RICHMOND, Va. — Transfinder launched and provided a demonstration of Viewfinder, its newest product, at the NAPT trade show on Tuesday.

Viewfinder is designed to allow school transportation operators to easily monitor day-to-day operations, providing access to updates on trips, field trips, vehicles, students and staff from any device, company officials said.

Frank Gazeley Jr., vice president of client relations at Transfinder, showed trade show attendees how operators can customize the dashboard with views of the information they need the most at any given moment and track specific aspects of their operation, such as stops completed, students who are assigned or unassigned to routes, field trip approval and percentage of buses filled.

For added convenience, a trips summary feature lists trips in order of departure, just like you would find at the airport, Gazeley said. 

He also demonstrated a trip map feature that shows where all the buses are located at one time and at any minute, based on planned routing. In one view, operators can see overlaps and travel efficiency.

Users can also access a list of student identification information, including grade, the school they attend, and their address, making it easy to assign stops, Gazeley added.

Additionally, Viewfinder can be used to schedule routine reports to automatically run at specified times and be sent to personnel. The data the program gathers can provide operators with year-over-year comparisons to get a sense of ridership trends and operation efficiency, and to help operators create progress reports for administrative personnel and stakeholders.