As one of the largest school transportation operations in Illinois, Indian Prairie School District 204 runs a fleet of nearly 300 vehicles and more than 1,200 routes. When the impact of the bus driver shortage grew in 2019, maintaining this operation required a greater number of substitute drivers. Ron Johnson, the district’s director of support operations, looked to assist their sub drivers — as well as address a need for improved parent communication — with technology.
Indian Prairie has a longstanding partnership with Tyler Technologies, having been a user of Tyler’s routing software since 2008. Johnson turned to Tyler for solutions that would integrate with their existing software, ultimately becoming an early adopter of Tyler Drive tablets in the 2018-2019 school year. With Tyler Drive tablets installed on the district’s vehicles, paper route sheets were eliminated. Regular and substitute drivers gained turn-by-turn voice navigation through the tablets, reducing driver distraction — and, thereby, increasing student safety.
To learn more about Tyler Technologies’ student transportation solutions that connect drivers, routers, and parents, watch their Tyler Drive webinar.
Driving Efficiency
Tyler Drive tablets have also helped increase route efficiency and on-time performance at Indian Prairie.
“Before implementing Tyler Drive, our on-time network was 80.02%,” said Johnson. “Pre-pandemic, Tyler Drive helped us increase our on-time network to more than 97.50%. In 2024, with a shortage of 15 drivers, we were at 95.33%.”
Johnson attributes these improvements to drivers sticking to the approved routes that Tyler Drive guides them through. Substitute drivers are less likely to get lost, and visibility into driver activity and real-time GPS tracking helps identify inefficiencies.
Keeping Parents in the Know
In addition to using Tyler’s student transportation software and Tyler Drive tablets, Indian Prairie keeps parents informed with Tyler’s parent communication mobile app.
“Our parents were asking for a way to be alerted when a bus would arrive late and to receive timely communication from schools about bus incidents,” said Johnson. The parent app integrates with the district’s other Tyler solutions, leveraging data and dynamic communication that delivers an improved experience and real-time information for parents.
Johnson said, “Parents have access to route information and ETA, and we can notify parents of a delay on their specific route.”
Tyler’s parent app is flexible, allowing both manual and automated information and communication. While districts can manually send targeted messages to parents, approved updates in Tyler Drive automatically sync with the parent app. This gives parents instant notifications about changes to the driver, bus, or ETA for their children’s routes, without adding to the transportation team’s workload. Tyler Drive’s turn-by-turn directions also support parent peace of mind — substitute drivers can follow routes exactly as the regular drivers do, so parents know what to expect.
Leaders in Driver Support
Beyond improving their own operations with Tyler’s solutions, Indian Prairie has helped pave the way for other Illinois districts looking to implement in-vehicle driver tablets like Tyler Drive.
“We worked with the State Police, Local Police, and Department of Transportation to ensure we were incorporating safe and sound practices in the use of a Mobile Data Terminal (Tyler Drive), including the installation location and driver best practices,” said Johnson. “We wanted to ensure we were not adding a device that would create a driver distraction, as some agencies were concerned about.”
Citing increased safety for students, the district also coordinated with its State Board of Education on legislation that could make the purchase of driver tablets a reimbursable transportation expense.
Indian Prairie’s efforts — from driving legislation to establishing best practices — can help other districts reap some of the same benefits Johnson’s district has.
“We wanted a full-scale solution to solve on-time network problems, driver route reliability, parent communication, and real-time route information that was accurate,” said Johnson. “Tyler Drive does that for us!”
Tablets Support Efficiency and Drivers
Tyler Drive in-vehicle tablets support full-time and substitute drivers with optimized routes that boost on-time performance. Tyler Drive provides:
- Connected routing — Tyler Drive integrates with Tyler’s routing software, ensuring each vehicle’s route is accurate and updated to help drivers stay on track.
- Up-to-date communication — Route changes in Tyler Drive are automatically reflected in Tyler’s parent app, instantly notifying parents or guardians of a new driver, bus, or ETA.
- Turn-by-turn directions — Drivers get intuitive navigation without the distraction of paper maps and student lists.
- Maintained guidelines — Routes are calculated based on predetermined rules and riders’ needs to provide safe pickup and drop-off locations.
- Integrated messages — Drivers can receive messages from dispatchers with information about stops to skip, construction to avoid, or any other critical information.
Learn more about Tyler Drive in this webinar: Connecting Drivers, Routers, and Parents with Student Transportation.
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