Danville Area Schools Upgrades Technology, Transforms Maintenance Processes with Servicefinder Installation
Located in a small rural area with a population of 2,700 students, Danville Area School District in Danville, Pennsylvania, is responsible for transporting well over half of the student body to and from campus every day. With 35 buses and 18 routes covering 86 square miles, the district’s transportation department needed reliable routing and management software that could keep up with their expanding fleet.
When Robert Streeter arrived at Danville Area Schools as transportation director four months ago, the district was already in the process of transitioning to a new fleet management system.
“The district had purchased the Transfinder software about a year before I arrived,” Streeter said. “But the actual implementation had been on hold due to regular business interference. We have now brought on additional staff and are really able to focus on getting the system up and running for the coming fall semester.”
Transfinder has developed routing, scheduling, and fleet maintenance solutions since 1988, and is built on industryleading mapping and geographic information system (GIS) technology to deliver superior location intelligence and logistics management solutions.
Transfinder’s Routefinder PLUS is a browser-based routing solution, with fast, safe, and smart route creation, allowing districts to control routes and maps to plot the safest trips with real-time information.
“The Transfinder system was entirely new to me,” Streeter said.
“But the more I got into Transfinder, the more I liked it. It was going to be a lot of work to get it set up, it is for any district, but the support they offered was amazing. I have found nobody that has the service that Transfinder has.”
From Paper to Digital
Importantly for Danville Area School District, the transportation department is also working to implement Servicefinder – the browser-based fleet maintenance and asset management system that works in conjunction with Routefinder PLUS. Transfinder said that Servicefinder not only tracks and manages vehicles, assets, and equipment, but it also helps districts adhere to preventive maintenance schedules, monitor asset and equipment lifecycles, and analyze maintenance reports for better decision-making.
“I am looking forward to integrating a browser-based maintenance program, because right now we are still using a paper system,” Streeter said. “It’s going to help a lot with work orders, maintenance, and recordkeeping in general. We’ve got a lot of integration work to do this summer, but I’m looking forward to it.
We’re all tired of the paperwork.”
Streeter said that, due to his own career background in maintenance, he quickly saw the value of Servicefinder’s recordkeeping capabilities. For example, he said, if OSHA ever needed to request records, then a literal paper trail would not suffice.
The ability to instantly recall older maintenance records would be invaluable in such an event.
System Support
When Danville has questions about the system, Streeter said that Transfinder’s Community client portal provides instructional videos and webinars for his team, as well as a live-human chat function for more specific queries. If the live chat cannot provide the answer he needs, Streeter said the company is quick to provide time on the phone with a customer representative.
“Their customer service is beyond any with which I’ve worked before,” he said. “They’re phenomenal. I use them a lot – maybe more than I should, but they’re very helpful.”
Bringing the Technology Up to Speed
Danville Area Schools boasts a stellar safety and maintenance record, as should be the case for a district of its size that is responsible for so many students. Rather than overhauling the district’s entire maintenance program, Streeter said the introduction of Servicefinder is more about ensuring that the district’s maintenance technology is keeping pace with its fantastic team of professionals.
“It also is going to free up the mechanics,” he said. “When we can automate some processes, it will mean less time where our mechanics must sit down and write up paper reports. It will give them more time to do what they do best, which is maintaining our vehicles and keeping them running safely.”
The district plans to have Routefinder PLUS and Servicefinder–as well as the Stopfinder, Viewfinder, and Wayfinder solutions—fully operational by August 2023.
