Two years ago we assisted in a pilot program to track the real-time location of the campus shuttles. That effort was a student project and used Blackberry phones in the shuttles for GPS devices. The major downfalls of that solution was the wear and tear on the equipment (phones lasted around 6 months) and the monthly cellular data charges. Even though the phones were using very little data, the cellular charges were being increased to around $30/month for each shuttle.

After a year the system went offline while a more permanent solution was investigated which relied on the campus radio network rather than on cellular data. We recently had the opportunity to test new equipment which we hope will assist in relaunching the service next semester.