Roanoke City Public Schools Partners with Zum to Modernize Student Transportation

Virginia Division of 14,000 Students Awards 5-year Contract to Zum for Safe, Reliable Transportation 

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., March 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Roanoke City Public Schools has awarded a $77 million 5-year transportation contract to Zūm, the leader in modern student transportation. 

The decision signals the Virginia school division's commitment to safe, reliable, sustainable and modern rides to and from school for all students, drivers and families. Other districts that have partnered with Zum for school transportation include San Francisco Unified School District, Seattle Public Schools; Howard County Public Schools; Oakland Unified School District; Metro Nashville Public Schools; and Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest district in the country.

"Student success starts with a safe and reliable ride to school each day," said Dr. Verletta White, Superintendent of Roanoke City Public Schools (RCPS). "Like RCPS, Zum keeps students at the center of everything they do. We appreciate their state-of-the-art communication tools to help keep families informed and their commitment to safety and sustainability. We look forward to working with them in the 2024-25 school year." 

Zum is rapidly changing student transportation through digitization and electrification. Zum's comprehensive student transportation platform and services are designed to improve safety, transparency and communication, while delivering efficient, reliable and sustainable transportation that students, families, drivers and schools deserve.

Through the Zum app, parents receive real-time data and notifications about their school bus location and their child's pickup or drop-off status as well as a profile of their child's bus driver and vehicle information. Zum also provides administrators with real-time data and performance reports to optimize routes, reduce student ride time, and improve on time performance, facilitating transparent, data-driven decisions regarding student transportation.

School bus drivers are at the center of Zum's service. Zum offers competitive wages and modern benefits for all drivers and staff, as well as top-of-the-line buses, equipment, and technology to enhance safety and comfort for students and drivers and make drivers' day to day jobs easier and more enjoyable. Zum supports its drivers and staff with advanced training and certification programs to ensure they not only meet or exceed all state and federal requirements but also receive extensive ongoing training in customer service and transporting students with diverse needs and disabilities. Zum is a "Great Places to Work" certified company and takes pride in becoming a "choice employer" in any city where it has partnerships, delivering exceptional customer service, through our technology-led, "employee-focused" and "student-centric" approach. 

"We are excited that Roanoke City Public Schools is partnering with Zum for modern student transportation, and we look forward to working with families, drivers and school officials to serve the needs of this vital school community," said Ritu Narayan, Founder and CEO at Zum. "Through Zum, every student has access to safe, reliable, and sustainable transportation."

Zum holds local driver hiring events for certified school bus drivers and training classes for new candidates interested in becoming certified school bus drivers, with an upcoming event on Wednesday, March 6, 2024 from 9:00am to 6:00pm ET at the SpringHill Suites by Marriott, 301 Reserve Avenue, Roanoke. To learn more about how Zum is working with thousands of schools across the nation to deliver safe, reliable and modern student transportation, please visit Zūm's website. To apply as a driver or another position at Zum, please visit  our career page. 

About Zum:
Zum has reimagined student transportation, the nation's largest mass transit system, and developed sustainable ways to charge the grid. Zum's robust operations and integrated end-to-end cloud-based platform provides a modern student transportation service for school districts purpose-built around the needs of kids and the expectations of modern families. Zum provides one seamless, real-time interface for parents, drivers, schools, districts, administrators, and operators to transport children safely and with increased visibility and personalized care. Always investing in the wellbeing of communities, Zum is also the only carbon neutral student transportation provider in the nation with plans to go Net Zero with its transition to EV electric buses. Zum is available nationwide, serving more than 4,000 schools across the U.S. Learn more at www.ridezum.com.

CONTACT:
Jenny Mayfield, Vice President of Communications - [email protected]

SOURCE Zūm