When faced with customer transport complaints of poor service or harassment, bad events, or incidents that may lead to civil or criminal charges or liability lawsuits, it is best to have a mechanism in place that can provide a sequential unbiased, factual documentation of the event or incident or at least the entire transport so that a proper review or investigation can be performed to determine what actually happened.

The Fleet Driver Risk Management mechanism of choice to document what happens on a vehicle transporting passengers is the School Bus Video Surveillance Observation Camera.

Affordable Low-Cost Cameras for school buses have been used in this market for more than 30 years with great success despite the glaring technology issues they had with early forms of recording technology like Super 8mm, VHS, VHS-C, then the fragile 4-5” Hard Drives they installed in buses that often crashed or failed to start when the temperature got below freezing, those that crashed when they hit a speed bump, or curb, or many other small “G” force impacts.


The highest risk for fleet management is the passengers in the vehicles.
Many School Bus Fleet Managers or private charter fleets and Directors of public school fleets have incorporated School Bus Video Observation Camera Recorders in their buses to assist them in resolving the most common customer passenger complaints and handling claims that may be made about the service or treatment of the school student passengers.



Student or Young Child Passenger transportation applications that can benefit from investment in School Bus Video Observations Cameras include:

Private Service Contractor Charter Transport Compliance Bus Camera System

Special Needs Wheelchair School Bus Video Surveillance Systems

Alternative School & Juvenile Detention Bus Security Camera

Transportation Ministry Youth Activities Church Bus Camera System

Before & After Care School Child Day Care Pickup In-vehicle Shuttle Safety Cameras

Head Start  Pre-K Pre-School Nursery School Child Safety Bus Camera Recorder systems 


While it is proven that the technology provided by adding cameras to school buses can help increase accountability and offer impartial, dispassionate expert eye-witness evidence when needed, just having the system in the bus does not always achieve this goal.

This is an electro-mechanical device that has moving parts, firmware, software, and human interaction required for it to function properly. It is also often attached to a vehicle that was purchased in large part because it was the lowest cost option that for a customer or district’s requirements.

To offer a comparative metaphor, this type of electro-mechanical product would be similar in many ways to a smoke alarm,
in that, this device can offer exceptional value when needed, like a smoke alarm that can go off to alert you of a possible fire in time to save lives.

Smoke Alarms require periodic service and maintenance to ensure they function when needed.
The fact there is a nationwide public service announcement by network talking heads on the mainstream propaganda channels to remind people to change the battery in their smoke detectors should highlight the fact that even the fear of burning to death in a fire due to a dead battery in a smoke detector can be overlooked by many.

It is even worse than that, as before the batteries are completely dead, the detector is programmed to emit an annoying chirp, calling for immediate attention and service to replace the dying battery for weeks before they finally stop chirping.



School Bus Camera Systems, like smoke alarms, are products that function but they are not entirely foolproof. They require periodic service function verification to ensure when it is needed, it is functional and provides the value the customer was seeking when they invested in this device. Unlike smoke alarms they do not have a battery backup that can chirp to remind you they are failing if the ignition is not on.

Not only does the school bus video observation camera system requires installation in the vehicle; there are certain settings that must be made to help ensure when this video evidence is needed that, it will be time and date stamped with the vehicle ID number and the proper settings for cameras and audio selected prior to needing the video evidence. The same menu settings are required in othewr applications such as Private Service Contractor Charter Transport Compliance Bus Camera Systems, Forklift HD Industrial Operator Safety Camera Systems, Medicaid Medical Transport In-Vehicle Surveillance Camera systems as all of these and other applicatiosn require the same basic video evidence standards for use in court as digital witness expert video evidence.

The time to program the DVR is when it is installed, not after an event that requires those settings to be admissible in court if needed.


ABV Recommended Service Function Verification Schedule

DAILY - ABV recommends DAILY LED DVR status to be verified to function every day the vehicle is started.
This is a simple matter of looking at the face of the DVR and making sure after the ignition has been on for more than 1 minute, you can see Red and Green LEDs lights on or flashing, an indication the DVR is powered up and recording the SD memory card. When needed, this device can provide the same value to a customer as a running light on the outside of the vehicle which is also to be checked when the vehicles are started and prior to transporting students of children. When you need them most in an incident, is not the time to learn the DVR main power wire was removed by the customer service personnel when the customer replaced a battery, and it was never reconnected seven years ago (actual case) and has not worked a day since.

WEEKLY - ABV recommends WEEKLY verification of video files being created on the DVR memory device.
The Setup Monitor we offer is a small LCD display that, when plugged into the face of the DVR, can provide a list of files on the SD memory card, and you can verify the dates of the files as file names are year, month, day, and time. Do not just verify the files are being created; view one of the newest files to ensure the file is viewable and operates properly.

MONTHLY - ABV recommends MONTHLY verification of camera alignment, cleaning of the camera lenses, and checking the time, date, and vehicle ID#.
The Setup Monitor we offer is a small LCD display that, when plugged into the face of the DVR, will provide a quad-screen view of the cameras in the vehicle. Should a time or date setting be incorrect, it is better to catch that mistake now before evidence provided with erroneous details can be questioned in a court of law, when this video evidence may be used to defend the company or district in a lawsuit.

ABV recommends Pre-School Year verification of camera alignment, cleaning of the camera lenses, and checking the time, date, and vehicle ID#.
In this way the system can have any errors in data corrected before they may be needed in the new school year.

Special Needs Wheelchair School Bus Video Surveillance Systems to help protect school districts when something occurs in a wheelchair lift-equipped school bus.

Head Start Pre-K Pre-School Nursery School Child Safety Bus Camera Recorder systems can help district or private charter contractor school student transportation service the video evidence they may need when bad things happen.

Alternative School & Juvenile Detention Bus Security Camera-equipped school buses can help maintain an atmosphere of awareness and accountability to those who may have past behavioral issues.

Before & After Care School, Child Day Care Pickup In-vehicle Shuttle Safety Cameras offer private service companies the advantage of having another expert witness, reducing the number of driver assistants they may need in certain applications.

Transportation Ministry Youth Activities Church Bus Camera Systems help provide an electronic conscious to those with lapses in their responsibility and accountability character traits. It is often easier to do the right thing and resist temptation when you know your actions are being recorded.




It is solely the product user's responsibility to verify product functionality when installed, as well as each time it is operated, to prevent missing the documentation of significant events due to operational problems that could have been detected before they prevented necessary video evidence from being documented. Operational verification can be a simple daily visual verification of the DVR LED Status LEDs displayed on the unit faceplate to verify the unit is powered up and recording or the Remote DVR Status module (option). ABV Recommends weekly verification via memory card files playback test to ensure the cameras are all properly aimed, that the camera lenses are clean, that the audio is functional for each camera, and that the DVR is recording when the ignition is on.

"Agency implies Stewardship,” meaning if you own a product, it is your responsibility to maintain the product to ensure you can obtain value from the use or operation of that product.

ABV recommends daily LED DVR status and weekly video recording system checks to ensure all systems record correctly.

Failure to accept agency and responsibility for these customer responsibilities has renedered well documented video evidence useless in the past, and complete abandonment of customer DVR status checks has resulted in not a single recording after a service technician replaced an worn out bus battery and failed to reconnect the Bus Surveillance Camera DVR power cables when reinstalling the nerw bus batteries. Sadly after that battery replacement the system was totally ignored for 7 years until the day a violent fight on the bus had the judge in the cace requesting to see the video file footage and the last file recorded before the batteries were replaced was 7 years ago.


Should you have any questions, concerns, or require more information about Testudo Lifetime System Warranty Bus Camera Systems, various applications or School Bus Student Transportation Video Camera Recorder configurations, we encourage you to let us know and we will be happy to offer our 35+ years of market experience in sales and service of digital recording devices to respond to your concerns or questions.