Dougherty County School System parents can now track school buses

ALBANY — The story is familiar all across the country in the early morning during school days. “Mom! I missed the school bus again!”

If Dougherty County School System Transportation Director Kenneth Williams has his way, a new smartphone app will help reduce the numbers of students missing their buses in the morning.

The DCSS has acquired the VersaTrans MyStop app, which will allow students and parents to track their bus on their phones. The app, via GPS, will show their assigned bus location in real time and also provides an estimated time for its arrival at the designated pickup spot.

For those who don’t own smartphones, the system also provides a program for desktop computers.

“I think (the app) is going to be great. It will help students and parents determine when their bus will arrive,” Williams said. “It will allow the bus to be tracked in real time. Also sometimes we have mechanical issues with our buses, and if one does not leave the yard within 10 minutes of a set departure time the app will send out an alert to the students and parents that their assigned bus has been delayed.”

Williams added that the app is fully functional but has not been tested because the system’s buses are not yet running routes. The DCSS is scheduled to begin the 2015-16 school year on Wednesday.

“I don’t anticipate any problems with the app. The VersaTrans app is used by many other school systems and has been in use for a while,” Williams said. “I’ve been working on it this all summer, and if there are any problems it would be in the set-up here. But it’s working fine, and I don’t see any issues.”

Williams said another advantage to the app is that during stormy weather students can remain in their houses until their bus draws near.

“In the event of inclement weather, the students would be having to stand in the rain at the stop,” Williams said. “It will also help parents who have to be at work know when the bus will arrive. That will help put their minds at ease because they will know when their kids got picked up.”

Another added benefit is the system will also work in reverse, letting parents know when their child’s bus left school and when it will arrive at the bus stop.

The app can be downloaded to Android devices from the Google Play store and to iOS devices from the iTunes store.

In addition to the new app, parents will have access to their children’s transportation information through a VeraTrans e-Link web page. That page will provide general student information and bus information pertaining to students’ transportation. This information includes scheduled pickup location, time, route number, bus number, and the planned delivery to and from your child’s school.

Both the website and the app require a user name and password. The user name is the FirstName.LastName, and the password is the family ID number for each student. Each student’s individual school will provide the family ID on request if it is not known.

The two new tools are provided to the parents and all the students who are eligible for transportation services with the Dougherty County School System. All eligible students assigned a bus must be at their assigned stop five minutes before their scheduled pick-up time. The use of the app does not mean the student is not required to be at their assigned stop on time.