Last week as temperatures dropped, students who rely on SEMO’s transit routes may have been frustrated by malfunctions with the shuttle tracking app.
ShuttleTrack, which usually lists every stop on the route and the shuttle’s estimated arrival time, only displayed a black screen with a hyperlink to the transit webpage as of Jan. 26.
SEMO communications specialist Michelle Queiser said the transit system recorded an average of 3,200 students every week during 2021. Student Shaqala Hodge uses the shuttle regularly to get to her classes.
“It’s difficult, because sometimes, you don’t know how long you’ll be waiting,” Hodge said.
Department of Public Safety (DPS) transit operations supervisor Kirk Sandfordt said the tracking system uses tablets on the buses. The SEMO telecommunications team supplies most of SEMO’s technology, including the tablets, which were acquired from 2014 to 2015.
Assistant vice president of Information Technology Floyd Davenport said the tablets had started to experience general hardware issues like being unable to hold charges.
“As tablet devices get older, they may no longer support software upgrades, security protocols or cellular capabilities,” Davenport said.
As of Monday, Jan. 31, all of the new tablets arrived, and IT is “uploading an application that was developed in-house a few years ago,” according to Davenport.
He cited some personnel turnover around the time the tablets began to fail, so they had to be brought up to speed.
Sanfordt is not sure how long it will take to get the new tablets ready.
“We are as frustrated as [students are] about this issue, but unfortunately, it is out of my hands,” Sandfordt said. “Until this is fixed, we are weather permitting, running our advertised shuttle schedule.”
In the meantime, students adapt to transit without the app. Elementary education major Annette Drury said, “We can’t use the app, so now, we use [the shuttle bus charts].” The bus charts, posted on some stops like outside Starbucks, display the order of the stops for the three buses, but not the arrival time.
Bob Moses, a driver of the green route, said his routes can take approximately 20 minutes, but knows students need them to be consistent. He said they drive the same routes they normally do, and things are still the same for drivers.
“Most of the riders are the same and know the routes,” he said.
He noted on days of extreme weather, more passengers show up.
Of the icy weather, Queiser said DPS has given information about route schedules on the Living at Southeast Facebook page, along with phone calls or emails to students.
Sandfordt said during bad weather, the transits would use the “hour rule.” This means if classes are postponed or delayed due to weather, shuttles will start one hour before classes begin. They will also run one hour after classes end in the afternoon.
“In the evenings, we will try to run as long as possible, but my experience here tells me that when roads get bad, they do very quickly,” Sanfordt said.
When shuttles need to shut down for safety reasons, Sanfordt recommended students use these hours, because there will not be a window of opportunity before they close.
“It has been equally frustrating for the department during this transition to upgrade and receive new technology,” Queiser said. “But the staff remain committed to providing the best and a newer tracking service soon.”
SEMO’s red and green shuttles transport students to different stops on the main campus during the school day, while the blue shuttle takes students to and from River Campus.
“We should be able to get the new devices up and running pretty quickly,” Davenport said.
The shuttle buses will run according to the calendar regardless of whether the tracking app is working or not.
Shuttle Bus Calendar:
Blue: Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to Midnight, Saturday and Sunday Noon to Midnight
Blue 2: Monday through Friday 7:15 a.m. to 2:45 pm
Green: Monday through Thursday 7:20 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday 7:20 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Red: 7:20 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
WINGS: Friday 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday Noon to 9 p.m.
