A school bus is the most regulated commercial vehicle on an Indian road, and the school is answerable for it whether the bus is owned or contracted. Parents ask for live tracking, state transport departments ask for AIS-140 devices, and the Supreme Court guidelines have been in force since 1997. This guide collects the rules in one place and shows how a GPS tracking setup covers most of them.
The rules that apply
Supreme Court guidelines (M.C. Mehta v. Union of India, 1997). The baseline for every state. A school bus must be painted yellow with "School Bus" written on the front and back ("On School Duty" if hired), have a first-aid box, horizontal grills on the windows, a fire extinguisher, the school's name and telephone number painted on it, lockable doors, an attendant, and a driver with at least five years of experience and no serious traffic offences. Speed governors limit the bus to 40 km/h.
CBSE and state education department circulars. CBSE's 2017 safety circular, and the directives of state boards, add GPS tracking, CCTV cameras, female attendants on buses carrying girls, and verified drivers and conductors. Schools are told to do a yearly fitness check of each bus and keep records.
AIS-140 under the Central Motor Vehicles Rules. School buses are public service vehicles, so they fall under Rule 125H: a certified Vehicle Location Tracking device with panic buttons, registered on the state's VLTD portal. Most states enforce it at fitness renewal. Read what AIS-140 is for the device requirements.
State school transport policies. Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and others publish their own school vehicle rules. Common additions: GPS and CCTV mandatory, a transport committee at the school, a maximum of 1.5 children per seat for small children, no standing passengers, and a route list filed with the transport department.
Where GPS tracking is mandatory
In practice a school bus in any major state needs a GPS device today, for two separate reasons:
- The AIS-140 rule, which puts a certified device in every public service vehicle and reports to the state backend.
- The education department rule, which asks the school to track its buses and to give the information to parents.
One certified device satisfies both, because AIS-140 devices send data to a second server as well as the state backend. That second server is the school's own tracking platform.
What the school should set up
Meeting the rule is one device per bus. Making the tracking useful is a little more:
- A geofence around the school. The system records the exact time each bus arrives and leaves, and raises an alert if a bus is not at the gate by the expected time.
- Geofences on the route stops. Visit reports show which stops the bus actually covered and how long it waited. A skipped stop is visible the same day.
- Overspeed alerts at 40 km/h. Speed governors can be tampered with. A GPS alert on every overspeed event, with the location, keeps a record the transport committee can act on.
- Route deviation and unauthorised use. An alert when the bus leaves the planned route, and a parking alert when it moves outside school hours, cover the two most common complaints.
- Driver identification. If drivers rotate, know who was driving when an alert came in.
- Logins for the transport in-charge and the principal, with the bus list restricted to what each person needs.
- Parent information. Live position for the bus their child rides, and "bus has reached" messages. A branded parent app, with the school's name and logo, is possible under a white label plan.
Records to keep
The transport committee is expected to review bus safety periodically. Keep these for each bus:
- Registration, fitness, insurance, pollution and permit documents, with expiry dates.
- AIS-140 fitment certificate with the device IMEI and its renewal date.
- Driver and attendant details, licence copies and verification.
- Monthly overspeed and route deviation report from the tracking system.
- Incident log: any complaint, breakdown or alert, and what was done.
SaralTrack keeps the vehicle documents and the AIS-140 record on each bus's page and warns 15 days before any date expires, so the committee's file is always current. The overspeed, geofence and trip reports export to Excel or PDF for the meeting.
Hired buses
When buses are hired from an operator, the school is still responsible for the children on them. Write the tracking requirement into the contract: an AIS-140 device on every bus, access for the school to the live map and the reports, and the overspeed alert going to the school as well as the operator. Most operators already have devices for their permit; giving the school a login costs nothing.
Frequently asked questions
Is GPS tracking mandatory for school buses in India?
Yes, in practice. School buses are public service vehicles under the Central Motor Vehicles Rules and need an AIS-140 certified tracking device, and most state education departments separately require schools to track their buses and inform parents.
What is the speed limit for a school bus?
The Supreme Court guidelines require a speed governor set to 40 km/h. Many states repeat this limit in their school transport rules.
Can parents track the school bus live?
With a tracking platform connected to the bus's device, yes. The school can give parents the live position of their child's bus and arrival messages, under the school's own name if the platform supports white labelling.
Do hired school buses need GPS too?
Yes. The device requirement follows the vehicle, not the owner, and the school remains responsible for the children. Put tracking and data access for the school into the hire contract.