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There's probably no more stressful time in school transportation management than preparing for a new school year. You have a lot of balls to juggle, and dropping even one could cause a disaster on back-to-school day.
Fortunately, many of these problems and stressors can be mitigated with better technology. A small investment in software could make your life much easier, and help ensure a great first day of the year.
What Are The Biggest Back-To-School Transportation Challenges?
1 - Creating Proper Routes
Of course, the biggest challenge is ensuring you have bus routes ready for every eligible student. In the past, a district might spend weeks simply trying to put routes together. Now, a modern bus routing software package allows you to create full routes of any size in a matter of minutes, and keep trying different combinations until you find an optimal solution.
The best way to prepare for this is to verify all your students' addresses or other pickup/dropoff points, so the generated maps will be reliable.
2 - Dealing With Staffing Shortages
In 2024, a shocking 91% of districts reported a shortage of bus drivers - and there's no sign that 2025 will be any better. There's a good chance you will have fewer drivers than you want, or need.
Before cutting routes or forcing kids off the bus, look into alternative solutions. Many districts have had success moving to a staggered bell schedule where different cohorts start school at different times in the morning. This, in turn, allows you to run multiple routes with the same buses/drivers, allowing you to stretch your workforce further.
Again, bus routing software make this process easier.
3 - Communicating With Parents
It's not enough to have good routes; parents also need to know where and when to drop off their children. You'll want to reach out to them through as many contact methods as possible - mail, email, voice, etc - to help ensure parents are informed.
It can also be useful to implement a parental notification app which parents are encouraged to install on their phones. It gives you a direct method of communicating, as well as allowing parents to look up relevant information like bus route times for themselves.
BusBoss can help make back-to-school easier! Whether you need improved routing software, or consulting services for streamlining your transportation management office, we have over 25 years' experience.
Contact us to learn more.
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PRESIDENT
Sonia has been involved with BusBoss since the late 1990’s, and has personally overseen many projects for various customers ranging from large urban and suburban districts to smaller rural school districts from all over the country.
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