Scope: Student Transport System

[STS]


Currently over 100,000 primary and secondary school students are deemed eligible for transportation assistance to and from their school.   This assistance typically involves contracted services of a private bus operator.   In cases where there are special needs, special purpose vehicles (e.g. wheel-chair accessible) may be involved.   In situations where there are insufficient students to warrant a bus, assistance can take the form of payments to a caregiver to help cover the cost of transport (e.g. taxi), or for expenses incurred by a family member in providing transport in a private vehicle.

The primary function of the School Transport System (STS) is to maintain contract information in a database to facilitate the monitoring and payments to transport service providers.   The basis of these contracts is students that have been deemed eligible to receive some form of transport assistance.   Where appropriate, routes are defined that optimally accommodate students.   Depending on the type of contract, routes represent the distance transport service providers are expected to travel and consequently be paid according to an agreed schedule.

Service Agents carry out the majority of administration work related to school transport on behalf of the government.   Up to three service agents are contracted to perform this work in different regions of the country.   Student eligibility and transport service providers for schools are handled by region.   The actual payments to transport service providers come directly from the government through its financials package, based on payment transactions generated by STS following payment schedules within current contracts.

Based on the number and type of students eligible for transport assistance ("Maintain Student" use case), the service agent sets up one or more routes ("Maintain Route" use case).   When routes are to be serviced by private bus operators, a tender process is undertaken to select the most appropriate provider.   The end result of this process is a contract with a specific Provider for one or more routes.   Each route is represented in the contract as a separate schedule that describes the route, expected numbers of students, and a payment schedule ("Maintain Contract" use case).   Over the life of the contract, route details and/or payment rates may change.   Each time this happens, a new one that has been agreed by both the Provider and the Service Agent (on behalf of the government) supersedes the affected schedule.

Other types of transport assistance are also handled by contracts and appropriate schedules.   Each schedule includes a payment schedule appropriate for the contract type.   As above, schedules are subject to change over the life of the contract, and payments are always based on the current agreed schedule.