco United School District is the largest contract the startup has ever had. The startup awarded five-year $53 contracts with Oakland School District. That began in 2020. Moreover, the company intends to use the funds to lease vehicles, hire drivers, which are salaried employees, to improve customer and operational support. Also to provide research and develop product enhancements to support the contract.
District Savings
A saving of $3 million for the district per year on average is what Zūm’s transportation solution for SFUSD is expected to achieve. It is based on what is the cost of the incumbent’s solution.
Zūm, has, in fact, absorbed all the drivers who were in the past serving SFUSD. The buses are used and old and owned by the incumbent. In fact, they have been moved out of the city. Now, Zūm has deployed a new fleet of connected school buses and other vehicles. They will be converted to electricity by 2025.
Zūm, along with its fleet, offers school districts a cloud-based dashboard. It will allow them to manage the operations. Then track movements. Also, plan budget use. Moreover, analyze the performance and service data. It is the kind of tech that does really make sense for schools. Yet they still do seem very radical given how slowly the public sector moves.