As Saleh Amer, an Emirati director of engineering affairs at Abu Dhabi Municipality, was jogging near his house one February morning in 2013, he noticed buses speeding, children waiting outside houses for buses, buses waiting outside houses for children and maids with children in tow appearing shortly after the buses they needed had driven off.
“The most critical time for parents is when they start their day, wake up their children, dress them and take them outside,” says Mr Amer, 46.
“I heard a lot from families about having to wait outside and missing buses. So I thought there should be a solution.”
Mr Amer hired the Abu Dhabi tech company Netaq E-Solutions to build an app. Busontime, Mr Amer’s programme, using GPS data and Google Maps, allows parents to keep track of their kids and the buses they ride.
Schools pay to licence the app, which they can then set up to work with their bus fleets. Parents are given login details by the school, which allows them to track the whereabouts of buses and children. When a bus is about to arrive, the app sends notifications, and eventually an alarm.
This should save time for children waiting for buses, and buses waiting for children.
The app also discourages truancy, Mr Amer says. Drivers and supervisors can log children in as present or absent, meaning that parents will be able to tell if their children have taken a Ferris Bueller-inspired day off instead of showing up at school.
The app also tracks bus drivers' speeds, which Mr Amer believes will encourage bus drivers to take more care.
“We know that the speed limit for the bus is 80 kph. It helps if the driver knows that the parents are watching them and that parents will talk to the school and ask them why he is speeding up.”
“Or,” he laughs, “why the bus isn’t going fast enough.”
Mr Amer hopes to persuade the Abu Dhabi Education Council to implement the product across the emirate. He also hopes that both local governments and schools will become customers for the app.
Prices for packages vary between Dh20,000 and Dh50,000 per year for a school. The packages vary based on the size of the school, bus fleet and whether the school wants to buy devices from Busontime. Mr Amer says he needs to boost adoption rates before charging more.
“My leadership style is very simple – think about the idea, decide on it and hit the road. American-style,” he says.
Mr Amer completed a bachelor’s degree in Technology at Southern University in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2000, and an MBA at Abu Dhabi University in 2009.
The MBA has helped him plan and manage Busontime, he says.
“The best thing about the MBA is the conversations you get during class. You sit with people with lots of experience who work in different places and you talk and try to find different solutions,” Mr Amer says.
“The MBA gives you a way of thinking, a way to set up strategies, a way to market and enter the market, and even a way to close the company if things go wrong.”
Mr Amer has so far funded the start-up with savings and rental earnings from properties, but says he will approach the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development for capital when the company needs it.
“I’ll need funding for this to go all over the world,” he says.
abouyamourn@thenational.ae
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