Routing at School Startup: A Never-Ending Challenge
Written by Taylor Hannon-Ekbatani |
taylor@stnonline.com
meet this year’s changes. Yet many districts are having to make unprecedented changes to its routes, due to the severe driver shortage. In Seattle Public Schools, Assistant Superintendent Bev Redmond shared with community members via a district statement that some school bus routes would not be in service for the start of school, which started on Sept. 7. Redmond added that for the first time in 30 years the district also began the school year with two transportation providers—First Student and Zum. She noted that each company will share 50 percent of the routes. “In May, SPS communicated with families about the
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impact that the national bus driver shortage would likely have on local school bus transportation, but we are optimistic about our partnerships with both providers,” she continued. “They are working hard to ramp up for the best possible start to the school year. Both have indicated robust recruitment efforts and are hopeful that their efforts will benefit our families as the school year progresses and in the long term.” SPS told School Transportation News that it was not
providing interviews about transportation at the time of this report. Meanwhile, Anchorage School District in Alaska
implemented a rotating school bus service for the start of the new year. Due to the school bus driver shortage, the general routes had to be divided into three cohorts and provided busing on a planned rotation. Students with disabilities who have related service of transportation on their Individualized Education Programs and students who live within the district’s 1.5-mile walking radius were not affected.
t the start of each school year, transportation staff members go through the same routing rigmarole. Many directors relayed they start by using last year’s routes and update them to
Kerry Somerville, the fleet business development
executive for passenger transportation at Safe Fleet, said that in his 35 years working on school startup, routing problems have never truly changed. He noted that transportation personnel are constantly having to make adjustments due to changes over the summer, student rollover, and driver changes due to shortages and new hires. “Technology has changed the face of transportation
dramatically over the years,” he commented, recalling his first experience of routing at a school district, which consisted of a large-scale map laid out on a large conference table. Dots where students lived were connected by a dozen different colored lines drawn by markers to indicate where he thought the routes should go. “Today’s technology allows me to turn a process
that used to take weeks into mere hours … the ability to place tens of thousands of kids on a map in mere minutes, to have a software program that can look at and evaluate all the characteristics of the stops and make recommendations on what routes should look like is invaluable,” Somerville continued. “Even small districts with five or 10 buses find value in computerized mapping and being able to visualize where your routes travel.” He noted that if implemented correctly, routing
software improves a district’s efficiency while also saving money and drivers. Many transportation directors stated they are relying
on technology to help with the routing challenges. For instance, Worcester Public Schools in Massachusetts was short about 62 school bus drivers for the start of school, said Michael Freeman, the assistant director of transportation. He noted that instead of running 101 large-bus routes, the district reduced it to 74, while also opting to take its transportation services in-house this school year. Freeman said that all ridership-eligible students, those who live over two miles from school, are loaded into Versatrans by Tyler Technologies, now
19% of transportation directors/supervisors have implemented new routing software within the past year.
(Out of 88 respondents to a recent STN magazine Survey.)
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