Texas Transportation Leader Adopts Bytecurve to
Drive More On-Time Arrivals

So they agreed and we did the demonstration with the Bytecurve team and after they turned to me and said: ‘How could you ever do payroll with out this?’” 

Today, with his technology in place, Moore is able to run a finely tuned department that balances safe, on-time arrivals with managing a complex budget composed of many pay codes tied to different tasks and roles.

He said Bytecurve allows him to dive deeper into how the fleet is performing by route and by campus. 

“The on-time performance is amazing and I’m addicted to pulling it every week and every month so I can reward our drivers who are performing well and so we can work with our routers to update routes and communicate with schools about why a route that was scheduled to arrive at 7:42 is consistently arriving at 8:56,” he said. 

On the financial side, Moore said managing the department’s nine pay codes is simplified via Bytecurve’s architecture, designed specifically for the student transportation environment. 

The department has 103 employees, including about a dozen administrative staff, that run 63 routes with 77 buses to transport approximately 4,000 students to and from school and field trips, activities and athletics. 

His staff has two large screen monitors displaying Bytecruve each morning, allowing Bytecurve’s management-by-exception system to prompt their dispatching shift. 

Bytecurve is the only system that merges GPS fleet tracking data, routing information and payroll, meaning the dispatch system shows immediately which drivers have not punched in at their prescribed time. 

This allows dispatchers to immediately see which routes need to be addressed with substitutes to maintain on-time arrivals. 

“Our team loves to be able to see in real time where everyone is and where the bus is against the scheduled run,” he said. “We all know it’s a platform that we could not operate without.” 

Brian Mann, TITLE of the K-12 business at Transit Technologies, which includes Bytecurve for payroll and dispatch and busHive for field trip and driver qualification management, said Bytecurve’s growth across the student transportation industry is a result of leaders like Moore looking for a smarter way to manage the complexity of a contemporary student transportation department. 

“GPS and Routing are essential but more departments are realizing they still leave a huge gap as it relates to dispatching and being able to respond on the fly to late and missing drivers,” he said. 

“And neither system is able to address the challenge of drivers clocking in well outside of their set times and draining a department’s budget.” 

“We’ve seen many customers save six figures annually after adopting Bytecurve simply by linking the driver’s official clock-in time to the route time. Shaving even a few minutes off each driver’s route every day can add up to significant savings when you aggregate it across an entire fleet.”

An unconventional journey: From classroom to the garage 

Moore began his career as a teacher in Louisiana, serving in the classroom and coaching basketball and track. His tenure as a coach prompted him to secure a CDL so he could drive the bus to transport his teams to away games. 

A school bus driver shortage prompted the district to request if teachers could serve double duty as a route driver. 

“At first I was like no way, but then I realized I could use the extra money and before I knew it I was teaching and coaching and driving a route,” he said. “It was busy, but I actually learned to love it.” 

Along the way, he moved to Texas and his time behind the wheel began to take on more emphasis. A mentor introduced him to the Texas Association of Student Transportation and nudged him toward a career in leadership. 

“Again, at first I was like: ‘No way, I want to be a principal’,” Moore said. “But the more I thought about it, the more I got excited about becoming a director and leading transportation.” 

First, he accepted a role as a driver trainer at a previous district and found it the perfect blend of classroom instruction and driving and helping the district fill its staff with qualified drivers. 

Then the unique opportunity at his current role presented itself, standing up a whole new department as the Little Elm sought to assert more control over student transportation. 

He said the drivers have taken well to adopting Bytecurve and its accompanying DriveOn mobile application that the drivers leverage to clock-in and out. 

Many Bytecurve customers also adopt tablets so drivers can also clock in and out in the garage. 

Today, Moore is focused on incremental improvements to routes and coaching drivers on how to best serve their community. He’s found his niche as a transportation leader, and credits Bytecurve with making his transition to a new leader at a new district smooth. 

“Everyone who is involved in payroll gets it,” he said. “We want to be efficient and fair and make it easy for everyone to process payroll so we can spend more time focused on safety and the students.”

If you are in the market for a school bus driver scheduling software, here’s what to look out for

• The application should feature a user-friendly design to enable administrators, drivers, and parents to understand and navigate the system. It should be cloud-based and be supported by U.S.-based support team who appreciate the unique demanding environment of a school bus fleet.

• The platform should include ongoing and comprehensive training and support for all users to guarantee they’re comfortable with the tool and can use it effectively. Bytecurve features ongoing support from our team of school bus operations experts. 

• The software should be capable of integrating with other related tools like student information systems to guarantee accurate and up-to-date data is being used to create and manage driver schedules. Bytecurve has integrations with all of the major routing and GPS fleet tracking solutions so that virtually any school bus fleet can enjoy the benefits of the transformative technology.