On March 1, the University of South Florida (USF) Department of Parking & Transportation Services introduced a new program that will provide riders of the USF Bull Runner (the USF Tampa campus shuttle) with enhanced convenience and security. The program is an automatic vehicle location (AVL) system, which is available on the Web, and can be downloaded on mobile hand-held devices. 

The AVL offers several services including the ability to see arrival predictions for all buses at all stops, the ability to track buses along the routes so riders can plan their day accordingly, the ability to set up alerts for recurring use via text message and bus viewing in real-time. In April, USF will also implement automatic passenger counting on buses so riders will be able to know how full a bus is before it arrives. 

The new system can be viewed at www.usfbullrunner.com. To see the application working, click on the "Live Map" and choose a route.  A valid USF ID is required to ride the USF Bull Runner. USF is the only university in the State University System that owns its own buses and offers the AVL program.