Routes

A route is a school run: where it starts and ends, its stops, its pick up and drop off times, the school it serves, and who and what does it.

The list

• School district filter — a drop-down with check boxes: tick one or more districts, or All districts.
• Search by route number, name or school; filter by status.
• Columns: Route, School, Times, Vehicle, Driver, Status and Map (Get directions opens Google Maps with the stops).
• Two tabs at the top: Routes and Schools (each shows how many). The Schools tab has its own Manage menu: Add school (district, name, address, contact, website and the school calendar — its web address, and/or the calendar uploaded as a PDF or photo), and for schools you tick, Edit (one at a time) and Delete (several at once; a deleted school's uploaded calendar goes too). The list shows each school's district, contact, Website (opens in a new tab), Calendar and number of routes. On Edit, upload another file to replace the calendar, or tick Remove it.
• Manage at the top right holds Add route and Export CSV (it follows your search and filters), and — for routes you tick in the table (the check box at the start of each row; the one in the header ticks the whole page) — Edit, Get directions and Delete. Edit and Get directions work on one ticked route; Delete works on several at once.

Deleting routes

Tick the routes, choose Manage › Delete and confirm. It removes them for good, with their stops, assignment history and chat. A route that is still in use can't be deleted — if any ticked route is, nothing is deleted and a banner lists each one with what to do first:

• It is active — open it, press Edit and set Status to Inactive (or Suspended). The drivers on it are told it has stopped running.
• Someone is still on it — a vehicle or driver with no end date, or one that runs past today. On the route's page, press End today on their assignment (or Remove for one that hasn't started). They are told they're off the route; after that you can delete it the same day.

Deleting schools

On the Schools tab, tick the schools and choose Manage › Delete. A school that routes are still linked to — active or not — can't be deleted: if any ticked school has routes, nothing is deleted and a banner lists each school with its route numbers. Open each of those routes, press Edit, and choose another School (or delete the route), then delete the school again.

Assigning from the list

If a route has no vehicle or driver yet, that cell shows a picture drop-down with a search box — choose one and it is assigned immediately. If a route's last assignment has ended, the cell also says Was Bus 101 · ended Jun 12. If it starts later, the cell shows the vehicle or driver with starts Sep 30.

Add a route

1. 1Press Manage › Add route.
2. 2Enter the Route number (required, unique), the Status, the Price (what the school district pays you — optional) and any Special instructions for the driver (gate codes, a student who needs help, where to wait) — the driver sees them on My Day and is told whenever they change.
3. 3If an aide rides with the driver, tick This route needs an aide: a section opens for the Aide name (required), Aide phone, Aide pick up location and Aide rate (per day, per run or per hour).
4. 4School — choose the school (add schools on the Schools tab); its address appears under it in a grey box, and under that the School calendar buttons (the calendar's web page and/or its uploaded file, each opening in a new tab) so you can check the school is open on the days the route runs. Then the School start time and School end time (the bells).
5. 5Morning route — press Add stop for each student, in order: Student name and Student address (both required; suggestions as you type), Pick up time, Parent phone number and Student phone number. The route starts at the first stop and ends at the school; it picks up at the earliest stop time and drops off when school starts — shown as Morning route: 7:10 AM → 8:00 AM. There are no separate start, end or time boxes.
6. 6Still in Morning route: optionally the Vehicle and the Driver (side by side), Vehicle and driver start on, and under them Recommend a driver, which compares drivers' home city and ZIP with the first stop or the school and who is free then — Use this driver fills the Driver box above. A vehicle that isn't available or a driver who is busy only gets a heads-up.
7. 7Afternoon route has a different driver (under Morning route) — unticked, the morning driver and vehicle also take the students home in the afternoon. Tick it and the Afternoon route section appears with its own Recommend a driver (it compares drivers with the school — where the afternoon starts — or the last drop off, and checks who is free at the afternoon times; the morning driver is flagged), then the Afternoon driver (required) and Afternoon vehicle: the afternoon route picks the students up at the school when it ends and drops them at their stops, lasting as long as the morning route (Afternoon route: 3:00 PM → 3:50 PM).
8. 8Collapse / Expand (the arrow on the School, Morning route and Afternoon route headings) folds a section away to one line — e.g. Lincoln Elementary · 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM or 3 stops · 7:10 AM → 8:00 AM · Driver: Maria Chen — to keep a long form short. Nothing is lost: a folded section is still saved, and it opens by itself if something in it needs attention when you press Save.
9. 9Save route. Every driver you chose is notified straight away that they have a new route (and which run).

Add a route from a timeline

On the Drivers timeline (and on a driver's own page, in Timeline view) right-click an empty spot on a driver's row and choose Add route at <time>. The Add route page opens with that driver, that day and the time you clicked already filled in. Fill in the rest and Save route: you go straight back to the timeline, where the new route is drawn on that driver's row, and the driver is notified.

Drivers are always told

Every time something changes for a driver, they get a notification (the bell in their My Day) — it can't be switched off, and each change is its own notice:

• New route — a driver is put on a route (from Add route, the Edit page, the Assignments form, or a quick assign). It says which route, the start day, times, school, vehicle and number of stops.
• Route updated — pick up / drop off or school times, school, locations, stops, special instructions or the aide changed (added, removed, or a new name, phone or pick up). It lists exactly what changed. (The price and the aide's rate are never shown to drivers.)
• Vehicle changed — the bus they drive on that route changed.
• You are no longer on the route — another driver replaced them, their assignment ended, or it was removed.
• Route cancelled — the route was deleted, or set to Inactive or Suspended. Setting it back to Active tells them it is running again.

A route's page

• Details and Stops cards, including the price, the Special instructions (in a yellow box) and — when the route needs one — the Aide, their phone, pick up and rate. In the Routes list such a route has a purple AIDE tag, and Export CSV includes the aide columns.
• Get directions and Edit at the top (and Delete, if you may).
• Assignments — every vehicle / driver on this route with the Runs they cover, dates, a Status (Current, Upcoming, Ended), and buttons End today and Remove. The form above the table adds an assignment: choose a vehicle (a vehicle that already has a driver brings that driver with it, with a note), a driver, and the dates.
• Messages — a conversation about this route between staff and the driver(s) on it. Drivers read and reply in My Day. Everyone on the route and staff with route access can see it (for a private chat with one driver use Drivers).
• Route map — driving directions through the stops, in order.
• Student attendance — who rode each run, who was a no-show and who was absent, for any day. See Student attendance.
• Needs a substitute — with driver attendance, a yellow box at the top when this route's driver is off in the next 14 days, with free drivers to put on it for those days. See Driver attendance.

The rules

• One driver per run. A route normally has one driver, but if it runs in the morning and again in the afternoon it can have two: one for the morning run (pick up) and another for the afternoon run (drop off). Adding a second driver to the same run on overlapping dates is refused, with the name of the driver already there. A handover is fine: the next driver starts after the first one's last day.
• Morning and afternoon runs. The Pick up time and Drop off time on the route are its morning run. To give a route an afternoon run, set Afternoon run starts / ends (Add route or Edit route). Then, under Assignments, choose what each driver covers in the Runs drop-down: Morning run (pick up), Afternoon run (drop off) or Both runs (the default). Afternoon run only appears once the route has afternoon times.
• A route can have more than one vehicle.
• A driver or vehicle can't be on two routes at overlapping times on the same dates; the message says which route it clashes with. Only the times of the run they cover count, so a driver can do one route's morning run and another route's afternoon run.
• Editing a route's vehicle or driver on the Edit page changes who runs it from today: the earlier assignment ends yesterday and a new one starts today, so the history is kept. The driver going off and the driver coming on are each notified.
• Splitting or joining the runs on the Edit page — ticking Afternoon route has a different driver on a route one driver runs makes them the morning driver from today and puts the afternoon driver on the afternoon run; unticking it goes back to one driver for both runs. The history is kept, and each driver is told what changed for them ("you now drive the morning run only", a new route, or taken off). A route with more going on (several handovers) is managed under Assignments on the route's page.