A webinar gave advice on meeting community needs with school bus service while also making efficient operational decisions.
“We know back to school is behind us, but the heavy lifting is not over,” said Tammy Cook, senior transportation advisor and board member of webinar sponsor Pathwise, during the Thursday presentation
The other panelists were Michael Roche, VP of customer engagement and business development for EZRouting, and Carl Allen, chief executive officer of 4MATIV, both of whom served as transportation directors for school districts.
Roche noted that a big challenge for school districts is bridging the gap between planned and actual ridership. He encouraged districts to use anything from manual headcounts to RFID card tracking to determine actual ridership numbers. Allen added that teachers and school staff can help by noting which buses seem emptier.
“You want to be sure your data is grounded in reality and not just assumptions from the summer,” Roche said. He and Allen advised loading accurate bell time data into routing software and coordinating with individual schools, which assists in making small adjustments in bus routing and tiered schedules.
“Buses will fill up with kids or time,” Allen quipped.
Each fall, Roche said that transportation staff, who often have spent the previous months in school startup “survival mode,” have a chance to catch their breath and look for efficiencies. He advised re-analyzing routes that have 25 to 50 percent underutilization.
Ridership data can be used to drive smarter scheduling, said Cook. While a headcount could tally the same ridership numbers across different days, Allen urged drilling into the data and counting exactly which students are riding the bus and when.
While seeking efficiencies, Allen cautioned districts to be aware of compliance issues, such as ensuring students with special needs always receive their legally mandated transportation. When routing, Roche said he adds buffers since student ridership can increase during the winter months or ones that coincide with individual sports off seasons.
“Just because they aren’t riding now doesn’t mean they won’t,” Cook agreed.
Allen noted that stop removal or consolidation boosts efficiency but requires communication and collaboration with parents, since they have already planned for their set bus stops. Parents may be more inclined to agree to bus stop changes if they know their stop can be reinstated, he said.
Roche agreed that due diligence should be performed to ensure that no one is using a particular bus stop before it is removed outright. He also noted that some districts use vans or sedans to shuttle rural students to a centralized bus stop location.
“Be thoughtful and communicative and transparent with your families,” Allen encouraged.
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Roche advised soliciting community and district staff feedback on bus stop and routing changes. For instance, having a school receive students five minutes early could get 20 buses back on the route on time, but union requirements affect the hours school staff can work. Negotiation is necessary, Allen said.
Allen advised collecting key performance indicators – including on-time performance metrics, safety metrics, bus capacity utilization and driver performance – and then using them to effect changes, which should be slowly implemented so families and staff can effectively adjust. He also encouraged districts to route students as they enroll throughout the year, respond promptly to parent concerns, and reevaluate operations to ensure progress is being made.
Having this data helps legitimize transportation department requests and effect necessary changes at the district administration level, Roche underscored.
Roche pointed out that a route could be covered but still consistently running two hours late or repeatedly requiring substitute drivers, which signals improvement is needed. He noted that efficiency means different things to different operations. Each district has its own goals, with the ultimate goal being safe service to students.
