Routing platform addresses more than transportation needs in rural Indiana district Rossville Consolidated uses Transfinder software to increase operational efficiency and improve safety.
In the Rossville Consolidated School District, a small rural school system located 60 minutes north of Indianapolis, the tipping point in the decision to abandon paper-based routing came after an angry confrontation between a parent and bus driver about the way his child was being treated on the bus.
“I only had 10 drivers at the time, and I knew the driver’s voice, but didn’t know where he was,” recalls Dr. James Hanna, who is both superintendent and director of transportation for the district.
Thankfully, the situation was soon resolved, but Hanna says the lack of insight into the bus route and location made him look for a better solution that could improve safety as well as efficiency.
New capabilities in a digital platform
Since using Transfinder’s Wayfinder and Routefinder PLUS products in conjunction with a GPS tracking system, Hanna can now monitor the exact location of all his buses. In addition, the
product suite builds bus routes with the help of data pulled from the school district’s student management system and updates information daily. It also supplies drivers with both the name and photograph of each student at all bus stops.
The district transports about 400 students daily. The afternoon and evening schedule is busier than mornings, when many parents in the district drop off their kids on the way to work. “That’s an example of a routing adjustment,” he says. “You have to be able to adjust your routes to accommodate different morning and afternoon schedules. Transfinder gives me the ability to easily make changes like that, while ensuring no bus gets overloaded.”
Out of harm’s way
Hanna says the technology was put to a serious test earlier this year. The father of a student who had allegedly been assaulted by another student had called Hanna on a Sunday to let him know what happened, and that law enforcement was involved. Realizing the bus route needed to be altered to alleviate the situation, Hanna was able to quickly make an adjustment to the route, by moving students from one route to another.
“I was able to do that because I had the software to make that adjustment, and I could look at the students involved and make that change,” he explains. “That’s how crucial this software is.”
Given Rossville’s small size of about 900 students, Hanna points out that the district’s bus drivers may be more familiar with their students than in larger school systems, which adds another layer of safety.
That familiarity means they know who is usually at home to get a student off the bus, for example, and if anything appears unusual or concerning. Hanna says Rossville’s bus drivers feel that having Transfinder means they have the tools to keep students much safer.
In another recent example, Hanna recalls hearing discussions on his police scanner that local police were responding to reports of a domestic dispute in a neighborhood, at the end of the school day when buses were heading out on afternoon routes bringing students home. “I could pinpoint the location, and we had the driver wait to drop off the student in that neighborhood until after police had cleared up the situation,” he says. “We can quickly
respond to any safety concerns like that.”
Responding to medical emergencies Hanna says the district also recently decided to switch all buses to cellular radios, which have essentially unlimited range, instead of land-mobile radios, which had limited range. Soon afterwards, a bus driver called in a student medical emergency to the dispatcher, who could see the exact location of the bus in Wayfinder. The
district’s maintenance director, who also happened to be a retired firefighter and EMT, arrived at the scene and helped administer aid to a student before the ambulance arrived.
In another instance, a bus driver alerted dispatch that she had to pull over and evacuate students as steam billowed from the vehicle, due to a blown radiator hose in the engine compartment.
“After she called it in, we were able to see the exact location of the bus, and we deployed the fire department and our maintenance staff, as well as another school bus, right where they were.
We were able to contact parents on the particular route to inform them that all students were safe but delayed. All the students got on the other bus and rode home,” he says.
Family accommodations
It can be challenging for many school transportation departments to accommodate the needs of different family situations, but Hanna says that Transfinder has helped tremendously. If a student lives in two households as part of a shared custody agreement or a certain post-school care arrangement, Hanna notes that Transfinder provides the capability to schedule alternate stops along bus routes for each student.
“Some students may be going to different houses on different days of the week, and you can include that in the bus route and bus schedule,” he says. “Some have their grandparents’ house as an alternate stop if needed, and I can include that with the location and time frame in Transfinder.”
Hanna considers one of the biggest benefits to Transfinder is the ability to have all his students properly routed from the start, smoothing out the beginning of the school year.
Every year, he provides teachers with a grade level roster of students assigned to particular bus routes. This list ensures students are loaded on the right bus at the end of the school day.
The route sheet includes the name of each student, their parents’ name and telephone
number, as well as the driver’s name and bus number.
Flexibility and ease of use have significantly simplified Hanna’s job over the years. “I can take a student off of one route and easily move them over to another route,” he explains. “I can readjust and recalculate routes as needed, and knowing where buses are at all times gives me a lot of peace of mind. Transfinder has given us more flexibility, efficiency, and safety.”
