When a bus company moves to software, the first question is usually "who gets a login?" The second one comes a week later, when a dispatcher opens a driver's file and sees their pay, or a driver can see every other driver's phone number. Roles and permissions decide who sees what, and getting them right early saves a lot of awkward conversations.
This guide covers the usual jobs at a school bus company and what each one needs, what to keep private, how fine-grained permissions should be, and how to set up a role of your own when the ready-made ones don't fit.
The usual roles at a bus company
| Job | Needs to see and do | Usually doesn't need |
|---|---|---|
| Owner or general manager | Everything, including billing and settings | — |
| Fleet manager | Vehicles, drivers, maintenance, inspections, incidents, reports | Payroll details, company billing |
| Dispatcher | Routes, the schedule, who's in today, which buses are available | Pay rates, repair costs, HR records |
| Mechanic or shop lead | Maintenance, work orders, parts, vendors, defects | Routes, students, pay |
| Accounting | Expenses, vendors, district invoices and payments, the hours and pay report | Changing routes or vehicles |
| Driver | Their own bus, route, inspections, defects and documents | Anyone else's records |
| Office helper or auditor | Read-only, to look things up | Changing anything |
What to keep private
- Pay and Social Security numbers. Only the people who run payroll and HR.
- Home addresses and personal phone numbers of drivers and aides.
- Background checks, medical cards and drug test results. Need-to-know only.
- Warnings, reviews and other HR records. Not even read-only for most people.
- Students' details. The drivers and aides on that route, and the office.
- Money that leaves the company: issuing invoices, recording payments, the company's own billing.
How fine-grained should permissions be?
"Admin or not" is too coarse for a bus company. A useful system lets you choose, for each part of the app, what a role can do:
| Action | Example |
|---|---|
| View | A dispatcher can see vehicles |
| Create | A driver can report a defect |
| Edit | A mechanic can update a work order |
| Delete | Only a manager can remove a record |
| Export | Accounting can download the pay report |
| Approve | The shop lead approves a completed repair |
Tip: Start from the smallest access a job needs and add more when someone asks. Taking access away later is harder than giving it.
Setting up roles: a simple order
- List every job in your company, not every person. Two dispatchers share one role.
- Start each job from the closest ready-made role.
- Make your own role only where a job really differs, such as a yard lead who does inspections and fuel but not repairs.
- Give each person one role. If someone does two jobs, make a role that covers both.
- Check it as that person: ask them what they can and can't see on day one.
- Review roles when someone changes jobs or leaves. Suspend leavers the same day.
Good to know: Some papers, such as medical records and background checks, may have legal limits on who can see them. Check your state's rules and your district contracts.
Doing it in FleetCommander
Seven ready-made roles. Every company starts with Super Admin (everything), Fleet Manager (vehicles, maintenance, inspections, drivers, reports), Maintenance Manager (maintenance, work orders, parts, vendors), Dispatcher (routes, schedules, vehicles, drivers), Driver (their assigned vehicle, inspections, defects, documents), Accounting (expenses, vendors, invoices, reports) and Viewer (read-only across the app). They're listed in Settings › Roles & permissions, each with what it can do in every section.
Your own roles. New custom role asks for a Role name and a Description, then shows a table with one row per Module and a tick box for each action: view, create, edit, delete, export and approve. Duplicate on any role starts a new one from its ticks, which is the quick way to make, say, a dispatcher who can also see fuel. The ready-made roles can't be changed, only duplicated. A custom role can be edited any time, and deleted once nobody has it. Only Super Admins manage roles.
Private by default. HR (pay, Social Security numbers, contacts and records like warnings) is Super Admins only to start with, and not even read-only for Viewers. Recording district payments is Super Admin and Accounting. A driver signs in to My Day and sees their own day. Give access to more roles only when you choose to.
Giving people a role. In Settings › Users, invite a teammate with their role, change someone's role, or suspend them when they leave. Every change is kept in the Audit log. A module your company doesn't use is closed for every role. See the Users and roles guide and the Settings guide.
Ava (Beta), the assistant in the app, only answers with what the person asking is allowed to see: a dispatcher asking about pay gets nothing they couldn't open themselves. More on her page.
Related reading
Questions people ask
- What user roles does a school bus company need?
- Usually an owner or super admin, a fleet manager, a dispatcher, a mechanic or maintenance manager, accounting, drivers, and a read-only role for helpers or auditors. Make your own role only where a job really differs.
- Who should see driver pay in fleet software?
- Only the people who run payroll and HR. Dispatchers, mechanics and other drivers don't need pay, Social Security numbers or home addresses.
- What permissions should fleet software have?
- For each part of the app: view, create, edit, delete, export and approve. That lets a driver report a defect without editing it, or accounting export the pay report without changing routes.
- Can a person have two roles?
- In many systems each person has one role. If someone does two jobs, make a role that covers both, starting from a copy of the closest one.