Running a vehicle fleet on a growing campus isn’t easy. Between shuttling athletic teams, moving staff around, and keeping equipment where it needs to be, schools need a system that gives the right people access to the right vehicles when they need them.
For years, New Hampton School, an independent boarding school in New Hampton, New Hampshire with around 160 employees, relied on a manual key management process.
But as the fleet grew from a handful of buses to nearly 30 vehicles, the old routine of dropping keys into a mail slot and fishing them out of a plastic bucket couldn’t keep up. Keys went missing, staff spent time hunting them down, and liability concerns continued to grow.
Chuck George, Director of Campus Safety, decided it was time for a change. With Keycafe, he turned a messy, manual key exchange into an automated system that the whole team could rely on.
Moving Beyond Manual Key Management
A manual key system can work well when a fleet is small. But as the fleet grows, it becomes harder to keep track of keys and who has access to them.
At New Hampton School, all key usage used to run through the athletic director and equipment managers, with keys handed out by hand and dropped back through a door mail slot.
"Sometimes they got returned right after. Sometimes they disappeared for a few days, and there was just no organization to who had what keys," explained Chuck. "Oftentimes, people would need a vehicle, and the keys were missing. So we would have to hunt them down. It worked back in the day when it was really small, but as we have grown, it just wasn't sustainable."
The real problem was accountability, or the lack of it. Nobody had a clear view of who had a key, why they had it, or when it would be returned.
Automating Vehicle Access with Fleetio and Keycafe
When New Hampton School was looking for a fleet management system to handle vehicle maintenance and assignments, they chose Fleetio. The direct integration between Fleetio and Keycafe then made it easy to connect vehicle bookings with key access.
Now the whole booking and key access process runs on its own:
Booking: The athletic department or staff members submit a vehicle request form.
Automation: Vehicle assignments go into Fleetio, which trigger a Keycafe booking right away.
Access: Faculty and staff get an automated email with a unique access code.
Pickup: Users walk up to the Keycafe Smartbox, right where the vehicles are parked, enter their code, pick up the key, and go.
With this integration, there was no longer a need for double data entry or manual reservation tracking.
Driving accountability and financial ROI
For someone overseeing a fleet of nearly 30 vehicles, liability is always a concern. Knowing where each vehicle is and who is driving it is essential.
"Accountability is a huge thing for me. I won't say that I'm a control freak, but it's nice knowing where things are," Chuck explained.
The financial benefits were also clear. A modern vehicle key can cost anywhere from $400 to $500 to replace, so avoiding lost keys can save the school money. Better visibility into who is using each vehicle and when also helps the system pay for itself.
Keycafe’s automated reminders prompt staff to return keys if they forget, so Chuck’s team doesn’t have to spend time chasing people down.
Simple adoption for campus staff
Introducing new technology at a school can be a challenge. Chuck wasn’t sure how faculty and staff would respond, but the transition to Keycafe went more smoothly than he expected.
“I work at a place where people are very skeptical of new things,” Chuck said. “But it’s actually very simple. I literally get compliments from our faculty and staff on a weekly basis. I can’t tell you how many times people say to me: "This is the best thing we’ve ever done.”
Because the system is self-serve, staff can pick up and return vehicle keys on their own, without having to track down an administrator each time they need access.
What's next for campus access
After seeing the benefits of automated fleet management, New Hampton School is already exploring other ways Keycafe can support campus access.
The school is currently testing Keycafe for a new outdoor campus pavilion, with plans to connect bookings through Outlook. They are also considering expanding Keycafe to the facilities department to manage key access for external vendors and contractors.
By replacing a manual key exchange process with secure, digital key management, New Hampton School now has a more accountable and scalable way to manage access across campus.
👉 See how Keycafe can help your school simplify vehicle and key management.
