Here Comes the Bus

Our school corporation started using this app approximately three years ago, when my son was a 6th grader, and it’s been such a wonderful app for this mom. As a mom (and dad) leaving before my son gets on the bus, it allows me a small peace of mind, knowing that our son can see the bus on the map, and get notifications when the bus is near, so he can stay in the house until he needs to go outside, and get on the bus. We live out in the county, so it was unsettling to leave my son at home, standing outside to wait on the bus alone. We downloaded the app to my son’s phone as well as mine, so my son will get the notification when the bus is just down the road, we can also see where the bus is on the map, which is what my son prefers to keep tabs on where the driver is. We can set notifications as close or as far out as we want, and we have the notification on close so my son can just walk out the door. Gone are the days of waiting at the window and watching for the bus OR standing outside in the inclement weather. The IT staff at the here comes the bus are also very helpful and respond promptly, if your app is not working correctly. We are very grateful our corporation picked up this app, it’s been a life saver for our family in terms of getting our child on the bus without us being home, and gives this mom a peace of mind that my son is safe waiting at home for the bus.

This is app is Great! Before I heard about it I was sending the kids down to the end of driveway 10-15 early in the summer and 5 min early in winter so they wouldn't freeze to death but the 5 min window wasn't enough sometimes they would miss it and then I would have to drop them. Then I heard about this bus app and boy was I excited!! Now I have it timed perfect to where I let them walk down the drive(I have a 900 ft drive, cause we live in a farm in the country) and by time they get to the end the bus is pulling up- perfect! Now don't have to worry about someone snatching them(not that I worry about that where I live) but never know? Better safe than sorry and they don't freeze waiting on it! Excellent app, there's only 1 day to where it didn't work but I believe it was a setting in my phone so gets 5 stars in my book the alerts don't work or are off sometimes but I don't worry about those anyway as ling as I can see the bus in motion and know where it's at is good enough for me! If you have kids that get on a bus YOU NEED THIS APP!

The concept of this app is groundbreaking and very 21st-century. Using the GPS technology on board buses, one is able to see the exact location of the bus relative to your children at their bus stop. This is very helpful, and a great use of technology. However, technology needs all facets to work; if any part of the chain is unable to function, it will not help you or be very informative. What I have noticed about this app is that the real time GPS tracker is excellent. However, the email and app notifications that are sent that your child has been picked up or dropped off or are seriously delayed. This needs serious tweaking if you rely on the emails or notifications and are unable to be there with them live. Consider the working parent who is at the office and waiting to hear if their child was picked up or drop off- they would be waiting for up to an hour before receiving that notification or email. If the company can tweak this, the app will be perfect. All in all, a great partnership between school districts/parishes and software development companies. Good work guys- and please tweak it!

This app has been a godsend this entire school year! Everything was working nicely until the most recent update; all of my info (bus, school and bus stop icons) disappeared and I got a message saying the map info “wasn’t available” when I tried to adjust the notification radius. Everything was fine on the website, it was just the app that was screwy. I came here to see if anyone else was having this problem and just as I saw that it was mentioned in several other reviews, I got a Notification that my son’s bus was in the designated range. I checked the app and there were still no icons so I deleted it and immediately re-downloaded it. After I signed in, everything is working as expected! I bet if I had just logged out and logged back in, everything would have been fine too. Hopefully this can help other users and save you from unwarranted negative reviews!

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This is my first school year using this app. At the beginning, it seemed to work fine. Then slowly things started breaking down. First there were no sounds with the notifications. This caused us to miss the bus several times. Then the pop-up notifications for this app on my cell phone stopped working. Now the icons showing the bus stop and school aren’t changing from red to green to let me know the kids have arrived. I can still see the movements of the bus if I keep the app open. I am using an iPhone 8. I have reset the app as well as my phone. Nothing seems to work. I have checked the notifications settings in the app as well as in my phone. All are set correctly. I have 3 children who ride 3 different busses to 3 different schools so the problem can’t be the drivers since it worked fine for the first few days of school. I have attempted to contact the developer and the website has no clickable links to allow me to fill out their “form” for support. I was excited when I had heard about this app. It is a terrific idea, however the actual app is not as user friendly as it could be and is extremely unreliable.