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Upper Township School District, NJ Saves $400,000 in Transportation Operating Costs in Weeks 

District Profile

Upper Township School District is located in Petersburg, New Jersey. The district is made up of a high school, middle school, elementary school and primary school. The transportation department transports 2,400 students; 14 runs are made to each the high school and middle school and 19 to each the primary and elementary. 

Situation

Faced with the familiar economic challenges of many school districts nationwide, Upper Township had to find ways to increase efficiencies for a budget that was losing $900,000. In order to weather the significant loss in funding, the transportation office needed to implement shorter bus runs by changing tiers and bus stops. 

Solution

Beth Hendrickson, the main router for the transportation department, knowing that these changes would be imminent in the coming year, started her analysis. By summer Beth created a duplicate of all her current maps with their runs and student information so that she could begin to evaluate where changes could be made without disrupting her actual routes.

Previously on a two-tier system, the high school and middle school had the same pickup time. Then, buses would go to the primary and elementary schools for their pickup. By changing the start times of the middle, primary and elementary schools, Beth was able to utilize the same buses and drivers to do all the runs, in effect, creating a three tier system. The buses would make their 14 runs with the high school, then pick up middle school students for their 14 runs, and then make 19 runs with the primary and elementary school children. 

Using this plan Beth also realized she could save mileage off her routes by simply making the stops on the main streets of her district. Rather than driving into cul-de-sacs or community developments she could have the children walk out to the main road for bus pick-up. This was a fairly easy adjustment, because her Routefinder Pro software provides a detailed map that clearly indicates where cul-de-sacs are located. With an easy click and drag of her mouse she made the routes a straight shot with children walking out from their homes and boarding buses from the right side of the road to ensure safety. 

Benefits

With Routefinder Pro’s easy mapping and maneuverability, her adjustments took only two weeks to accomplish. Although transportation is ever changing with new community developments and student populations, her adjustments were easy to incorporate, and the overall impact Beth made on her budget yielded $400,000 in savings for the district.