Use Route Software To Keep Things On Track

School district transportation managers know: there's an amazing variety of challenges that could arise on any given day with the school's bus system. From flat tires to backed up traffic to children on the wrong bus, you need to be able to respond to challenges as they occur quickly and efficiently. With so many precious riders involved, safe response is your number one priority.

Bus tracking and route software keeps your bus operations on track. Rather than doing everything by hand and relying on radio reports from bus drivers, you can centralize all of your vehicle management on a single computer. Routing, student lists, driver records, and full historical data can all be in one place.

Moment-by-moment updates from vehicle GPS trackers give your route software even more power to oversee operations. Being able to track your vehicles on the road will open up entire new pathways for optimizing your bus routes.

So, let's take a look at a few ways that bus route software can keep things running smoothly!

How School Vehicle Route Software Keeps You On Track

• Update maps quickly and easily: Doing it by hand, it can often take all summer just to create the first set of bus routes. Trying to “patch in” updates on a day to day basis, while keeping the schedules tight, can be a major challenge. However, modern bus routing software can handle these changes easily, creating optimal maps time after time based on whatever criteria you choose.

• Add new roads as they're made: Rather than having to wait for infrequent updates from map companies, like with a lot of GPS units, you can do it yourself! Our simple interface allows you to draw new roads onto the map, including information like speed limits. As soon as a new road opens in town, you can be ready to make use of it.

• Improve your emergency response: In-bus GPS units make it simple to locate any vehicle in the event of any unexpected occurrence. From a simple flat tire, to having to call for EMS vehicles, having real-time feedback shaves minutes off response times. Alerts within the system will even warn you the moment something unexpected occurs, such as a route deviation. You'll always be on top of what's happening on the road.

• Protect yourself: Accidents happen. Even if no one is hurt, they can still create an administrative and insurance nightmare, leading to higher costs and increased premiums. Bus route software gives you the data you need to win these battles, providing insurance companies with the proof that your driver wasn't at fault. Some insurance companies may even offer discounts if you can demonstrate superior driving within your fleet.

• Deal with complex schedules: Not every student has a typical 8-3 schedule, with the same pickup and dropoff point. Students whose schedules change from day to day, or who stay with divorced parents on different days, can still be quickly and easily accommodated within the system. This is one of those problems that could take hours to solve with a corkboard, but only seconds with a modern system.

• Plan for the future: Route management software allows unlimited “what if” scenario routes, giving you more freedom to plan for upcoming changes. If a new school is being planned, or a redistricting is looming, you'll be able to quickly provide information on the impact any plans would have on the school's bus system. These hypothetical maps can be saved and archived as well, to be investigated as the plans evolve.

Bus route software is an indispensable tool among school transportation staff across the country. It improves upon older manual management methods in nearly every possible way, while fitting onto any modern Windows computer.

If you need to keep your bus operations on track, bus route software is how to do it!