School District Still Finds Savings and Efficiencies with Transfinder's School Transportation Software Seven Years After Implementation
Transfinder has allowed Syosset Central School District the ability to visualize routes, stops, and numbers of students at each stop and improve the safe transport of students.
Situation
Syosset Central School District is located in Long Island, New York. It is a suburban area covering 13.2 square miles. Approximately 7,000 students are transported everyday to 7 elementary schools, 2 middle schools and 1 high school.
Solution
In February 2002 Routefinder Pro was successfully implemented at Syosset Central School District replacing a wall sized magnet board, which had been used for years to route all 64 buses. For the next four years Routefinder Pro was used effectively by Transportation Director, Michael Cotsonas, and according to Mr. Cotsonas, “A highly-efficient feature in Transfinder, called the Resource Scheduler, allowed me to visualize routes, stops, and numbers of students at each stop and improve the safe transport of students.”
When Mr. Cotsonas left the Syosset School District in 2006 to head another transportation office, James Popkin took over as Transportation Supervisor. Having no previous experience with the software, but being eager to learn, Mr. Popkin jumped right in. Within his first year he was able to quickly use the Resource Scheduler to make the operation even more efficient.
Mr. Popkin noticed that some of his drivers had a significant idling time, time that could be used in transporting students. He then looked for and found several elementary school bus trips that fit into this idle time, in effect reducing three buses in all. With each bus costing $54,000 to route each year, this represented a $162,000 annual savings.
Benefits
The Routefinder Pro software has been the transportation routing resource at the Syosset School District for seven years. Mr. Popkin, its most recent user, was able to learn the software quickly and find efficiencies almost instantly.
These savings were then used for instructional purposes and for improving the transportation operation. Mr. Popkin was able to upgrade the district maps and invest in Transfinder’s most recent innovation, Orthoimagery, a satellite map layered on GIS map data. This creates a detail-rich view of landmarks, residences, schools and streets to identify hazards and ensure the safest possible routes for students.
