Fuel Efficiency is Focus of Dept of Education Grants

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (readMedia) -- On Tuesday, May 20, the School Business Services division of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education awarded transportation routing software grants to select school district applicants across the state. Designed to make sure the big yellow school buses are driving their routes as efficiently as possible, the grant made available a total of $400,000.

There were two vendors approved for the grant and the majority of the grant monies went to 21 districts that designated Transfinder transportation management software.

In this era of exorbitant fuel costs, with many districts paying more than $4.00 per gallon for diesel fuel, the state saw the need to help districts that are currently routing their bus fleets manually. An additional focus was those districts that contract with outside vendors for their entire school bus operation. When the district manages the process using routing software, vendors are held more accountable for the number of buses they have on the road and the capacity at which they’re running them.

“We’re thrilled to be helping even more districts in Massachusetts realize the benefits and efficiencies of routing software,” said Antonio Civitella, President and CEO of Transfinder. “Not only are these districts going to be improving their routing, but with the Transfinder package they’ll also have a district-wide intranet solution that will allow information look-ups, field trip requests and approvals, and a multitude of reporting capabilities.”