YOUR KEEP
COOL
OUR RADIATORS LET YOU
Gaurav Sharda and Judith Crawford (right) discuss making an impact using technology for the company during the 2023 Beacon Leadership Summit.
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job sites, Beacon saw a surge—6,939 new driver leads and a 5.2 percent conversion rate in 2024 alone. Crawford added that his focus didn’t stop at hiring. “With 18,000-plus employees to support, Gaurav launched Beacon Buddy, a virtual assistant built to answer employee questions anytime, anywhere,” she wrote. “With 60 percent of inquiries resolved automatically, it’s saved over 2,000 hours and earned a 97.5 percent CSAT (customer and employee satisfaction rating for ticket resolutions), proving that when technology is empathetic, people feel it.” She added that Sharda also led the automation of over 20 manual, re-
petitive tasks—from student registration to call center reporting—freeing up over 30,000 hours and giving staff more time to focus on what matters most: people. “You can build the fanciest of the solutions, but if people are not going to use it or it does not address any societal problems, it’s basically useless,” Sharda said. “People using the technology for getting a positive outcome, whether it’s for their personal lives, or it’s for professional, or society as a whole, I gravitate toward that.” He said dispatch is continuously fielding calls from parents regarding
late school buses and wondering where the buses are. Plus, he said if a driver calls out in the morning, dispatchers have to adjust the routes and inform parents. He noted the entire process from dispatch to a sub driver is complicating the system. He said just like having turn-by-turn direc- tions is one way to reduce anxiety for drivers, it does the same for parents. “We transport the most precious people out there,” he said, noting that if a bus is a few minutes late, it’s understandable for parents to be anxious of
58 School Transportation News • JULY 2025
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