School Bus Management System Solutions and Features

UniteGPS helps K-12 districts manage school transportation with one integrated platform for routing, live GPS tracking, parent communication, ridership records, driver tools, and reporting. Built from real district feedback, Crosswalk K-12 reduces office calls, supports safer daily operations, and gives transportation teams defensible data for route changes, reimbursements, and board decisions.

School bus management dashboard with GPS routes

Our School Bus Management Services

Explore integrated routing, GPS, parent communication, ridership, reporting, and driver tools for K-12 transportation teams.

Routing

Build and manage bus routes straight from your student data — assign students to stops and zones, support transfer points, double runs, and day-of-the-week routing for split-custody and dual-address students, and drag stops between routes instantly.

Route Optimization

Analyze your existing routes to find consolidations, eliminate redundant routes, and cut daily mileage and student ride time — with before-and-after overlays and documented dollar savings to defend route changes to your board.

Automated Optimization

The engine behind optimization: it rebalances student loads across your school bus fleet within hard constraints — capacity caps, maximum ride time, and bell windows — and proposes consolidation scenarios for your team to review and approve.

SIS Integration

A daily data feed from your student information system — PowerSchool, Infinite Campus, Skyward, or Harmony — that works even without the SIS transportation module, flagging new students, address changes, and disenrollments in one action center and bulk-importing staff.

Communication Center

Parent messaging by email and SMS: send each family their stop and pickup or drop-off times, broadcast route changes, and handle weather and emergency alerts — replacing manual phone trees and a pile of separate apps.

Field Trips

A shared trip calendar with a request-and-approval workflow (secretary → AD → principal), Google Calendar export, and bus and driver assignment checked against your daily routes.

Integrated Platform

Manage Every Route With Confidence

Crosswalk K-12 gives districts a practical path from basic routing to full GPS and tablet-enabled transportation management. Start with student-data routing, add 24/7 bus visibility, then expand into ridership tracking, inspections, navigation, and reimbursement documentation as needs grow. UniteGPS keeps everything connected, affordable, and supported by real people who understand daily transportation operations.

School transportation dashboard showing bus routes and GPS locations
Trusted By Districts

Success Stories

Districts use UniteGPS to reduce calls, defend routing changes, and improve daily transportation confidence.

"Since partnering with UniteGPS, managing operations has been a breeze. Staff are able to make timely operational decisions without impacting service simply by monitoring the fleet's real-time performance. Customers love how easy it is to track and view their bus on route in real-time from anywhere on any device. Top..."

Derek Muench

"Since we began using Crosswalk K-12, it has been a game changer for us. Just all around with setting up routes, seeing where the buses and students are at, how much they ride, if they're riding. If a parent calls saying that the bus didn't stop, we can look and..."

Tim Lyons
The UniteGPS Difference

Why Choose UniteGPS?

UniteGPS gives transportation teams practical tools, real support, and a platform built around district realities. We don't just sell you software and walk away — we stay, we share what we know, and we help you build a transportation operation your district can be proud of.

Integrated Platform

Crosswalk K-12 combines routing, GPS, ridership, tablets, inspections, and reporting in one connected platform.

Live Support

Districts get in-house human support with named implementation help, driver training, and no chatbot queues.

Data Protection

FERPA compliant workflows help districts manage student transportation data with responsible safeguards and accountability.

Long-Term Focus

Bootstrapped since 2014, UniteGPS builds for long-term district partnerships instead of investor-driven shortcuts.

Meet The UniteGPS Team

Founder-led transportation technology built from real district needs.

Portrait of Christopher Bunnell, Co-Founder of UniteGPS

Christopher Bunnell

Co-Founder

Christopher Bunnell is a Co-Founder of UniteGPS, the company he helped launch in 2014 after watching his own children wait in the freezing Maine winter for a school bus with no arrival information. Driven by that firsthand frustration, Chris partnered with Steve C. Lanning and Steven J. Lanning to build a real-time GPS tracking solution that gave families the visibility they deserved. Before UniteGPS, Chris served as the on-site client representative in Baltimore for a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services project, while the technical team operated remotely from California. At UniteGPS, Chris has led client relationships and stakeholder engagement since day one, ensuring the platform continues to solve real problems for school districts and transit agencies nationwide.

Portrait of Steve C. Lanning, Co-Founder of UniteGPS

Steve C. Lanning

Co-Founder

Steve C. Lanning is a Co-Founder of UniteGPS, bringing deep database architecture and enterprise-level technical expertise to the platform since its founding in 2014. Steve previously served as an Oracle database administrator on a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services project at the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego, where he first collaborated with Chris Bunnell. In the early years of UniteGPS, Steve balanced the project alongside other professional commitments until growing client traction made it a full-time pursuit. His database expertise has been instrumental in building a reliable, scalable platform that now serves over 100 school districts nationwide, supporting everything from route optimization to student ridership tracking and SIS data integration.

Portrait of Steven J. Lanning, Co-Founder of UniteGPS

Steven J. Lanning

Co-Founder

Steven J. Lanning is a Co-Founder of UniteGPS and the primary architect behind the Crosswalk platform, which he has built and continuously refined since the company's founding in 2014. Steven began his career on the same Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services project as his co-founders, focusing on solution quality assurance and software testing for production readiness while simultaneously pursuing formal software development training. When UniteGPS launched, Steven committed full-time to product development, translating real feedback from transportation directors and drivers into practical platform features. His customer-driven approach to engineering has helped UniteGPS grow into a fully integrated transportation management solution trusted by K-12 districts and transit agencies across the United States.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the free offer a first-year deal, or a forever type thing?

Neither — there's no first-year gimmick, and nobody's expected to work for free. We set up your routes and your data feed at no cost for 90 days to take the risk out of the decision, and if you don't continue, you keep the routing we built. Billing is year-to-year with annual invoicing, and at the GPS tier the GPS devices are included free.

Can we do year-to-year? Our board is funny about long-term agreements.

Do you integrate with our SIS, like PowerSchool or Infinite Campus?

We just bought GPS hardware — do we have to replace it?

When the bus is shut down, can we still see where it is?

Is your support a chatbot, or a real person?

Can route optimization actually reduce our costs?

How is our student data protected?

Still Have Transportation Questions?

Speak with our team about routing, GPS, ridership, or setup.

Certified & Trusted

Awards and Recognition

FERPA Compliant certification badge

FERPA Compliant

Student data practices aligned with FERPA requirements.

100 plus districts served badge

100+ Districts Served

Trusted by school districts across the United States.

Bootstrapped since 2014 trust badge

Bootstrapped Since 2014

Built independently for long-term customer partnerships.

Ready to Simplify Student Transportation?

Tell us about your school bus fleet, routing challenges, and goals. UniteGPS can walk you through the right tier, setup process, and 90-day trial options.

Contact Us Today

For immediate assistance, feel free to give us a direct call at 207-591-7777.