How to set up school bus routes
A step-by-step guide to setting up school bus routes: collecting addresses, choosing stops, building timetables and checking before day one.
In short
To set up school bus routes, collect each child's pickup address, group nearby children into shared stops, build each route by ordering its stops from the furthest out to the school, set morning and afternoon timetables, assign a bus and driver, and check that every child has a stop and a time before the first morning.
Step by step
Collect the lists you already have
Students with their parents and pickup addresses, the buses with their capacity, and the drivers. In The School Bus Tracker these go into one workbook with a sheet for each.
Choose stops
Group children who live close together into shared stops at safe, easy places for a bus to pull in. Fewer, well-chosen stops make runs shorter and more predictable.
Build each route
Order the stops so the bus works inwards towards the school in the morning and outwards in the afternoon. Where there is more than one way between two stops, choose the one the bus will really take.
Set the timetables
Give each route a start time and a typical time between stops. The run's stop times follow from the route.
Assign buses, drivers and children
Put a bus and driver on each run and map every child to their stop, for pickup, drop-off or both.
Check before the first morning
Look for any child without a stop or without a time on the run, any run without a driver, and any closed days still to add. The School Bus Tracker's readiness screen lists all of these.
Last updated 2026-10-01.
Common questions
How many stops should a school bus route have?
There is no fixed number; it depends on distance and traffic. Aim for a run short enough that the first child picked up is not on the bus for too long, and split a route in two when it is not.
Read next
School bus route planning
Draw routes on the map or build them from a spreadsheet, choose the way the bus goes, and let each day's runs follow.
Learn moreSet up a school from one spreadsheet
Students, stops, buses, drivers and routes go in from one workbook, walked through in the order they have to go in.
Learn moreReadiness checks and reports
See today's runs, who rode, and anything that would stop a bus before the morning starts.
Learn moreReady for calmer mornings?
See The School Bus Tracker with your own routes in a short, friendly demo.