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When the transportation department at Friendswood Independent School District in Texas faced increasing pressure to optimize bus routes and improve communication with parents, district leaders knew they needed a solution that could streamline operations and reduce headaches.  

To deal with these challenges, the district decided it was the right time to make the move from Transfinder’s Routefinder Pro to Routefinder PLUS, the industry’s three-time award-winning transportation management software. 

The results have been transformative. 

Michelle Summers, the assistant director of transportation at Friendswood ISD, has been in school transportation for more than a decade. Friendswood, where she’s been for the past three years, encompasses 14 square miles and the district transports about 4,000 of the 6,100 students enrolled. 

Her previous district, Clear Creek ISD, covered 110 miles, had 40,000 students and transported 18,000 of them. 

She is intimately familiar with Routefinder Pro, the industry standard before Routefinder PLUS was launched in April 2020. When Michelle started at Friendswood in December 2021, she started looking at what routing solutions were out there. 

“I looked at everything,” she said, noting a number of companies in the industry. “What kind of products and services should I be looking for so I am more equipped? Even though I’m an itty bitty, tiny district, my needs are not any different from a big district.” 

She started talking to others in the industry, which she said really helped. 

It didn’t take too long before she realized sticking with Transfinder was the way to go. 

“Routefinder PLUS made sense because we knew Pro so well,” she said.  

Summers noted that she knew the district didn’t have extra funds and she felt not everyone up the ladder understood how important it was to make the upgrade to PLUS.

“They still think we can take a map and some string and pushpins like they used to do,” she said. “They don’t understand how important the efficiency of the routing is.” 

Picking a company with nearly 40 years of experience helped. “Transfinder is a name that I know, it’s a name that I trust,” she said. “I knew going with Routefinder PLUS I knew the kind of product I was getting.” 

Summers said she likes that PLUS is cloud based and says it is simple to use. 

“If you can’t do something, it’s really because of ‘user error,’” she joked. “It has nothing to do with the capabilities of the product itself.” 

She said her supervisor had never worked in Routefinder Pro but since the upgrade to PLUS, she provided him with access “and he uses it like he’s been using it for 10 years!” she said. 

This was the first school year opening that Friendswood used PLUS.  

“It was amazing how seamless it was. PLUS is super easy. It does all the things I wanted it to do,” she said.” 

She almost feels out of a job, she joked. 

“I really feel like my job has now been taken because it’s so efficient,” she said. Really, it’s given her more time to work on other important tasks. 

But Routefinder PLUS has directly improved her quality of life. 

“So, not having to spend so much time in Routefinder PLUS does allow me to leave at 5:30 instead of 8,” she said. “I’m not messing with the routing software. My work life/home life balance, it makes it a lot easier, a lot better.” 

She knew something was different when school opened for the fall. 

“Normally, the first week of school, I’m typically here until 8 or 9 o’clock at night. Maybe the second week. Then it’s 7:30. This year, the very first day of school I went home at 5:45.” 

Summers said she believes in PLUS so much, she reached back out to her previous district that was still using Routefinder Pro. 

“I was like, listen: PLUS is so much easier than Pro. And if you can do Pro, which I know your routing department can do, they can do PLUS. It’ll be easy. They will love it.” 

Clear Creek listened and not only purchased PLUS, “they bought everything. And so, I mean, I’m super jealous,” she joked, “but super excited at the same time. Now I want everything!” 

By everything, Summers means the award-winning driver app Wayfinder, parent app Stopfinder, Tripfinder, to manage field trips, and Viewfinder, which gives unlimited users access to monitor the transportation operation. 

Summers’ district does have Tripfinder and Viewfinder. Tripfinder has been a hit, she said. Users can request which bus and driver they would like. 

“We have had so many coaches come to us and thank us for making it easier for them,” Summers said. “They were able to put in their entire football schedule and see, ‘Ok, we assigned this driver with this bus.’ The phone calls and emails have slowed down so much.” 

Summers said the program has worked so well that she is now scheduling field trips a month out, rather than just the week out. 

As for Viewfinder, building secretaries and administrators are becoming more familiar with it and now have student bus information at their fingertips. 

“Viewfinder can be done from your cell phone,” Summers said, noting how one of the district’s assistant principals needed access in a hurry, logged in on his phone and had everything he needed. 

“He actually called me after dismissal,” Summers recalled.  

“It was so great,” he told her. “To be able to see only my students and no one else’s. I don’t have to look at everything, it’s just the bus information. I don’t have to click on this screen and that screen like we do in our SIS. This is all I need.” 

Summers concluded: “To be able to see all that right there from their cell phone, out at the bus loop when the kids are trying to find the bus, has saved us a lot of time and I have no phone calls anymore.”