SPECIAL REPORT
Data & Routing Analytics for Fuel Efficiency
Written by Carol Brzozowski S
chool transportation operations are increasingly turning to routing data, GPS, telematics, mainte- nance records and analytics tools to reduce fuel use, unnecessary mileage and related operating costs. Transfinder recently announced that transportation
leaders in 30 states cited operational challenges limiting route optimization in the software and hardware through the company’s School Bus Routing Efficiency Poll, with fuel costs being one pain point. The company noted Cal- ifornia’s diesel per gallon prices in late May soared nearly 66 percent since April 2025 compared to 26 percent for gasoline, with one district turning to Transfinder routing software to help ensure logistically efficient routes. “A route is never just a line on a map; it is a financial
equation that directly impacts a district’s bottom line,” noted Ron Johnson, director of support operations for Indian Prairie School District #204 in Aurora, Illinois. “As school districts nationwide grapple with tightening capital budgets, driver shortages and ambitious environ- mental goals, transportation directors are being asked to do more with less.” True operational efficiency requires moving be-
yond reactive management, Johnson said, adding that transportation departments can transform themselves into data-driven strategic assets by leveraging advanced routing analytics, enforcing smart idling policies and optimizing fuel procurement. Indian Prairie uses Tyler Technologies Versatrans
Routing and Planning with Tyler Drive tablets to analyze its routing practices and ensure reductions in fuel use and vehicle wear. “We positioned our dispatch centers and vehicle ga-
rage locations to reduce excessive deadhead miles,” he said. “Miles driven without students on board generate zero operational value while burning fuel and wearing down vehicles.” The district has ongoing efforts to review outdated
routes and changing ridership numbers. “A few years ago, we re-did our school boundaries, sig-
nificantly reducing the miles driven,” Johnson said. “We also incorporated a practice to reduce idling and multiple stops in the same area. Left-hand turns against heavy traffic, stops placed too close together, routing through highly congested bottlenecks increase idle times, or slow average transit speeds and drives up fuel burn.” Fuel efficiency in school transportation is funda- mentally a systems problem, not just a driver behavior
20 School Transportation News • AUGUST 2026
problem, said Craig Berndt, Geotab business segment manager for people transportation. “A bus burning excess fuel is often a symptom of a
route that was designed years ago against student pop- ulations and road networks that no longer exist,” he said, adding routing analytics make inefficiencies visible. By overlaying GPS tracking data against planned
routes with Geotab’s routing partners, Berndt said pat- terns emerge quickly such as routes that consistently run 15 percent longer than planned, corridors where two routes shadow each other, and deadhead miles accumu- lating because a terminal is poorly positioned relative to the first pickup. Districts taking a data-driven approach to routing
optimization typically find 8- to 12-percent mileage re- ductions in the first year of active management, he noted. “If you are not focused on efficiency, your routing can
quickly overlap and become inefficient,” added Jason Hibbard, supervisor of transportation for the Chenango Valley Central School District in Binghamton, New York. “We focus on deadhead mileage. We are servicing multi- ple out-of-district locations. We constantly adjust routes to limit the time students are missing class time due to transportation and bell schedule conflicts.” District data shows areas where a diesel bus could be run instead of gasoline to mitigate excessive brake use with the gas buses not having a supplemental exhaust brake, Hibbard said. Meanwhile, Kathy Calkins, transportation director for
North Clackamas School District in Oregon, said the district is using routing analytics to consolidate paths, eliminate excessive deadhead miles and ensure high bus capacity utilization. Rich Casto, transportation supervisor at Jackson
County Schools in West Virginia, agreed. He shared that analytics are playing a strong role in creating shorter, better and smoother routes. “When you’re looking at the ability to possibly com- bine a route without having that eagle’s eye view of mapping and routing with analytics, you really wouldn’t be able to see that without a lot of extra work,” he added. Kacy L. Davis, Sr., the transportation director at St. Louis Public Schools in Missouri noted routing analytics are central to fuel efficiency “because every mile and every stop has a cost.” St. Louis provides student transportation through a partnership with Zum Services, using realtime GPS,
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