Joe Russo, a school bus router for Guilderland Central School District in New York, uses Transfinder’s Routefinder software.
worry about it,” he explained. “The kids won’t be cross- ing where they shouldn’t be crossing. Literally you can’t route a kid that’s blocked from crossing an unsafe area. That’s the biggest feature that stands out in my mind because we got such a complex district.” Even amid a driver shortage, Lipps said that optimizing
routing has led to improved service for the students and their families, as provided by his 78 regular drivers plus 10 support staff who also have CDLs. Using the Routefinder technology in partnership with the Stopfinder parent app, that allows parents to track their children’s bus location, has also been a success, he added. “The engagement on Stopfinder is outstanding,” said
Lipps. “Our parents really enjoy it, and they appreciate it, and they very much use it.” Lipps said that his drivers haven’t encountered frus-
tration from parents since Stopfinder was implemented. The parents can see the location of the bus and its dis- tance from the bus stop. Lipps noted that the added benefit of Routefinder and
Stopfinder ensures that the transportation team always knows exactly where the bus is on its route, not simply the GPS location of each bus. He explained that if a par-
58 School Transportation News • MARCH 2025
ent does have questions about their child’s route, he or his team can reply within the app to quickly address any concerns. He said he is looking for school bus drivers to be
involved in the technology implementation process and to keep the Routefinder information displayed in the transportation office so everyone can stay informed and on the same page. He also said that he is looking to add student ridership verification. Dennis Grey, another Transfinder customer who is in
the process of upgrading to Routefinder Plus, is using the software to manage his growing district of Walton County in Florida. “Being a well-known tourist destination as well as one the fastest growing counties in America the increase in population, traffic, road work has been a real challenge, the exponential student population growth and buses having to do waves due to the increased ridership causes delays with on-time arrivals,” said Grey. He continued, adding that he has seen an increase
in routing efficiency using Routefinder for 70 current routes that will need to be expanded to 85. The software has also been useful, he said, “to see detailed ridership
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