W
hen Brenda Boyd took on the role of transportation director for Michigan’s Holland Public Schools in 2021, the district was using basic routing software. But she saw a need for more robust technology to
meet needs such as monitoring ridership and having greater accountability of students throughout the entire transportation experience.
After she and her team considered options, the district upgraded
its capabilities by obtaining systems from Tyler Technologies to support routing, student ridership verification and other func- tions. That included Student Transportation Advance, Trip Tracker Advance and Tyler Drive, along with scan badges and Geotab fleet management. Implementation was completed last year on 18 of the fleet’s 20 buses, and Boyd is pleased with the results. “The technology has become so useful on the buses because
the focus of the driver is more on safety, which is always a first priority, but now they are paperless route maps,” Boyd said. “Ac- curate ridership means better student management which means eyes on the road at all times, and all this all starts with routing.” A major plus of the route planning system, she noted, is the
ability to log into the application at any time and send messag- es to drivers, or make changes to routes if needed, even if that’s from home. “If I’m out of the office and data is needed immediately, I’m able
to log in and send it within seconds to the proper authorities,” she said, adding drivers have embraced the system, finding there is less stress from trying to drive and read paper routes. “It’s a cultural change.” She also likes having access to actionable data such as the in-
formation provided for verifying student ridership. “The driver is not just driving the bus, but is also collecting
data,” she said. “You know, for example, when a child gets on the bus and then when that child gets off the bus. It’s all coming into my system and I easily pull that data.” She provided an example of getting a phone call that a child has not made it home. “Well, let me pull that up,” she would say. “I can see that your
child got off this bus at this time at this location.” All this is possible, she explained, because the driver is doing
the data collection. The overall result is that the system’s features benefit the entire department. “The best part,” Boyd said, “is that I can help the drivers more
often because I also now have more time to run the department efficiently.”
Advancing Operations Boyd’s outlook is similar to that of transportation leaders and school districts across the country who embrace telematics and other advanced technology to modernize fleet operations, improve efficiency and ultimately, do a better job of safely trans-
60 School Transportation News • SEPTEMBER 2025
porting the students in their care. The 300-plus bus fleet At Florida’s St. Johns
County School District is equipped with two- way radio systems, GPS trackers and both internal and external camera systems. “These technologies allow us to innovate both
from an operational perspective and a manage- rial perspective,” said Jonah Paxton, the district’s
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