Dorchester District 2 working out some kinks in new bus tracking app

DORCHESTER COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD) – Officials in Dorchester District 2 said they are using a new app aimed at helping parents essentially keep track of their child’s school bus – but they are working through some issues with the new technology.

“It’s a state app that the whole state is using, and you know, like any new technology- any new app, it’s taking us time to work with the State Department (of Education) to work out the bugs,” said Dorchester District 2 COO Kenny Farrell.

The Traversa bus system is designed to do a lot.

“It does two things. First off, right now it tracks a bus. In other words, if your child is on bus one you’ll be able to look on the app to see where bus one is- from when it leaves the bus depot in the morning to when it gets to the stop for AM pick up, and in the afternoon when it leaves the school and starts heading out into the community so that parents can kind of judge about where it is. A second aspect, once we get those kinks out and we can go to phase 2, kids will have IDs and be able to scan on, so parents will know at nine o’clock “Kenny” signed on the bus, at 9:05 “Kenny” got off the bus. So it’ll help parents in our community be a little more in control of our transportation system.”

But districts across the state have been running into some issues.

“Some of it’s like assigning bus stops across town where there’s a quick fix, or like I said, between the state-owned bus and the district-owned buses, making sure the database and information are feeding into the one central location,” he said.

Dorchester District 2 has made some significant improvements in the past week or two.

“I think we went – our transportation director said from 600 complaints last week to 16 complaints. So, we’re constantly monitoring, and it helps that our community and our parents tell us when it’s not working so we can get the information we need to make sure it’s working correctly,” said Farrell.

If you have any problems, you are encouraged to contact your district transportation department. They believe you will really like the system once everything is operating smoothly.

“For parents to be able to see, you know OK Johnny is the fifth stop away, so the bus is at the first stop, the second stop, parents will know where their child is and for some of our parents who work and their child may stay home alone, they know when the bus got there.”

District officials say they plan to move to phase 2 of this app as soon as the current issues are corrected.