MYTH #1: The shortage is temporary; driver numbers will go up again.

TRUTH: Transportation teams know that the shortage has been growing in severity in recent years and is only going to get worse.

MYTH #2: School districts should “hire” their way out of their driver shortage by increasing pay and focusing more on recruitment.

TRUTH: Increased pay and sign-on bonuses help to attract more drivers, but these gains are frequently offset by the number of drivers leaving the job, proving that districts cannot hire their way out of this problem. A Florida school district representative once described recruiting programs as “CDL mills,” since many new hires leave for higher-paying jobs once they have their commercial drivers licenses. Some school systems pay drivers more than $25 per hour and still are short by dozens of drivers. Districts absolutely should consider increasing pay for drivers, but by pivoting the focus from driver recruitment to bus route optimization, school systems can confront the shortage head-on with a strategy that’s significantly more sustainable.

MYTH #3: Our school bus routes are already as efficient as possible.

TRUTH: This is one of the most common myths out there, and districts’ refusal to think differently only exacerbates the driver shortage. Transportation teams think their bus routes are already efficient because they spend hours going over each one and looking for ways to consolidate. Their efforts are well-intentioned but directed in the wrong place. MIT research proved that districts who focus on individual runs and on sets of runs at individual schools are inherently building an inefficient system. Yes, the individual runs matter – of course they do! – but they have to work together to create an efficient system, and it’s the system as a whole that matters most. AlphaRoute loves working with districts who thought they already had an optimal system, only to see our technology reduce their bus count by more than 10%!

MYTH #4: There is no technology advanced enough to solve this issue.

TRUTH: There is one: By using MIT-designed algorithms to convert routing plans into math problems, AlphaRoute optimizes district routing solutions, lowering bus counts and improving service while also bringing real-world transportation department experience to the mix as well.

• AlphaRoute’s system typically reduces bus counts by 10% to 30%. This allows school districts to alleviate their driver shortage and improve service so the most important pieces of the puzzle remain in focus: the students.
• Using the technology behind AlphaRoute, Boston Public Schools was able to consolidate 50 routes, saving nearly $5 million from its budget.
• AlphaRoute partnered with Columbus, Ohio to cut 150 bus routes in less than 4 weeks, without changing any bell times, moving any student bus stops, or removing any children from service. The bus count dropped from 704 to 558.
• AlphaRoute worked with the School District of Manatee County (FL) and helped them trim their route count by 12%. The district’s transportation director recently credited AlphaRoute with going beyond their scope of work and showing his team where they could improve their routing practices.
• From larger districts who have cut 100 bus routes to smaller ones who learned how to utilize a specialized plan that works best for them, AlphaRoute’s technology can bring efficiency and savings to any size school district.