CHARLESTON, S.C. — SafeStop has announced that an additional 250 school vehicles in five states will be linked to its app this month.

The launch will provide more than 30,000 parents access to the app in large public school systems and small private schools.

"As leaders in this area, we are seeing more and more interest from school districts this fall as the temperature drops and parents across North America are learning more about SafeStop and how it is a new 'must have' for busy parents," said Patrick Gallagher, director of sales for SafeStop. "School officials who are looking to provide a higher level of customer service to their parents are turning to SafeStop, which means not leaving parents and students out in the cold to wait for the bus. Our unique algorithm gives parents the comfort and security they need to know where and when the bus is coming and when it has arrived."

SafeStop was created in 2013 and allows parents and school officials to securely track their school bus. The app also includes a real-time map feature that displays the location of their child's bus, provides estimated arrival times at their bus stop, and provides parents with an alerts and messaging center. The messaging system eliminates the need for phone calls to schools or bus depots and serves as an extra communication channel alerting parents about important school news such as delays, closings, early dismissals or upcoming school events.

As a management tool, school officials use the proprietary information and data collected by SafeStop to establish and review key performance indicators and provide ridership reports for their transportation system so they can compare, evaluate and improve their on-time performance.

"This is the second year since we developed and launched the app. We now have thousands of parents using our app and taking advantage of the peace of mind that the app provides them knowing where their child's bus is and when it is coming,” Gallagher said. “School business officials are finding that the administration reports we provide are an excellent way to measure performance and potentially lower the cost of their operations. It's really a win-win."

SafeStop is available in all 50 states in the U.S. and 10 provinces in Canada. It is compatible with any transportation provider, GPS hardware and routing software. The service provides flexible payment options and can be parent pay, school/district pay, sponsor pay or a subscription service, company officials said.

Learn more about the SafeStop app here.