BYTECURVE RESOURCES
Fremont Case Study – Improved Dispatching
“It helps us hold ourselves accountable and that’s worth every penny,”
– Ernest Epley, Transportation Director, Fremont Public Schools
Buses Served
Districts and Contractors
Payroll Processed
Key Wins For Fremont
Real-time Command and Control Dispatching System
Payroll Reconciled Down To The Minute
Fewer Payroll mistakes and better driver tracking
Easier To Swap Drivers and Alert Drivers On The Re Road
No More Driver Whiteboards
Dispatching System Improves Performance for California School District
Messaging App Transforms Route Assignments in Real-Time at Fremont Unified School District
Controlled chaos is how Ernest Epley describes the start of every school day for his school busfleet at Fremont Unified School District
Controlled thanks to his dedicated staff and superb technology, but chaos because there’s simply so much happening in such a small window of time.
“We’ve got a great team, and they do an amazing job keeping our drivers organized and our buses running safely and on time, but it’s always been a challenge in those first 30 minutes of the day when we have one dispatcher on and there are dozens and dozens of drivers getting started with their day,” said, Epley, Transportation Director at the California school district.
“It always felt like there had to be a better way to manage that challenge, so I was very open-minded when I learned about a dispatching solution.”
Bytecurve360 is the dispatching, payroll, and driver communication platform Epley adopted a few months ago after seeing first-hand how the tool could improve how his team managed the “controlled chaos” that defines the start of every school day.
“We’re just down the road from Tesla and in the Bay Area, so we’re always going to be open to new technology and finding fresh ways to solve old problems,” he explained.
“I was not worried about being an early adopter of a new technology if it meant I could provide better service to our students and families.”
He said the consolidation of every driver’s status on a single screen has vastly improved how their lone dispatcher handles the morning rush between 5 and 7 a.m.
“Things were getting missed, not because anyone wasn’t doing their job but because there was simply so much happening so rapidly and no person could track the whereabouts of so many drivers,” he said.
“What sold me and continues to pay off for our fleet is that single view we have every morning into our driver situation, knowing who is on time, who’s running late, and who’s not going to make it at all.
It’s transformed the first few hours of our day and ensured we’re making changes much faster to help us meet our schedule.”
Bytecurve founder and CEO, GP Singh, developed the solution based on years of experience leading operations at one of the country’s largest and most dynamic private school bus fleets.
His experience in dealing with late/absent drivers, managing complex payroll, and staying connected to drivers in the field informed the development of the Bytecurve360 platform.
By merging the data from routing and GPS fleet tracking systems, Bytecurve360 is able to deliver a real-time command and control dispatching system that also reconciles payroll down to the minute, saving fleets – and their parent districts – significantly from payroll mistakes or drivers clocking in/out a bit too liberally.
“We respect the challenges fleet managers and dispatchers face because we’ve sat in those seats and tried to overcome those challenges,” Singh said.
“Being able to simply swap drivers and routes with a few clicks and alert the drivers on the road of those changes delivers a powerful solution to a problem faced by almost every fleet operating today.”
Today, Bytecurve integrates with every major provider of routing software solutions as well as every GPS fleet tracking platform, and the onboarding team has worked with fleets of virtually every size from both districts and private contractors.
That equates to more than 40 unique customers totaling more than 40,000 buses and close to 50,000 drivers and other support staff who leverage the DriveOn mobile app to better manage payroll and communications.
Retiring the Whiteboard Assignments for a Driver Messaging app
The old whiteboard full of messages for drivers at Fremont’s bus garage is going the way of the typewriter, replaced by a digital tool that can compensate for human error that exists in any organization.
“It was very hard to expect every driver to check out the office whiteboard every day to see the changes to their routes and assignments,” Epley said. Inevitably, a driver would miss something, and we’d be scrambling to respond.
“Now we say: Have you checked Bytecurve?”
He said the ability for his dispatch team to see confirmations that drivers have seen the messages is a game changer.
“Before, we’d have to call them on the radio and ask them to pull over and get new instructions, and it would take a lot of time on both sides,” Epley said.
“Today we send a message with the new instructions and alerted them on the radio to check their app. They confirm the change in the app, and off we go. It’s been a huge time saver that ultimately drives better performance.”
Singh said the messaging app is adopted by about 90 percent of drivers thanks to its simple design and ability to also serve as a punch clock connected to payroll.
“This allows drivers to simply skip checking in to the garage or office and go directly to their bus to start their day, knowing they will have a new assignment on their app, too,” he said. “And dispatchers can see who checked their messages and who did not, allowing for some instant training when necessary.”
Analytics to Inform The School Board and Superintendent
As the leader of the transportation department, Epley is charged with managing operations, training, safety, accounting, and a garage full of mechanics.
On top of those responsibilities, he’s the liaison between his department and the instructional staff as well as the district leadership. To satisfy those requirements, he often relies on data from his technology to inform discussions and drive collaboration.
“We have a lot of questions that come from the School board, the instructional side, or even upset parents that require hard data and analytics to answer appropriately,” Epley said.
“Having access to so much data on routes, arrivals, and driver performance is invaluable as we’re trying to share our story of what we do and how we serve the community. And there’s nothing like having a report to take to a principal at a certain school to help us solve problems constructively.”
Technology drives safety and efficiency, including Bytecurve dispatching
Fremont considers Bytecurve as essential as the buses onboard tablets for instant inspections and cameras to keep an objective eye on students and drivers.
“We need a lot of technology to perform at the level our community expects, and Byteurve has definitely become part of that equation,” he said. “I try to be solutions-oriented. It’s an important tool we rely on to drive toward making smart decisions for solutions to serve our students and families.”
Trusted by the Finest Names in School Bus Transportation
Student Transit Wisconsin
Fremont California School District
Renton Public Schools Washington
Integrated Student Transportation Software
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.”
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