An Austin Independent School District transportation router works with TripSpark.
“We’re able to provide apps to parents and school officials to see the arrival of their buses to their stops and schools.” Of course, with any software, some challeng-
es are unavoidable. “For longtime route planners, new technol- ogy can be hard to adopt, especially if folks are used to certain processes and procedures,”
the ability to duplicate routes and experiment with dif- ferent scenarios without the risk of losing current data. For Kevin McCafferty, transportation operations manager for Colorado Springs School District in Colo- rado, the ability to see where the student lives and how this relates to other students and current routes is para- mount. The 23,000-student district has used Compass from Safe Fleet for the past seven years. “The software allows the router to create more efficient
routes,” he noted. “And having the student information available for all office staff allows us to respond to ques- tions more easily by any staff member.” At Portland Public Schools in Oregon, Tyler’s Student
Transportation software allows multiple transporta- tion groups and school staff to see details such as route information, special transport needs and effective dates. Those benefitting from readily available data range from operations and call center staff to special education teachers and administrators, said Teri Brady, director of student transportation. “The correct software and map can simplify route planning and upkeep for larger operations,” she said, noting that approximately 1,200 students receive spe- cialized transportation services in her district. A bonus with routing software is the potential, in some cases, for trimming back on the scope of operations. “We’re able to import all student info from district
records, either special needs or general education, into our software nightly in order to schedule them correctly,” said Kris Hafezizadeh, executive direc- tor of transportation and vehicle services for Austin Independent School District in Texas, which has an enrollment of more than 74,000 students. He noted that importing correct data into the software
is a huge piece to making sure routes are effective and efficient. “Just this year, we were able to combine and reduce 18 routes,” he reported. “That’s a direct impact to funds and 18 more drivers not needed.” Austin ISD uses TripSpark for all routing, scheduling and live GPS. “It’s a one-stop shop,” Hafezizadeh said.
38 School Transportation News • JANUARY 2023
Portland’s Brady noted. In addition, some software lacks a calendar or effective date schedule. “We’ve had to create a system of rollovers to meet our needs for a planning area, holding area and live area,” she said. “Otherwise, GPS compares against changes that have not been implemented yet and customer service would not be able to respond to pick-up time inquiries.” Too, multi-day and multi-destination options can be
difficult to use without printing an excess of paper. Lags in fully utilizing data may also present prob- lems. At Colorado Springs, the process starts with nightly downloads from the district’s student informa- tion system, or SIS. Transportation staff then assign the students automatically for regular education and manu- ally for special education. The routing software creates a download for the SIS and the stop info is then available to the school in question. “This creates a two-day delay before the information is in the SIS system,” McCafferty said. “For students [with special needs], we call the parents and the school and give them the transportation information.”
Making a Winning Choice When it comes to selecting software, size does matter,
according to Toth in Wisconsin. “The larger the district the more complex the routing,” he said, “especially with special needs transportation.” He added that for smaller districts such as Mount
Horeb, which has five to seven special education routes on any given day, routing will be manageable with most routing software. But the situation may be different with larger student populations. “In previous work, I’ve experienced districts running
anywhere from 30 to 50 special education runs a day,” he noted. “An operation like this would likely benefit from robust scheduling and dispatching features that may not be offered with all programs.” Decisions made in selecting software should take into account more than just features and cost, explained Akron’s Andexler. “When choosing software, you want a
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