School transport management with live bus tracking
Enaton runs school transport end to end. Set up routes, stops and zones, assign learners per term, watch buses live on a map, record who boarded at which stop, and let transport billing reach finance without anyone retyping it.
Transport is run on phone calls
In most schools the transport office is a person with a phone. A parent rings to ask where the bus is. The office rings the driver. The driver answers or does not. This repeats every morning and every evening, and it is nobody’s actual job.
Then there is the billing. Transport fees are usually maintained on a separate list, updated by hand when a learner joins or leaves a route, and reconciled against the fee system at some point in the term if there is time. Learners get carried for free for months because a change never made it across.
And the safety question nobody wants to answer: if a parent asks whether their child got on the bus this afternoon, can the school say yes with confidence.
How Enaton handles it
Routes, stops and zones are set up once. Learners are assigned to a route for a term, and that assignment is what drives both the trip and the billing, so the two cannot drift apart. When a learner leaves a route, the charge stops because it is the same record.
Trips are created each morning without anyone doing it, the vehicle is tracked live, and boarding is recorded per stop. When a child boards, the parent can be told.
Setting up
- Zones, routes and stops, with a boundary around each stop so arrival is detected rather than guessed
- Trip types for morning, evening and any special run the school does
- Vehicles and drivers, with the paperwork attached where it belongs
- Capacity handled through batches, so a route that needs two runs is not a spreadsheet problem
Every school day
- Trips generated automatically early each morning, ready before the drivers are
- Live tracking on a map, so the transport office answers a parent without ringing anyone
- Boarding and absence recorded per stop, so the school knows who is actually on which bus
- Parents notified when their child boards, which is the single thing they most want
Billing that stays correct
- Route charges defined per route and per term
- Charges reach the learner’s fee balance without anyone retyping a list
- A learner who leaves a route stops being charged, because assignment and billing are the same record
- Transport income and transport spending sit against the same vote head, so you can see whether it pays for itself
Reporting
- Late learners and absent learners, per route and per day
- Trip performance and route efficiency, which is where fuel savings actually come from
- Driver performance
- A daily summary, and a per learner route history
One fleet, several schools
Some groups run a shared fleet across more than one school, or a bus cooperative serves several schools on the same routes. Enaton handles that: the fleet is shared, and each school still bills only its own learners.
Who this is for
Transport officers stop being a switchboard. Bursars stop reconciling a transport list against the fee system. Parents can see the bus and know their child boarded. Directors find out whether transport is actually covering its costs.
Transport before and after
How it usually goes
- A parent rings to ask where the bus is, the office rings the driver, and the driver answers or does not. Twice a day, every day
- Transport fees live on a separate list, so a learner who left a route in week two is still being billed in week nine
- A parent asks whether their child got on the bus this afternoon and the school cannot answer with confidence
- A route that needs two runs becomes somebody’s spreadsheet problem, redone by hand each term
- Nobody knows whether transport covers its own costs, because the income and the spending are tracked in different places
With Enaton
- Buses are tracked live on a map, and parents watch their own bus in the portal with an estimate for their stop
- Route assignment and billing are the same record, so charges start and stop when the learner does, without a second list
- Boarding and absence are recorded at each stop, and the parent is notified as their child gets on
- Capacity is handled through batches, and trips are generated early each morning before the drivers arrive
- Transport income and transport spending sit against the same vote head, so you can see whether it pays for itself
Want to see this on your own school?
Bring a fee structure and a class list. Thirty minutes, no slides, and we will tell you what it would cost and how long moving would take.
From as low as KES 4,060 a month, never per learner. Every module, migration, training and support included.
Questions we get about this
Can parents track the bus themselves?
Yes, from the parent portal, along with an estimate of when it will reach their stop. That is what stops the transport office fielding calls every morning.
Does transport billing reach the fee balance automatically?
Yes. Route assignment and billing are the same record, so a learner who joins or leaves a route has their charges follow without anyone updating a second list.
Do we need to create trips each day?
No. They are generated early each morning before staff arrive.
Can we tell whether a child actually boarded?
Yes. Boarding and absence are recorded at each stop, and the parent can be notified when their child gets on.
Can one fleet serve several schools in a group?
Yes. The fleet is shared while each school bills only its own learners.
What hardware do the buses need?
A tracking device on the vehicle and a phone for the driver. We will talk through what your buses already have during the demo rather than selling you hardware you do not need.
Bring your own numbers. We will show you this working
Thirty minutes with your classes, terms and fee structure. No slides.