Home-to-School Routes or simply Routes, that need to be executed every school-day, are one of the key inputs for Bytecurve 360.

The terminology used in Bytecurve 360 for different entities that make up the Home-to-School routes is explained below:

  1. Stop - A ‘Stop’ is a pick-up point from where students are picked up to be taken to school (typically in the morning) or a drop-off point at which students are dropped off when returning home from school (in the afternoon).
  2. Run - A ‘Run’ is a sequence of stops from where students are picked up, to be dropped off at a school (typically in the morning) or a sequence of stops where students are dropped off after they are picked up from school (typically in the afternoon, when they are returning home from their schools). In Bytecurve 360, the definition of Run does not include the Depot or Yard or Park-out locations where the vehicle may be parked when waiting between Runs. A Run can be an ‘AM Run’, ‘PM Run’ or a ‘Mid-day Run’, depending on the time of day the Run needs to be operated. 
  3. Route - A ‘Route’ is a sequence of Runs packaged together to form a single driving task.

A Run can be an ‘AM Run’, ‘PM Run’ or a ‘Mid-day Run’, depending on the time of day the Run needs to operate.

An ‘AM Route’ comprising three AM Runs would typically involve the following activities by the driver:

  1. Start from the designated yard/depot/park-out location, proceed to the first Stop of the first Run
  2. Pick up kids from the first Stop, proceed to all the remaining Stops of the Run
  3. Drop off the kids at their destination school, thus completing the first Run
  4. Proceed to the first Stop of the second Run, pick up the kids from that Stop
  5. Drive to the remaining Stops of the second Run, pick up kids from each Stop
  6. Drop off the kids at their destination school, thus completing the second Run
  7. Repeat steps (d), (e) and (f), to complete the third Run.
  8. From the last school drop-off point of the final Run, drive back to the designated yard / depot / park-out location.

 

The picture below illustrates the above description of an AM Route, with the bus starting from the Yard:

 

A ‘PM Route’ will be very similar to the ‘AM Route’, except that the directions would be reversed, and the vehicle would be picking up kids from schools and dropping them off at their drop-off points as they return home for the day.

 

A ‘Mid-day Route’ could go either way, based on the timings of the schools served.

 

The above illustration represents the most common view of an AM or PM route.   Some possible variations of these include:

  1. A single Run could serve more than one school, in which case kids going to both schools would be picked up along the way, and the bus will drop them off at their respective schools. In this case, the Run would be between the first student pick-up point and the last school drop-off point.
  2. If there is some extra time between two Runs within a Route, the driver may park at some intermediate location until it is time to go on the following Run. This time will be considered part of the Route as the driver is still on the same driving task until all the Runs within a Route are completed.

Setting Up Routes and Ongoing Updates

Route set-up in Bytecurve 360 involves the following steps:

 

  1. Set-up Runs and Stops in the system
  2. Set-up Routes
  3. Package Runs into Routes

 

The driver schedule for a Route is determined based on the Runs that are packaged into the Route. Driver scheduling is shown in the below diagram:


 

 

Bytecurve 360 provides multiple options to manage Routes and Runs:

  1. An intuitive, easy-to-use user interface. For more information and detailed procedures, refer to Manage Routes, Manage Runs and Package Runs into Routes.
  2. Through Excel file uploads: This option is currently available only to Bytecurve support staff but will be made available to end-users in the near future. For more information and detailed procedures, refer to Route import from Excel files and Run import from Excel files.
  3. Through automated interfaces to pull Run data from third party routing software using APIs provided by the software vendor. This option will soon be available for Transfinder, Versatrans and Traversa. If you wish to use this option then you must set up Bytecurve 360 with the required permissions to access the routing software. For more information, refer to Routing Integration with third party software.

Routes with no Runs

At times, it may be necessary to create driver schedules even before the Run details are finalized, especially during school start. In this situation, the system allows you to create Routes without any Runs to package.  Without the Runs, the system will not be able to calculate the yard departure and yard return times, and you will need to provide these when you create the Routes.