School Bus Route Efficiency: How Caldwell County Plans Smarter Routes with EZRouting’s Sandbox
Planning school bus routes for the next year means tough decisions — which buses to keep, which to consolidate, and how to communicate changes to families. For Misty Davis at Caldwell County School District in North Carolina, EZRouting’s sandbox feature makes those decisions manageable.
In this video, Misty walks through how she uses the sandbox to improve school bus route efficiency heading into each new school year.
The sandbox works like a testing environment. Misty pulls in all existing routes and students, then isolates individual schools to evaluate each one. If a bus needs to be eliminated, she consolidates its students onto nearby routes. If second loads need to be added, she creates them and assigns riders directly. All of this happens in the sandbox — no impact on live routes until her director gives the green light.
As Misty describes it: “It’s easy. I’m telling you. It’s amazing.”
Once the new routes are finalized, Misty uses EZRouting to send notifications directly to parents. Families learn their child’s bus number and stop location before orientations even begin. That matters especially when stop assignments change — for example, when a student moving from elementary to middle school can no longer be picked up on a narrow road because the buses are longer.
That proactive communication is a direct result of school bus route efficiency. When route planning happens in a clean, organized environment, there’s time to get information into parents’ hands early instead of scrambling at the last minute.
Watch the video to hear Misty explain, step by step, how she uses EZRouting’s sandbox to build better routes and keep Caldwell County families informed.
Ready to see what EZRouting can do for your district? Get Info & Pricing