Top 10 Things to Consider When Looking for a Driver Navigation App

As technology continues to evolve at a rapid rate, it’s only natural that we would start seeing innovations to the process of getting students to and from school. A few different school bus routing software companies have come out with driver navigation apps so it’s important to know what you’re looking for when you decide to purchase. We have compiled a list of 10 things that we believe are worth thinking about.

The foremost important thing to consider with a driver navigation app would be the turn-by-turn directions. If this is going to replace your paper maps, you’ll want to make sure that your drivers are not only going to be able to get to the correct destination but it should also be significantly easier than having to read directions off a piece of paper. Ideally, you would also want that navigation to be given orally so your drivers don’t even have to look at the screen and risk getting distracted.

A big reason why just using a program like Google Maps or Waze isn’t a good option for driving a school bus is that those apps don’t account for restrictions that large vehicles have. A not insignificant amount of your time probably goes towards making sure that your routes are created with those restrictions in mind so you’re not going to want to use an app that doesn’t use that information. You also have to think about the direction that the bus is arriving at some of your stops. If you don’t want young kids crossing the street to get on their bus, you’ll need an app that will make sure your buses are going the way you want them to.

There are a few different applications for school bus drivers on the market but one of the main hiccups we’ve seen is that they will only show the drivers the routes assigned to them. While this sounds good in theory, in practice there are many situations in which a driver will need to run a route that’s not assigned to them. If you have substitute drivers running routes or if one of your buses breaks down and now other drivers have to handle those routes, you could be stuck with a lot of last minute work to try to deal with an already less than ideal situation. What you’d really want is to be able to have an app that can be used by any driver to run any route.

Another key benefit of using a driver app would be to track student ridership. Keeping track of kids getting on and off the bus has been proven to be a key concern for parents so it only makes sense that the driver app should be able to handle this as well. In an ideal world, the driver should be able to easily know what student(s) they’re picking up or dropping off and be able to easily mark them as being on or off the bus. That information should also be readily available to transportation and/or administration should any issues arise.

With so many driver shortages, buses are running at capacity just to keep up with the demand. This means that you could have a lot of kids on each bus that have various special needs that can be hard for drivers to remember, especially if you have a sub or have to split routes. The driver app you choose should be able to quickly identify key special needs that any child has, like car seat requirements, harnesses, or service animals.

We’ve all seen the headlines about kids getting left on the bus and felt the dread that comes with it. Drivers know that they’re supposed to be checking the bus every time they finish a route but it can be really easy to just assume that you would notice a kid still on the bus. If possible, your driver app should try to combat that by alerting the driver to any students that are still marked as being on the bus when they go to end their routes.

Kids will be kids and they will sometimes try to game the system by getting off the bus at their friend’s stop without permission. It can be really challenging to catch this even for drivers that have been running the same routes for months. Sometimes, kids can also make mistakes and may try to board the wrong bus if multiple buses go to their assigned stop. The driver app should be able to let the driver know if a student is trying to use either the wrong stop or bus so that these incidents don’t go unnoticed.

Another way that your driver app should provide an all-in-one solution would be to incorporate your drivers’ pre- and post-trip inspections. This can again reduce the amount of physical paperwork that your drivers need to worry about and can also speed up the process of getting any issues addressed. If they’re submitting inspections on the tablets, you should be able to let your maintenance team know about any problems in a matter of minutes.

Driving school buses can be very complicated with road closures, needing to skip stops, and unforeseen delays. It’s challenging to keep an eye on your arrival time, and while getting to a stop a few minutes late isn’t that much of a problem, it’s possible that a driver could arrive early at a stop and depart before the student(s) are even supposed to be there. To mitigate that, your app should let the driver know if they got to the stop too early so they’ll know that they need to wait a bit longer than normal before leaving.

10) Integration with a Parent App

The last thing that you’ll really want to consider when deciding what driver app is right for you is whether or not it integrates with a parent app. If the tablet knows where the bus is and which stops it’s going to, it should be able to work with a parent app to provide parents with ETAs for their child’s bus. This would allow parents to minimize how long their child has to wait at their stop while also making sure that they don’t miss their bus. It should also help reduce the number of phone calls that you’ll have to field from parents wondering where their child’s bus is.

Conclusion                          

There are many different ways that having a driver navigation app can not only benefit your drivers, but also your transportation department and your parents. It’s hard to know where to begin but we’re here to help! Click the link below to get more information on how the BusBoss ROUTEpatrol Driver Navigation App can address all of these needs and schedule a live demonstration to see it in action!

What do you think? Are there any other potential benefits of driver navigation apps? Let us know in the comments below!