Bus Compass enhances safety and convenience for parents/guardians and their kids who ride the bus to and from school. It is a mobile and web-based app that provides real-time updates on where the school bus is; when it will arrive/depart; and if, when, and where students are getting on and off. With Bus Compass, there is no more waiting for school buses in the rain, snow, or cold and no more guessing if kids have gotten safely on and off the bus, at the correct locations.
Used by parents/guardians and students, Bus Compass features real-time tracking of the bus location – with the option to track it just within a neighborhood or throughout its entire route. The app sends “Bus Approaching” alerts so there’s no more scrambling, wondering, or waiting. It also sends bus schedule change notifications, so users aren’t left guessing what happened to a bus when there is driver who isn’t available or traffic and weather delays. It sends alerts if a bus has been cancelled and, similar to an Uber experience, shows who the driver is and when there is a substitute driver. App users can see a student’s (one or multiple kids) enroute location and their arrival time. It even displays the school bus number so everyone knows which bus is the right one for them.
The app also includes a seating chart, which highlights where a particular child is seated, and is helpful for seat assignments and managing a positive atmosphere while avoiding disruptions. It also acts as a key communication tool, used by schools to push notifications regarding schedule. According to the director of transportation at Bentonville Public Schools in Arkansas, the app has driven consistent ridership among its high school students.
The highly secure app requires two-factor authentication and single sign-on, using the private contact information kept by the school.
Bus Compass, combined with the Transportant system, enhances safety beyond the school building – addressing the thousands of annual accidents and incidents that involve school buses every year. Such incidents include shooters, traffic accidents, abductions/predictors, children left on the bus or at bus stops, and other situations that can be prevented through real-time communication between parent/guardians, students, drivers, and schools using the Bus Compass app.
The app is a key component of the Transportant school bus safety technology system that also includes real-time cameras and interaction technology on the bus, connected to school transportation management teams; a driver app for electronic mapping and turn-by-turn route directions and rider rosters; and a fob system whereby every student checks in and off the bus.
Bus Compass is particularly convenient for multi-household families; families that have recently moved; and latch-key children; and addresses the changing, extreme weather conditions that impact students at bus stops; “lost” students; and the chronically tight labor market and high turnover rate among school bus drivers.
Bus Compass is free to parents/guardians and students in the school districts that use the Transportant system – currently 86 in the U.S.