LoginHow Districts and Contractors Found Efficiency—with Data, Discipline and the Right Tools
Across the country, transportation leaders are being asked to solve the same problem in different forms: rising costs, ongoing driver shortages, and communities that expect reliable service without disruption. For many districts and bus contractors, the turning point came not from adding more resources—but from using Transfinder solutions more intentionally, guided by local best practices.
In one district, success started with people, not software. As Carissa Johnson, administrative services analyst at East Stroudsburg School District in Pennsylvania, explained, “Stopfinder will only be successful if the drivers are accurately using Wayfinder. Wayfinder is only successful if our dispatchers are properly routing.” Her team recognized early that tools had to work together—and that buy in across roles mattered as much as the technology itself.
Rather than rushing parent facing tools into production, the district focused first on drivers. “It took a lot first, just getting them to use the technology,” Johnson said. Weekly navigation audit reports helped identify who needed additional training and why. Over time, that discipline paid off. “Now that they see the impact that it has on Stopfinder with parents using it, we’re almost there.”
For others, efficiency gains came from pairing Transfinder tools with operational frameworks. In Springfield Public Schools in Oregon, operations and transportation manager Michael Schlosser described how lean thinking reshaped their approach. “My operating budget is about $7.9 million, and we’ve cut $1.3 million out of our budget in one year.” He traced those savings back to better routing practices and real ridership data. “So instead of having 4,500 kids assigned and routes out there that were running 15 to 20 kids on them, we eliminated 14 routes.”
That shift required changing long standing habits. “Going way back when, before we started Wayfinder, we just used to say all these kids are eligible for transportation,” Schlosser said. Requiring families to register clarified actual demand and reduced wasted capacity. Empty seats disappeared, and fewer buses were needed to move the same number of students.
Veteran transportation leader and consultant Pete Japikse sees this pattern repeatedly. “The solution is to keep transporting just as many kiddos as need a ride, but do it on fewer buses,” said Japikse of The Ennis Briton Consulting Group. For Japikse, the school bus must be treated as mass transit, not a personal vehicle. “And when you run fewer buses, you spend less money.”
Key Takeaways
- Align people, policy, and technology—tools work best when roles are connected
- Route to actual ridership, not eligibility assumptions
- Review and refine routes regularly, not only when problems arise
- Use data to build confidence with boards, parents, and drivers
- Small operational changes can unlock large, sustainable savings
Transfinder’s strength, he noted, lies in turning that philosophy into action. “Use the tools that Transfinder has to help separate actual riders from ghost riders, which allows you to do the data management that then you match with your route planning so that you can run an efficient operation.”
Bus contractors echoed the same theme from a different vantage point. Michael Howes, assistant operations director at Healey Bus, emphasized breaking out of silos that quietly drive inefficiency. “What I see with districts is they kind of get stuck in these silos,” he said, pointing to ways to think out of the box and collaborate with highway departments and police to reduce stop counts, improve safety, and tighten routes. “Your carbon impact is less, your speed is greater and the more efficiency you can have,”
Policy alignment also matters. Amy Rosa, transportation director at Wa-Nee Community Schools in Indiana, described how her district found gains by standardizing expectations. “The foundation of a lot of this is policy,” she said, noting that tightening alternative site rules and improving preregistration data made routes more predictable. “The pre routing data is critical. Getting that information from them… you can’t do it without knowing where you’re picking up kids.”
Rick Sanderson, transportation department foreman at Iron County School District in Utah, also highlighted the value of having information handy in Servicefinder, noting he’s used Servicefinder for at least 12 years. The district has 100 buses and the district serves more than 9,000 students.
“Parts-wise, I use the dashboard and created thematics so I can see when I’m out of parts, the cost for it,” he said. He puts his required three bids for parts in the grid, “so I can always refer back to it as far as cost goes,” Sanderson said.
Across these stories, the common thread is not a single feature or report—but intentional use. With consistent data, clear policies, and strong implementation practices, Transfinder solutions helped districts and contractors move from reactive operations to confident, efficient systems.
Efficiency, it turns out, is built together.
“The bottom line is the safety of the kids,” Sanderson said. “There’s a lot more to Transfinder than, I think, I know. There’s always different avenues, different perspectives you can take of it, with the data and making choices and judgments off of those.”
To learn more about Transfinder’s solutions and how it can help your district become more efficient, visit transfinder.com/solutions, email solutions@transfinder.com or call 800-373-3609.
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Gladys De Lucio is the Director of Transportation for East Aurora School District 131, one of Illinois’ largest Spanish-speaking districts. With 21 years of experience in school transportation, she oversees daily operations with a strong focus on safety, bus stop planning, and community engagement. De Lucio leads both traditional bus services and alternative transportation programs, working closely with bilingual dispatch teams to support non-English-speaking families. Her deep commitment to equitable access ensures that every student has reliable transit to and from school. She holds a degree from Robert Morris University–Illinois.
Leon Fornelli, MBA, is the Area General Manager of Alternative Transportation at First Alt®, where he leads inclusive student transportation programs across nine states. A seasoned leader in education logistics, Fornelli develops and scales operations from the ground up, always with safety, equity, and innovation in mind. He’s deeply committed to increasing access, amplifying parent and community engagement, and building systems that meet diverse student needs, including non-traditional routes and support. Fornelli also champions technology integration and workforce development in transportation services.