School Bus Tracking Apps Aim to Give Parents Peace of Mind
Tracking apps can be a useful tool for alerting families when there has been a bus delay or route change. These apps are also designed to help students have fewer tardy days and absences.
by Megan Satalich, Editorial Assistant
January 18, 2017
4 min to read
BusWhere The BusWhere app, created by a company of the same name, shows parents and guardians where their child’s bus is, along with an estimated time of arrival (ETA) for any stop along the route. After enough parents and guardians contact BusWhere, the company gets in touch with local schools to set up the app. Then, parents can track student’s bus locations and receive alerts when the bus is close to their stop. Transportation directors can also benefit from the app by viewing all buses on a single map as well as detailed route logs for any day.
Durham Bus Tracker The Durham Bus Tracker (DBT), from Durham School Services, provides parents real-time communication with students’ buses. The app shows parents and guardians the location of their child’s bus in relation to their assigned bus stop. After verifying a student’s school ID number, Durham Bus Tracker allows parents to see all of their child’s buses and routes in one grouped view. Parents and guardians can also view their child’s assigned route and estimated arrival time.
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Here Comes the Bus Synovia Solutions’ Here Comes the Bus app gives parents alerts when the bus is near, has been substituted, and when their child boards and exits the bus. Customizable messaging allows districts to notify parents of delays or bus-related events. Synovia’s GPS tracking and software solutions can track vehicle location, improve safety measures, and increase fuel efficiency, according to the company. Here Comes the Bus has multiple tracking options, such as real-time bus locations or using barcodes that track a student’s location when entering and exiting the bus.
Infofinder Infofinder from Transfinder is a mobile and desktop app that gives users access to the latest and most important information on their child’s bus. Administrators can also take real-time attendance, substitute vehicles, drivers, or bus aides on-demand, update ridership, and review and manage past, current, and future attendance records.
MyBusVue MyBusVue from Zonar is a mobile and web application that communicates up-to-the-minute school bus locations to parents, caregivers, and school administrators via interactive maps. Additionally, when schools use MyBusVue with Zonar’s Z Pass (a radio frequency identification, or RFID, card that is scanned when getting on and off the bus), parents can check that their child arrived at their bus stop and at school on time.
SafeStop Allowing parents the ability to see the real-time location of their child’s bus, the SafeStop app from SafeStop provides users with estimated arrival times. Parents or guardians can also receive notifications about that bus, such as accidents or heavy traffic. In addition, transportation professionals can use SafeStop Analytics to track performance by comparing planned routes versus actual data collected by the GPS units.
School Bus Hub School Bus Hub from Seon is a secure online portal for parents to access real-time bus arrival updates and receive automatic alerts. Parents receive notifications via email when the bus nears the stop and again when it arrives. They can click to log in to the map view to track the current bus location and monitor progress along the scheduled route.
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Skool Bus App Skool Bus App, the company that created the app of the same name, works with schools and bus operators to load a child’s school bus route. Once added, parents can access the location of the bus at pickup and drop-off through the app. Parents can also see when the bus has left the school or if the bus is stuck in traffic.
Treker The Treker app is designed by Treker to let parents know student locations to and from school using GPS. A radio frequency identification (RFID)/near-field communication scanner can also be used to check students getting on and off the bus, and the bus operator is notified if a child is still on the bus after the final stop. Drivers are provided with GPS route guides, and administrators with tracking capability for each bus in their fleet. Also included for operators is an emergency response button that they can push if there has been an accident or medical emergency.
UbicaBus The UbicaBus app from UbicaBus provides users with real-time bus location and arrival estimates. The app allows administrators to send alerts to parents about recent transportation developments and official school messages. The app offers GPS tracking, route optimization, attendance tracking, fleet management, and timesheets for administrators.
Versatrans MyStop Through a secure log-in, users of Versatrans MyStop, from Tyler Technologies, can see their bus’ location on a map and its estimated time of arrival at their stop. Parents can receive push notifications, alerting them to changes in the bus schedule and more, and can move between the bus location and the location of the student’s bus stop.
Versatrans MyStop can be accessed via web browser in addition to the app version.
WheresTheBus TripSpark’s WheresTheBus parent app lets parents and guardians know when their child’s bus will arrive at their bus stop by using in-vehicle GPS trackers. This way, both administration and parents can monitor bus locations at all times. Updated every 15 seconds, the app displays the real-time minutes and miles the bus is located from the household’s bus stop. Any member of the bus-riding household can access their secured information from internet-connected devices such as tablets or smartphones.
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