“Technology can only solve a district’s transportation problems if it’s built around
the way the people who use it every day actually live and work,” said Corey McMahon, HopSkipDrive chief product and technology officer. “We’ve brought those principles to school districts and families: A strong first-time experience, proactive communication in the channels people already use, interfaces that fit existing workflows, and plain language throughout.” For example, Daily Queue is a view-only dashboard with live bus ETAs and up- dates, “that requires no training or expertise” to use.
“We started by talking to the school site staff we wanted to support, and it became clear a dedicated app wouldn’t work. Staff on personal phones didn’t want to download another app, staff on school-issued phones often couldn’t, and some had no device at their desk at all,” said McMahon. “We made Daily Queue a browser-based view that can also be printed and carried to the pick-up or drop-off line.” HopSkipDrive also offers
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“The team at AlphaRoute are smart, responsive partners who are deeply committed to their work. By combining our district experience with
their MIT-developed algorithms, we’ve achieved a win-win for our budget and our drivers.” — Leander ISD (TX)
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60 School Transportation News • SEPTEMBER 2026
RideIQ for districts to book, track, and manage rides, and the CareDrivers that provide the rides use an app with a specific safety pro- cess for every ride. Students can track their driver on their phone or smartwatch. Rather than just providing a manual, the company ac- tually calls each user before their first ride to walk them through the technology. McMahon said people are eager to use the platforms once they see in practice how they work. “That’s the pattern we
look for: Something that visibly saves people time and stress from day one, rather than asking them to adopt technology on faith,” McMahon said. While vendors and district
leaders understand the anx- iety that drivers, parents and others may feel about the changing landscape, they all emphasized that new tools are creating a win-win situ- ation for everyone involved. “It’s not the same school
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bus we rode on when we were kids,” said Wen. “The new technologies out there are just phenomenal.” ●
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