“Bytecurve makes our payroll process seamless with reduced time and paperwork,”

Indiana School District Transforms Operations with Payroll and Dispatching Platform Investment

South Bend Community School Corporation Leverages Bytecurve360 for Massive Payroll Savings and Smoother Dispatch Operations

Beverly Greider and Nancy Halterman used to have a problem. 

About 75 of them to be  precise. 

And they were never resolved, the same challenges recurring every few weeks when the two payroll administrators processed the timecards for the 150 drivers, aides and mechanics for the transportation department at the South Bend Community Schools Corporation. 

The staff filled out two different payroll cards – one for weekdays and the other for weekends and special duty assignments – with pencil and paper, introducing too many challenges and obstacles to track. 

“We had missing days, we had missing cards, we had handwriting that was too hard to read and we had hours that didn’t make sense,”  Greider said.

“Even if the cards were filled out completely correctly, and we could validate all the data, we still had to add up the hours manually with a calculator and then enter it into our payroll system.”

There were many opportunities for mistakes for both the scores of staff members as well as the two administrators, who were processing thousands of payroll cards per year. 

And no amount of process improvement with the staff shifted the problem in their favor. 

They knew there had to be a better way. 

“It was a challenging process that never got better until we got Bytecurve,” Halterman said. 

Enter Bytecuve, the only payroll and dispatching software solution designed specifically for the K-12 student transportation industry that merges data from routing and GPS fleet tracking with a flexible, proprietary clock-in and out system. 

Trusted by dozens of private and public school bus fleets across North America, Bytecurve is transforming how fleets from California to Wisconsin improve their payroll operations and drive greater flexibility and efficiency into dispatching and routing. 

The South Bend transportation payroll administrators praise the Bytecurve system for slashing the time involved to process payroll while decreasing human errors and improving payroll accuracy. 

“Prior to Bytecurve, we spent 30 hours a week doing payroll from start to finish. And that was a good week when there were not a lot of questions,” Greider said. 

“Now it takes me an hour or two. It’s been a complete game changer for our workload and accuracy. The number of questions we have for drivers has gone from dozens and dozens to a handful each pay period. “

It’s completely changed for the better how we manage the payroll process.” 

Halterman said the integration with the Human Resources payroll system that processes checks is virtually seamless. 

“We just make sure everything’s verified and that there are no exceptions and that there’s nothing in the red when we look at the screen for the daily, weekly or monthly view,’ she said. 

Now we’re managing a handful of exceptions when we integrate with the payroll system.” 

Enter Bytecurve360.

More than another software technology: A consolidation of technologies 

LaToya King started at the South Bend Community School Corporation in 2003 as a bus driver and has held many positions in the district, including in the Athletics Department, prior to taking the helm of the transportation department. 

She’s driven by a passion for serving the students and her community, and manages the hundreds of employees in her department with a keen eye on continuous improvement and increased safety. 

“That’s what it’s always about for me and my staff: serving these students and ensuring they get to school safely and on time to maximize that instructional time,” she said. 

“And we’re always looking for ways to improve how we operate with those two goals in mind.” 

 

She turned to Bytecurve when she realized the legacy routing and GPS fleet tracking solutions left significant gaps in her operations. 

 

Even with these powerful technologies, the department’s most pressing challenges: payroll and responding to late or missing drivers persisted. 

The antiquated payroll system and its reliance on significant paperwork driven by manual inputs and calculations was the most obvious opportunity for financial savings while the inflexible and often disorganized nature of the routes was another major opportunity for improvement. 

 

“Managing and organizing the routes was a very real challenge and we had to invest a lot of time and energy as a team to stay on top of it,” King said. 

 

“After integrating Bytecurve into our routing, and connecting it to the GPS system, we had a more organized system that gave us a far better ability to organize our routes and be flexible when we needed to be.”

 

Her counterpart at Wisconsin student transportation fleet dubbed Bytecruve a “command and control” dashboard for their operations, merging all the most vital and pressing elements of their operation into a single view. 

In terms of day-to-day operations, focused on on-time arrivals, King said Bytecurve has improved how the department responds to the chronic and pervasive challenge of late and missing drivers. 

“We know that late and missing drivers are not our problem alone, but an industry challenge and that we have to invest in the tools to help our team respond more rapidly and intelligently to circumstances that are literally changing every single day,” she said.

 

“Because we have so many buses and routes, we’re always responding to a high number of late and missing drivers. It’s just the reality of our fleet and district.” 

 

“Now with Bytecurve, we have a big monitor up and everyone can see who’s running late and who’s missing. It’s been a tremendous help for us and a lot more efficient for our dispatchers.”

 

By merging the GPS data and routing, and connecting those data streams with payroll information, and then allowing the administrators to communicate with drivers via the DriveOn app, Bytecurve creates that command-and-control structure that allows real-time flexible changes to routes, runs and tasks. 

 

“It’s amazing, It’s awesome,” King said.

 

 “We just go in and switch the task and reschedule that day and everything communicates like it’s supposed to and we’re off to the next problem to solve. 

Comprehensive Driver Visibility, Improved Route Responsiveness

GP Singh founded Bytecurve a decade ago after many years in the student transportation industry. 

Leading a team of fellow school bus fleet professionals with more than 30 years of combined experience, he uniquely understands the challenges of South Bend transportation department staff members Candice Galloway. 

“We built Bytecurve knowing the challenges we experienced first hand with missing drivers and payroll inefficiencies,” Singh said “And we improve the user experience with regular updates from feedback from the dozens of customers who rely on Bytecurve360 to improve their operations.” 

Singh and the Byteucrve team engineered the solution with student transportation professionals like Candace Golladay in mind. 

Golladay serves as a lead dispatcher at the South Bend school transportation department. 

“There’s never a boring day, and we always have to be on your toes to keep the students arriving on time,” she said. 

“I love the job and taking care of the students, and I take a lot of pride in always being open to finding new ways to improve how we work and serve our community.” 

Responding to traffic accidents as they suddenly alter routes, students who missed the bus and late or missing drivers are among the common challenges she’s responding to every day. 

The dynamic environment even includes a healthy supply of “mysteries.”

“In that past, there was just so much we didn’t’ know, with so many buses rolling every day and so many drivers coming and going, it was nearly impossible to know which drivers were late or missing so it was all just sort of a mystery until we got a call from a parent,” she said. 

Many of the mysteries are solved with Bytecurve’s instant alerts on who’s late, and who’s missing altogether. 

“Today we look at our big screen and know right away,” she said. “And we’re making changes to the routes and runs and alerting drivers with the (DriveOn) app.

It’s completely changed how we react and respond to our daily challenge of missing drivers. Everything is right there in front of us with Bytecurve and we can respond so much faster.” 

And it’s not just about missing drivers, she explained.

Bytecurve has changed the way they alter routes, runs, tasks as well as managing substitute drivers and pay changes between different jobs. 

“We’re just a lot more flexible now. We can change something for the day, or the week or permanently and then change it back just as easily,” she explained. “It’s never more than a few clicks to move things around and then alert the drivers.” 

Golladay said the drivers have come to rely on the app for improved visibility on their hours and pay. 

“It helps them and us stay on top of irregularities,” she said. 

“They don’t have to wait until the next pay period to say: ‘Hey, you didn’t pay me for this or missed that day.’ It’s all in the app and they are doing a much better job of staying on top of their pay.” 

Altering routes simplified: Special Ed transport responsiveness

Danielle Angel is another member of the South Bend school student transportation staff who relies on Bytecurve360. She manages special education routes, serving about 3,000 students that require 30 specific buses.

“I set up the routes individually and as a whole, and I connect them to each driver,” she said. 

“I change routes often, there’s constantly changes, constantly new programs being added.
So I often go in and assign, unassign, change routes and add new routes probably a few times a week,” she said. 

Transporting special education students presents unique challenges that often go beyond those faced by general education students, including: 

Student-Related Challenges:

• Behavioral Issues: Students with emotional or behavioral disorders may exhibit challenging behaviors on the bus, impacting the safety of other passengers.
• Medical Needs: Students with chronic illnesses or disabilities requiring medical attention, medication administration, or specialized equipment may need additional support during transportation
• Mobility Limitations: Students with physical disabilities may require specialized seating, wheelchair lifts, or other accommodations to safely board and ride the bus
• Sensory Sensitivities: Students with sensory processing disorders may be overwhelmed by the noise, movement, and visual stimuli of the bus environment
• Communication Difficulties: Students with autism or speech impairments may struggle to communicate their needs or understand instructions from bus drivers or attendants.

Staff-Related Challenges

• Specialized Training: Bus drivers and attendants often require specialized training to handle the unique needs of special education students, including behavior management, medical procedures, and disability awareness.
• Staffing Shortages: Finding qualified staff with the necessary training and patience to work with special education students can be challenging.
• Workload: Transporting special education students often requires additional time and effort, increasing the workload for bus drivers and attendants.

Transportation-Related Challenges

• Equipment and Accessibility: Buses may need to be equipped with specialized seating, wheelchair lifts, and other adaptive equipment to accommodate students with disabilities.
• Route Planning: Creating efficient and safe bus routes that accommodate the specific needs of special education students can be complex.
• Coordination: Coordinating transportation with other school services, such as therapy appointments or early childhood programs, can present challenges.

Additional Challenges

• Cost: Transporting special education students often requires additional resources, such as specialized equipment, staff training, and personnel, which can increase transportation costs.
• Legal and Regulatory Compliance: Schools must adhere to federal and state laws regarding the transportation of students with disabilities, which can add complexity to the process.
• Parent Concerns: Parents of special education students may have specific transportation concerns or requests, requiring open communication and collaboration between schools and families.

Addressing these challenges requires a collaborative approach involving school administrators, transportation departments, special education teachers, parents, and students. 

Bytecurve, for all its features and benefits, is unable to address most of these challenges. 

It can, however, make the work of dedicated staff members like Angel just a little less stressful. 

“It’s all so much easier with Bytecurve,” she said. “I love that we’re using more technology to help students and parents. 

It’s been enormous for us to be able to communicate better, and to continue to see us move forward and improve.”

Ditching spreadsheets: Command-and-Control for the technology stack

The South Bend buses are among some of the most technologically advanced vehicles in Indiana, according to Jason Ward, who manages IT for the district’s transportation department. 

Besides routing and GPS fleet tracking, the buses are equipped with driver tablets, internal cameras to keep a close watch on students, and with external stop-arm cameras to drive down the dreaded violators who continue to threaten student safety despite years of education campaigns. 

Ward was instrumental in the implementation of Bytecurve and remains an instrumental figure in ensuring the staff receives the return on investment from Bytecurve every day. 

“Before Bytecruve, we had so many spreadsheets to keep track of virtually every element of our operations, and it was a lot of staying on top of and keeping organized,”he said. 

“Today we’ve stopped using most of these spreadsheets and are able to manage these same tasks with Bytecurve.”

From payroll to dispatching and routing, Ward explained that Bytecurve has converted what were disparate and often antiquated ways of operating and replaced them with a single, powerful software solution that improves operations across the department. 

“When we want to change a route, it’s all right there and automatically connected to other parts of the operations,” he explained. “It’s easy to change or to switch it back and we’re not having to track it all in a bunch of different spreadsheets.” 

He said the intuitive nature of the system has made it a seamless part of the staff’s operations. 

In my opinion, in terms of using Bytecurve, I believe it’s a ten out of ten,” he said.

“It’s all very user friendly and has made our lives a lot easier.” 

About Bytecurve

Founded in 2018 by GP Singh after many years on the frontline of student transportation operations with one of the country’s largest private student transportation providers, Bytecruve is designed as the 360 view of operations.

By blending routing and GPS fleet tracking data, and adding a payroll capability as well as mobile app for two-ways communications between dispatch and drivers, Bytecurve 360 has created a new category for student transportation excellence: the dispatch command center.

“We believe many school bus operators still don’t appreciate all the potential improvments they can deliver by taking two powerful yet independent systems and merging them into a new layer of visibility and action,” Singh said. “We’re integrated with all the major providers of routing systems and GPS fleet tracking so virtually any school district with both systems can take advantage of our transformative technology.”

Trusted by dozens of districts across North America, more than 40,000 school bus rely on Bytecurve technology to improve their efficiency and safety.

“I know from first hand experience what school bus fleet leaders need to perform at their best, and we work tirelessly on our product and with our customers to deliver this experience so they can know they are investing in the safest and most efficient fleet.”