Texas district finds good fit with routing software, shares success with others

AUSTIN, Texas — Dan Roberts, director of transportation and long-range planning at Round Rock School District in Austin, Texas, has come up with a way to maximize the use of his district’s newest routing system.

Roberts, who previously used routing software designed by two other companies, has found a fit with Transfinder’s transportation management system.

“We moved to Transfinder for both cost and ease of use so that we’d have the largest and quickest turnover of the product with the least amount of effort,” said Roberts. The accessibility and manageability of Transfinder struck him the most.

“Everything is done on a single screen, so you’re not going back and forth between screens and tables to make changes and edits. I find it to be very straightforward,” he said. “Basically, there’s an interface involved where you don’t have to be a computer wizard to make the interface work.”

Round Rock School District has a fleet of 234 buses and transports approximately 11,000 students daily. Roberts shares transportation responsibilities with an assistant director, who runs a remote site, and with a staff of nine mechanics and three office workers.

To generate extra funds for his tax-capped district, Roberts takes on the routing and scheduling needs of 15 other districts.