CONCORD, N.C. – A lunch and learn session shared Transfinder’s integrated software and hardware tools and resources to help transportation departments efficiently deal with both daily routines and intermittent challenges.
Zachary Moren, manager of enablement and engineering for session sponsor Transfinder, noted that technology isn’t a magical solution apart from careful integration, process and workflows. “Our company helps one in three students get to school safer every day,” he stated.
He shared that Transfinder focuses on a unified platform and instantaneous information updates. This, he said helps districts serve their stakeholders — families and district administration — in a more efficient way.
The process begins with onboarding student registrations, which he said he’s seen starts with Google forms at many districts. Transfinder’s integrated registration process allows parental input, feeds the information into a student record, and adds it into the routing software, if applicable.
The anchor of it all is a robust routing application, which for Transfinder is its Routefinder Plus. Moren explained that marrying this with bus GPS and student ridership data tightens things up and builds trust in the system. That information can then be confidently shared through parent apps to reduce calls to the office.
For their part, parent apps should be more than a GPS bus tracker, Moren said. They should provide transparent information on their child’s journey to and from school every day.
School bus driver input is a crucial piece of the puzzle, Moren declared. To eliminate handwritten notes on route sheets, automatically updating data accessed via tablets helps make drivers’ jobs easier and improve on-time performance. Tablets also allow drivers to easily create alerts on road hazards or routing errors.
Moren said he’s seen many districts start implementing student ridership data on special needs buses before rolling it out fleet-wide. They may first implement manual student check-in before RFID cards. Either way, he said, with Transfinder, this information is instantly shared with district administrators who can give parents answers on student location.
“Worse than sharing no information is sharing bad information,” he remarked.
When a bus breaks down, Moren said, dispatch can use Transfinder software to see exactly who is on the bus at the time and send notifications to impacted families.
For bus or driver replacements, he said Transfinder’s integrated resource substitution systems tie bus inspections to parent apps for more accurate information on things like bus numbers, also eliminating the need for staff to enter data twice.
Moren noted that field trips and fleet maintenance are other areas he’s observing which districts want to bring together into the larger technology stack to improve information sharing and resource utilization.
With data dashboards being important to transportation departments to share with district administration, Moren confirmed that Transfinder’s platform allows customizable comparisons and analysis to be made.
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He shared the story of Springfield Public Schools in Oregon, which had to fire 11 drivers and still cover all 55 routes. Staff used Transfinder’s Trip Absorption feature to consolidate routes and less than a week later sent updated information to parents.
Bo Bowman, the new transportation director for Benton Community Schools in Indiana, said he wouldn’t have been able to open the 2024-2025 school year without Transfinder. Instead of making 1,100 phone calls, he pushed relevant information out to parents via the app.
Sharing accurate information builds trust with parents while inaccurate information negatively affects that trust, Moren noted. School bus drivers should also be able to safely be rerouted back on track after a wrong turn or road obstruction. Laramie County School District #1 in Wyoming uses parent app Stopfinder paired with driver app Wayfinder to help solve these issues.
Customer service is crucial as well. “Technology [implementation] is a partnership with a company that is either able to be there for you or not,” Moren noted.
During the Q&A portion of the session, Moren clarified that Transfinder’s tablets aren’t required for use of its bus inspection software Servicefinder, which can be accessed via a QR code scanned by a driver’s personal cellphone or other device.
Transfinder’s systems can accommodate split custody or other multiple-home family situations, he confirmed.
Scenario-based routing is available so distinctions can be made for am vs. pm routes, yellow buses vs. activity buses, areas that can flood, and more. Moren established that zones and reports can be set up to track buses that are driven into places they are not supposed to go.
Photos by Vince Rios Creative
