School transportation software makes bus route optimization and fleet management easier and more efficient for school district transportation administrators and contractors.
While training makes the use of more advanced bus routing software tools much simpler, school districts must also fully understand the software implementation phase before they are able to use route optimization software to its full potential.
Once your school bus management system is in place, beneficial integrations such as GPS tracking for vehicles ensure students and buses are where they should be at all times. However, your software provider should offer services for easy implementation of the GPS software system.
District And Contractor Roles In Bus Routing Software Implementation
There are a number of important reasons school districts and contractors should understand the implementation phase for their school transportation software. Primarily, understanding this stage ensures better efficiency in the software rollout.
Knowing how your school bus management system has been implemented in your district’s transportation program also contributes to your comfort level with the software, leading to a better overall understanding of how it’s used.
Understanding the implementation process also has the potential to make school districts and contractors aware of further questions, challenges or potential solutions that may never have been discovered without involvement in the software’s implementation.
During this key stage, school district and contractor leadership play an important role to ensure a successful implementation. Responsibilities leadership should assume include:
- Ensuring and encouraging proper software training
- Understanding your timeline from beginning to end
- Creating a viable “launch” date early on and communicating this goal to your software provider during initial discussions
- Understanding your own implementation timing based on the software specifics and services you purchased
- Adhering to your timeline by providing additional information or regular feedback
- Keeping a positive mindset that allows you to be open to changes and willing to improve
When school district and contractor leadership play an active role in implementation, they contribute to the future success of their bus routing software within their district’s transportation department.
A Turnkey Approach To Your School Bus Management System
When selecting a school transportation software provider, clients should ask whether their new software offers a turnkey solution for their fleet management and route optimization needs.
Many school districts want to use their software as quickly as possible, so your provider should offer services to import all of your data upfront. This data should minimally include current student and route information from data exports, spreadsheets or handwritten reports.
Before the implementation process has begun, school districts and contractors are given options for the data and route conversion, depending on their preferences and budget. The district should also be able to import their own student information directly or provide information to the software provider to implement on the district’s behalf.
During the software implementation, clients give their software provider in-district network links to student information such as medical waivers, custody forms and photos to access within their new software system.
Finally, once your bus routing software implementation is complete, you are able to take advantage of additional functionality and services such as:
- Redistricting Analysis
- Fleet Optimization
- Stop Analysis
- Bell-Time Analysis
Without a smooth implementation process, complications with your bus routing software have the potential to negatively impact efficiency and ease of use. School districts and contractors must be prepared to play an active role in their software systems’ implementation from beginning to end.
Understanding the details of how to introduce a school bus management system within your district’s transportation department is challenging. However, consulting with an industry professional offers valuable insight into how school districts like yours have achieved success with bus routing software in the past. Don’t end up buying software that just sits on the shelf or doesn’t get fully utilized.
Ready to learn how your school district benefits from implementing vehicle tracking and route optimization software? Call 866-740-8994 to speak with an experienced industry professional or click here to access a live chat and receive assistance. 
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