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District to add Wayfinder navigation to school buses; first-year cost $12,000
Summary
Transportation manager Matt Adams described a Wayfinder navigation add-on for the district's Transfinder routing software that will provide turn-by-turn directions on existing Zonar tablets, aiming to reduce errors by substitute and new drivers.
Matt Adams, the district's transportation manager, told the finance committee that the district has installed Wayfinder, a navigation add-on to the Transfinder routing system, on the Zonar tablets already mounted on school buses.
"Wayfinder is an add on to Transfinder," Adams said. "It's essentially kind of a standalone app that will be installed on the Zonar tablets that are already on the Durham buses'so it'll just be an app that they can go to like you would on your phone." Anthony Rapp, director of administration, introduced the item and said the module responds to a parent concern that some drivers still used paper routes.
Adams said the tool provides audible, stop-by-stop navigation built from the district's routed stops, will update live with route changes and student rosters, and can return a driver to the planned route if they deviate. He said the product is intended primarily to improve reliability for substitute drivers and newly hired drivers during the first weeks they operate routes.
Board members asked how Wayfinder interacts with the district's bus-tracking app (BusZone) and whether it accounts for traffic. Adams said Wayfinder does not currently stream live traffic the way consumer navigation apps do; if a driver follows a detour, the system will re-route back to the planned path. He also said Transfinder includes travel scenarios that flag roads unsuitable for full-size buses so the system will not route a 55-foot bus down an impassable road.
Nikki (board member) asked about cost. Adams said the district will pay $12,000 the first year and $11,000 in subsequent years, and that the expense fits within the transportation budget. Adams described a training rollout starting with driver trainers and Durham management, with formalized training sessions over about three weeks and field testing to follow.
Committee members praised that a parent prompted the review and discussed expectations that the navigation will reduce late buses caused by driver errors. No formal vote was recorded during the committee's discussion; the item appeared on next week's agenda for approval.
