The nation’s most extensive mass transportation system is often taken for granted, but with 26,000,000 kids riding to and from school each day, the school bus industry is both the largest and arguably the most essential transit system in operation today. And BusRight’s founder and CEO, Keith Corso, thinks school transportation has been underserved and underappreciated for too long. Their solution is connecting bus drivers, school administrators, and parents — driving operational efficiency, empowering drivers, and improving student safety.

Modern school bus logistics require modern software

Because the industry has been left behind in the digital dust for so long, there are unique challenges faced by the school bus industry when it comes to modernization and an extremely high need. “Some school districts are still using literal pins on maps as a reference for bus routes,” explains Corso, “and some school districts are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to staff call centers where parents call trying to figure out where their kids are.” Also, Corso explained that a school bus typically sits idle for more than 80% of its life. This leaves a huge opportunity to utilize buses for revenue-generating activities, but that’s nearly impossible without digital route data.

Head of Operations at BusRight, Neil Bhammer, adds, “We can track our delivery packages and our meal deliveries almost down to the second, so it doesn’t make sense parents and school administrators don’t know where kids are when they’re on the bus.”

BusRight saw the massive opportunity for digital transformation in the school bus space. Still, as an early-stage company, they didn’t have the resources to build a custom device management system. So they began the search for a technology partner.

School busses with tablets connect every user to you

With BusRight’s technology, there’s a tablet in every bus that uses their solution — giving drivers the ability to quickly adapt to new routes, connect with the administrative office, and get support when they need it. But to ensure the safety of drivers and students, these tablets also need to be locked down to ensure that only the necessary applications and functions are available to minimize any distraction. And as an early-stage company, BusRight needed a full-stack solution that works seamlessly out of the box.

Testimonial from Neil Bhammer - Head of Operations - Busright

In the search for the right device management solution, the BusRight team signed up for Esper’s free trial, and they quickly found it was the right fit. According to Bhammar, Esper and BusRight are both aligned in our focus on the end-user experience. He shared, “After Esper’s free trial, we became so accustomed to their modern and intuitive platform, the competitor solutions just felt off.” Also, competitor platforms had application update processes that were inflexible and not built for large fleets. Coming to Esper, BusRight’s top priority was finding a solution that could offer:

  • An off-the-shelf solution to transform consumer tablets into purpose-built devices.
  • The ability to completely lock down devices.
  • A simple application installation process.
  • Visibility and control over the entire device management process.

How to manage your fleet of smart busses

BusRight is committed to providing its customers with white-glove support. One of Esper’s features they’re heavily relying on to do so is remote control. Using remote view, control, and debug, the BusRight team can help drivers in the field or school admins with application issues from anywhere — no matter the end user’s level of technical know-how. This has proven essential as school districts digitally transform their transportation systems because it minimizes device downtime and means devices don’t need to ship for support.

As the BusRight team works to empower the often-forgotten teams of people working to deliver kids to and from school safely, they’re relying on Esper for: 

  • Customized configurations. With Esper’s flexible device policies, BusRight’s devices now have custom call configurations that only allow for calls to and from certain numbers. 
  • Easy provisioning. BusRight is saving time with Esper’s easy enrollment methods.
  • Esper Cloud. Utilizing Esper Cloud instead of the Google Play Store, BusRight can apply different application versions to other groups, creating more visibility and control over updates.
  • Esper APIs. With Esper’s APIs, BusRight can integrate Esper’s upload and deploy process into their CI/CD pipeline providing additional control over application updates.