Automate and optimize school bus routing
Every district has a routing system that holds its stops, students, and bell times. Many still rebuild routes by hand each year, deciding how many buses cover every tier, which students ride which bus, and in what order, as separate steps. Let's solve them as one problem, without breaking a ride-time limit or a student's Individualized Education Program (IEP).
One solve plans every bus, every run, and every bell tier
Timefold solves bus assignment, stop sequencing, and multi-tier reuse as one optimization problem. Bus equipment, seats and wheelchair positions, bell times, maximum ride times, IEP windows, driver duty limits, and electric bus range are enforced as hard constraints, so every route is safe and compliant before it reaches the driver. Within those rules, the model puts the fewest buses on the road, then drives the shortest total distance, then keeps student ride time short.
Where Timefold goes beyond manual route rebuilds
Four places where manual route rebuilds fall short. Timefold bakes each one into the model.
Fewer buses for the same students
The model chains bell tiers on the same bus, so each driver covers more runs and the district needs fewer of both.
IEP requirements are rules, not notes
Equipment, aides, individual windows, and shorter ride limits are enforced for every student who needs them.
Students without a ride surface early
When the fleet runs short, the plan names exactly which students need other transport, before the bus does not show up.
Published routes stay familiar
Locks hold, served stops stay frozen, and a replan only moves the students it must.
Every bus on the road is a driver the district has to find
School buses run on drivers that are hard to hire almost everywhere. Route design decides how many buses and drivers a district needs, and what each student costs to transport.
Of students ride a school bus every school day
Each one needs a seat, a stop, and an arrival before the bell.
Districts report a shortage of bus drivers
In recent surveys, too few drivers is what limits school transport the most.
Runs one bus can cover when bell times are staggered
Chaining bell tiers lets the same bus and driver serve more schools.
Every bus on the road needs its own driver
So every bus a better plan removes is one less driver to hire.
Constraints the model expresses today
Special education equipment and staffing
A student only rides a bus with every feature their Individualized Education Program (IEP) or medical plan requires, such as a wheelchair lift, an aide, safety restraints, or a qualified driver.
Seats and wheelchair positions
No run carries more seated students than the bus has seats, or more wheelchair riders than it has securement positions.
On time for the bell
Morning runs drop students off in time to reach class before the bell. Afternoon runs pull up at dismissal, within the grace period.
Maximum ride time
No student rides longer than the state or district maximum, or the shorter limit in their IEP.
Individual pickup and drop-off windows
Students with an IEP window are picked up or dropped off inside it. A bus that arrives early waits instead of breaking the window.
Multi-tier bus reuse
One bus can serve several schools' bell tiers back to back, so the same bus and driver cover more runs without ever being in two places at once.
Driver duty limit
Every bus is back at the depot within the driver's hours-of-service limit for the session.
Electric bus range
An electric bus is never given a route longer than its range on a full charge.
Locked routes and stops
Lock a whole route, or lock students to a bus, and it stays that way. Stops a bus has already served stay frozen when the model replans after a disruption.
Students without a ride stay visible
If the fleet cannot carry every eligible student, the ones left without a bus are flagged, so the transportation office knows exactly whom to arrange other transport for.
FAQ
Do you have questions? We have answers.
The shortest path is only the start. A school bus route also has to reach each school before its bell, keep every student under the maximum ride time, fit the seats and wheelchair positions on the bus, honor the windows and equipment in each student's Individualized Education Program (IEP), and leave the bus free in time for its next bell tier. Change the order of one stop and every arrival time and ride time after it changes too. That is a constraint problem, not a shortest-path problem.
Once every safety and compliance rule is met and as many eligible students as possible have a ride, the model minimizes the number of buses on the road, because every bus is a driver to find in a shortage. By default one bus weighs as much as 100 km of driving. Distance driven comes next, then total student ride time, then keeping families on the bus they already know.
The requirements in a student's Individualized Education Program (IEP) are hard constraints. A student only rides a bus with the features their plan requires, such as a wheelchair lift, an aide, safety restraints, or a qualified driver. Their individual pickup or drop-off window and any shorter maximum ride time are enforced too. Wheelchair riders count against the bus's securement positions, not its seats. IEPs come from the US Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and Section 504 plans set similar accommodations. Other countries have comparable plans, such as the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) in England, the Individual Development Plan (IDP) in Wales, and Individual Education Plans in Canadian provinces such as Ontario. The model handles any of them the same way, as the equipment, window, and ride-time limit set for each student.
The model still produces a plan instead of reporting the whole session as infeasible. Students no bus can carry within the rules are left without a ride and clearly flagged, so the transportation office sees exactly who needs other transport. Stops that no road can reach, usually because of wrong coordinates, are flagged separately.
No. Timefold sits as an optimization layer between the systems that hold students, stops, and buses, such as Transfinder, Edulog, Versatrans, or BusBoss, and the student information system (SIS), such as PowerSchool or Infinite Campus. It reads that data and writes back optimized routes and assignments. It does not replace the routing platform, the SIS, telematics such as Samsara or Zonar, or the driver app.
Yes. Submit the session again without the missing bus. Stops a bus has already served stay frozen, locked routes and locked students stay where they are, and every other change away from the published routes carries a cost, so the model only moves the students it must.
When scheduling works, everything works.
Less waste. More control. Teams that trust the plan.