White County Transportation Software Saving Time And Money

A new transportation software update allows White County School System buses to run routes more efficiently.

Director of Schools Kurt Dronebarger said the software update allows for faster route scheduling and street level mapping. Dronebarger said the software has even allowed for the elimination of one bus route so far.

“We did come across one route here recently, rather close to the metropolis of Sparta, that we had two buses in one area,” Dronebarger said. “So we looked at that, we actually had a slight rezoning of a couple of streets in order to make sure we didn’t have any overlap there.”

Dronebarger said the new mapping allows the system to set up the best pickup and drop off locations for students. He said the update will save the system time and money, cutting down time kids are on the bus and drivers are on the road.

“There’s regulations for how long students can be on the bus each day and obviously our goal is to get them there safely,” Dronebarger said. “But we also want to make sure that we’re doing best by the students to make sure they’re not spending too much time on the buses. We want to make sure that our bus drivers are not spending an inordinate amount of time out on the roads, that we’re being fair to our employees.”

Dronebarger said the software the system uses is called Transfinder. He said the ability to determine route overlap is one of the key new features.